Monday, November 01, 2010

What's in a name?

No I am not a Shakespeare junkie like many people close to me are. I never even tried to read him. I can be too biased at times. Or maybe I am biased when it comes to Shakespeare as his statement "What's in a name" according to me is not a wise thing to say :P

I have my own reasons to believe so. My name is way too common. You call out Neha and 6 out of 10 girls will turn around. Out of remaining four, three will be Poojas! In my phone book, I have 8 Nehas stored. I sometimes get confused too about their identity. I forget their faces and cannot recollect them when they call me. I have to talk to them for 5 minutes to actually recognize which Neha called me! I am sure this must be happening with you as well.

Worst thing: When someone does not have my number stored and I happen to call up that person, I literally have to remind them about my past encounters with them as unfortunately, my surname is too common as well! My college had 3 Nehas with the same surname.

I so feel like whacking the person whoever says what's in a name. Damn, have my name and you will know what's in a name. The only advantage I have with my name is that every second client I meet has a daughter/sister/mother/wife/niece/any other relative whose name is Neha. I usually crack that deal. But I am capable enough to crack it otherwise too people! It is not a "wow" thing for me when you say that I am your xyz's namesake!

I know people who love this name. My neighbour Uncle is very fond of me. He named his Russian daughter in law Neha because of that reason. She is the 4th one in my building!

But one thing is there. After seeing the image below, Shakespeare would have changed his statement for sure!

34 comments:

  1. hmm indeed i got the same problem you see the reason is Bikram and Vikram .. they both sound so similar and there are SO MANY of them all around...

    and these days I am just B .. so you can well imagine how many "B" 's are there ..

    B's

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  2. good one nega..oh sory..neha...:) how u doing buddy? long time no c...cheers n wishes

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  3. Well, it just shows how popular your name is!! I used to always hate my name... but now I cannot imagine being called anything else.

    In my office there is a popular name too- Hina so we have decided to name them Hina 1, Hina 2, Hina 3!!!

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  4. I know how you feel!! Both Kshitij and me have experienced this in our own ways... irritating it is when you are called differently by different people!!

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  5. I must tell you that you are in a better position than seeing your name get mutilated by anyone that cares or doesnt care. From the post man to the gurkha !

    Common is better. Uncommon sometimes is a curse !

    this was a hilarious read

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  6. Its all in the name!!!
    i remember i hated when any of my classmates/peers had same name as me!!! (i hate it still)...
    Nice post! :)

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  7. Its all in the name!!!
    But,thanks to my parents, who atleast thot of simple name, otherwise i would be more annoyed when someone would would mis-spell or pronounce it wrong!!!
    BTW nice post!

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  8. Poor SHakespear, would he have imagined, 400 years of his death and he would still be cussed? I bet!....:)

    But the Poor fellow said:"What's in a name? that which we call a rose
    By any other name would smell as sweet"......



    And You By any other name would write as beautifully....So whats in a Name....Change your spelling like those film stars....NNEHHA, Now,That sound different.:)

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  9. You know what ? Hi , from the other end of the spectrum. I am yet to meet a person with the same name as me....

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  10. Hehehe!

    Happens with me. I have 6 Neha's in my gtalk buddy list (including you) and I somtimes get confused as to which Neha m i talking. I spoke for 15 mins with a friend thinking she was my cousin Neha =)). Actually, a lot is in a name ;).

    Harini is not as common as Neha but here its pretty common unfortunately :(.

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  11. People out here often pronounce my name as Kobita ...hee !I have stopped correcting them long time back and got used to it.
    I know just one Neha and that is you..special !

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  12. I am fortunate.I don't have this problem.Do you any one else by name Bhuvnesh?

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  13. You reminded me of my pet peeve about Shakespeare. It is not “What’s in a name”. It is his opening line in his play Hamlet “To be or not to be”. I have this problem sometimes. To pee or not to pee.

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  14. Did you know something? The Polish have a list of names, for boys and girls. Any child born in that particular month, is to be named ONLY From the pre-defined list :-) So you have a multitude of Tomazks and Mareks and likewise!!!

    If it makes you happy, then I didn't know ANY Neha's (well, except one) for the first three decades of my life ;-) Now though, I know 3 ;-) But that's not too bad, is it? And Neha is a really nice name.. sounds so soft and sweet!!!

    And oh, I think the most daunting challenge for a parent, is to name the child!!! The name has to be nice, unique, crisp, meaningful... blah blah...

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  15. After all,what is in a name Neha?Dont break your heart!

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  16. wanna know my age? ok. 20 divided by 2 multiplied by 46.add 2 square..oofff...lemme start again....:)

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  17. Good one! I enjoyed the post. According to me , name is the first thing that provides identity.

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  18. Haha.. can understand.. that happens with me too since I have lot of friends with same name. but thankfully, I just have one friend who shares her name with me. Not many people have shared names with me in college :)

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  19. LOL at Villain Snakes Fear's image!!

    Rib-tickling post, Neha! I know how confusing it can be if you know more than one person with the same name.

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  20. and 'coz of immense fan following for amitabh, I know too many Abhishek's :).
    we had a small army in both school and college :P. thank god dad didn't like RajKumar that much. imagine being called 'puru' all your life ;)

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  21. I haven't met many Nethras so don't know whether it is common or not. I had met one though and it felt weird to call out my name.

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  22. i agree with you
    ask Gandhi and Thakre what is in a name
    nice article

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  23. We know Neha- the popular shrewd lawyer who is so good that neighbour names daughter in law Neha.

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  24. Lol...I am sure if Shakespeare had lived to see this, he would have taken his words back! ;)

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  25. I like the way you ended the article..especially the bard's caricature..its a kind of a literary criticism of modern standard

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  26. super image dear...loved it..

    I used to hate my name because it was uncommon during my schooldays, but then i love it now for the same reason.

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  27. Oh yeah, agree with you... too many with the same name can be confusing (and it gets worse, if first name & surname is the same)! What is far worse, is when people mutilate your name even if it is just a 4-letter name (ask me!). My daughter has a unique name 'Roanna' (latin - sweet & gracious) and some of her teachers call her 'Rona' (cry?)!

    So, ladies and ladas...the verdict is against Shakespeare. Neha wins!

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  28. hey know what, I wrote a post on similar lines with the same title & starting as u hv written...Gr8 coincidence yaar....

    I too face few problems with my name & tht is exactly what I hv mentioned therein...!!!

    Your name is common but I'll surely remember u distinctly & always apart from others bcos of ur blog articles. Though I don't comment here much often, I hv read almost all of ur posts & I truly admire ur point of view...

    So from me, Three cheers for Neha of Neha's Blog..!! :)

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  29. hm..i used to crib before form my "pld fashioned name"rajashree";but now iam happy that in today's generation people have this name rarely..

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  30. lol Neha!!! :) :)

    Surely urs is one common name.. in Tamilnadu Karthik's and Arun's were so coomon... :)

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  31. I have a confession. I like name "Neha", and don't have anyone around me with that name.





    TD

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  32. I too haven't read shakespear ever barring one or two of his works which made way into our English textbooks :D

    What's in name? Well,now that you've put this post up I'm also thinking does it really make sense? On thinking I feel no! Cause Name is the first thing you get your identity from...

    Ahh..you said it...I too have so many Nehas stored in my Phone book that I've to actually add some identification to their names while saving ;) Now don't ask what's added after your name in my phone book ;)

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