On 10/18/05, Suresh Ramasubramanian <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Tuesday 18 October 2005 10:43, Ramakrishnan Sundaram wrote: > > It has been a well kept secret for eons, but finally Itty Boben Jacob > > Elias Kuruvilla from Pazhookaville, near Thelmasherry, Kerala has > > consented to let us publish this classified Mallu formula, on the > > naming of Mallu Christian kids. > > [...] > > As a last resort walk around an old graveyard to find brit graves and lift > names from there. People in several parts of India (and Africa) seem to do > this .. So you get people like "Oneill Shahapurkar" - a security guard at my > dad's factory in north karnataka [near the maharashtra border] > > Some truly funny names result from this, to be sure - like the former > president of Zimbabwe, Rev. Canaan Banana (who got ejected from his post for > buggery, a few years before he died, prompting headlines like "man raped by > banana")
Actually, I believe Banana is a traditional Mashona name. When I was in 9th Std in Zambia, a classmate and I were asked to go around to all the 9th Std classes and confirm the names on the rolls just before submission to the examinations authority. This is effectively the last time in Zambia you can easily change your name -- after this you would need to go through the same routine as elsewhere. It was mostly fairly dull work, mainly just collecting signatures. However, a few students changed their names. Some of them just westernised their names: there a were few more Richards and Johns by the end of the day. However, there were a couple of really good ones that I won't forget: * 'Yellow' changed his name to 'Uriah' (David Copperfield was one of our English texts) * 'Smiler' changed his name to 'Smile' * 'Sunday' changed his name to 'Friday' * 'Spider' changed his name to 'Bicycle' (In hindsight, I should have suggested 'Peter Parker' to him) Now, *those* are some funny names. -- b
