Whats in Name!

I have a theory about how couples name their kids. The first of the brood is the one whose birth is most awaited in terms of tension, anticipation, anxiety and excitement. The new mother also is very excited and equally each day of the 9 months is full of scary thoughts and “what ifs”.

So the parents spend days before and after ( I know a couple who too 6 months after their daughter was born to agree on a name) the child is born to name the child. In families where all set of grandparents have to be happy there are more person hours spent than ever in the families history before the first one.

Result of all this overdrive is names, which are hand picked.. gems in the universe of name (atleast the parents think so) .. so you names like Agatsya, Kruti , Advay, Shoma, Kamayani, devesh.. and many more.

And then comes the 2nd , 3rd , nth child …. First impact.. the same mother who would not pick up a glass from the floor, will now go to movies, ride in auto, go temple hopping across cities, and even peal vegetables while walking (ask me.. I came early in this world because of a vegetable peel on which my mom slipped!)

I know a dear friend who while carrying the 2nd time forgot if she was in 35th week or 38th week.. and this lady counted and tracked each day and each move of her previous bundle of joy!

So now lets see names…how many amit’s you know.. when I was in GE all amit’s had numbers associated to them amit01, amit02… there were so many… if you are named Amit Gupta.. boss your parents just named you same as your neighbor and another 10 kids in your neighborhood.
You have to be born and brought up in North to know that Shweta is as common as Amit. Recently I called a very beloved aunt .. and I just hi aunty.. shweta here.. she was like a cold haan bolo.. now I had called her after long time.. so I was like “aunty shweta… bhagwat”.. oh gosh she its you beta.. I thought the Shweta whose servant is same as ours .. or the shweta from my xyz group… “…. You don’t believe .. well in my grad college each year senior to me or junior to me had atleast one Shweta. In post grad ..same! I have a hypothesis that if you throw a stone in crowd it will surely hit an amit and a shweta!

BTW, my name was the “filed” name.. my elder sis was named shoma, so they had this name in the file.. hence I was named Shweta! I find this very very interesting!!! :)

Another aspect is younger one’s name has to rhyme with the elder one, Manali- Kunal (Kullu –manali), Vivek-Vividha, Suresh-Rajesh… look around you will find examples galore!

Now let me tell you .. I am just observing this phenomenon.. I am not cribbing! Please I like my name!

Forget name.. the 2nd child grows up and we will hear relatives and parents say.. pata nahi chala kab bada / badi h gayi..bhaiya dhyan 2 + kids kha gaye.. kahan dhyan rahega!

And for the first child… mothers write diaries.. and blogs ! :)