What's in a Name?

My colleague Apeksha, who also happens to be a batch mate from Rizvi Academy of Management once asked me a simple question during a lazy afternoon. I was bored as usual and to elate myself, was humming a silly Bollywood tune, the lyrics of which I did not know and didn't care to know.

My revelry stood disturbed when Apeksha suddenly asked, "What if the names of people were all unique, no repetition? What if there was only one Aamir in the world? What if there was only one Apeksha? How will it work out?"

And suddenly I spurted aloud, "Considering that there are only a handful of names in the world, we have to name ourselves as versions of softwares with a number assigned to all of us. For example 'Aamir v.17.2.85@1030IST-Mum'. I think the world would be a little more complicated."

But this got me thinking. We all take our names for granted, don't you think so? Names are our identity and something we live our entire lives with. In our ever transient lives, our names are our permanent fixtures. (I'm not including the unfortunate people who couldn't handle the choice of names picked up by the namer, i.e. parents, relatives, grandparents, godparents, etc., a la Chiraunjilal 'Cherry' Khosla from the 2006 super comedy Khosla ka Ghosla)

Have you ever thought the effect our names have on our personalities? I for one feel that my name has had a positive impact on my personality.