Pet Names and Namecalling

Pet names and Namecalling has been the topic of discussion in our home lately. Let's face it no matter how hard you try to control it or prevent it, because babies are so adorable they somehow get called a number of names which have more to do with their cuteness than anything else. A pet name is usually a nickname a person grows up with... it's not usually entirely bad sounding, sometimes sounds quite nice. But there are the not so nice ones too, oh you know, the kind of pet names, often embarrasing ones, some folks get stuck with simply because their elders were having a laugh or thought it sounds oh soooo... cute and somewhat apropriate for the lil one. However, what is apropriate and how far should anyone be allowed to refer to your child by a name other than his/her own name before it becomes classified as inapropreiate namecalling.

As an Indian I can only speak for and honestly say that I know this happens in a number of Indian families where their children often get stuck with inapropriate names from birth right through to adulthood. There are many, but, I'm only going to mention the ones I thought were the worst of the lot... and they're as follows:

1. 'kunju' - sounds like the person is being referred to by his/her *ahem* privates

2. 'boy' or 'bo-boy' - this sounds really cute when you're a kid but when you're 30 and people
still call you that coz they think by some cruel fate it's your actual name, the
cuteness of the name dies a natural death.

3. 'somberi' - this means lazy and no matter how lovingly you say it, personally I find it negative
and demoralizing for a childs' mental and emotional development.

4. gundu papa - 'gundu = fat' and 'papa = little girl'... once the meaning of that name truly hits
her, oh around about the time she's 12+ she's gon'na be starving herself and
exercising in an effort to shake off that name as fast as possible... and I assure
you she wants it gone yesterday! (be grateful this poor girl doesn't become
aneroxic)

Well, those were the prize winners I've personally come across so far... I may come across more in the next decade or so but, I find that it's not a very popular practice among the people in my generation, thank God for that.

I hope that in due time such practices in our Indian homes will stop altogether. I mean always ask yourself how you'd like it if you were stuck with a name that wasn't yours and on top of everything else sounds embarrasing.

TTFN...