Surname

Haven't heard a more queer surname in a long long time - 'Sidebottom'. He is the new English bowler - Ryan Sidebottom - who tormented WestIndies in their last Test Match.

Just imagine him introducing himself: my name is Sidebottom, Ryan Sidebottom.

The last time I heard a stranger surname was Coffin. But he was a french guy, and it is pronounced as Koffan there.

Marwari surnames are known to be different. I have two very dear friends surnamed as 'Kankani' and 'Toshniwal'. I have never heard them before, and never heard them after.

But Marathi surnames can be very imaginative. Often they signify the place they have come from like Kolhapuri(Kolhapur), Purandery(Purander), Gavaskar(Gavas), Tendulkar(Tendol). But some times they take very interesting connotations.

For eg. surnames like 'Khare', and 'Khote'(Biju Khote). Former means true, while latter means false. By the way, there are 'Khare' in Uttar Pradesh too. Then there are 'Phule'(flowers), 'Zhade'(shrubs) and 'Muley'(root). 'Kolhe' means fox, while 'Landge' means wolf. Then there are 'Wagh'(tiger), 'Waghdhare'(tiger catcher) and 'Waghmare'(tiger killer). There are even Gods and Ghosts too - 'Deo/Dev' and 'Bhoot/Bhute'.

But the most original surname I ever heard here is 'Dahibhate'(Curd-Rice) ! Just think about it.

Even in Hindi belt, we have names with a pattern. 'Dwivedis', 'Trivedis', 'Chaturvedis' - the surnames according to their forfathers' achievements - the number of Vedas they have read. Though 'Trivedis' are found mostly in Gujarat. 'Shastri' are those who had read Shastras.

Then teaching as profession finds special mention - 'Upadhyaya', 'Pandit', 'Acharya', and 'Pathak'. 'Upadhaya'(Pahadi Brahmin), 'Padhye' and 'Vajhe'(Marathi Brahmin), 'Ojha'( Central India), and 'Jha'(Bihar Brahmin) are the same. 'Srivastava'( Uttar Pradesh) and 'Sinha'(Bihar) are the same.

Talking about profession as surnames, who can beat Parsis. Most of them either they have Wala or the direct profession like Habib 'Painter', Hafiz 'Contractor', Farukh 'Engineer', Asif 'Doctor', Bejan 'Daruwala', Ronnie 'Screwwala', Shenaz 'Treasurywala', Umpire 'Dhotiwala' or the most stereotyped Parsi surname in Hindi movies - 'Batliwala'.

Bengalis often use combination of surnames. There are 'Sen' & 'Sengupta', 'Das' & 'Dasgupta', 'Majumdar' & ''SenMajumdar'. Often, the suffix is profession related. Britishers have changed 'Chattopadhyas' and 'Bandhopadhyas' as 'Chatterjees' and 'Banerjees'. Sometimes people keep the title along with the surname like 'Roy Chowdhari', where the latter is a title. A title which has been invented our times is 'Sahara' ala in 'Subroto Roy Sahara'. We gonna see many 'Roy Saharas' in future from this clan.

In North, Kshatriyas, Yadavs and Kayastha are known to keep titles. For the first two, it is 'Singh'. Like I am Manish 'Singh' Chauhan, while it Mulayam 'Singh' Yadav. But it is not necessary like there can be Chetan 'Chauhan' and Rupam 'Yadav' too.

Kayasthas sometimes either keep title bestwoed upon them like 'Rai' or they invent of their own like 'Bachchan'. Some do both like Harivansha 'Rai Bachhan' while he was actually a 'Srivastava.'

In Punjab, they keep 'Singh' for males, and 'Kaur' (meaning princess) for females.

In Bihar, 'Kumar' is often prefixed to the names. It is often suffixed too. For eg. you can find many Kumar Mahesh, and Mahesh Kumar there. You may also find many other suffixes like 'Prasad', 'Bharti' etc. They often leave out surnames. Another phenomenon common there is having dual names like - Shekhar Suman, Sudhir Vinod(like in movie Shool), and our very own Prem Piyush. Though it is not a rule as such.

South Indians, especially Tamils, don't put surnames. Easy.

I didn't intend to make this post so long.