Indian onomastics

[S Krishna]

<<From:         SRINIVASAKRISHNAN L <Srinivas at CBSINC.COM>
Subject:      Indian onomastics
To:           INDOLOGY at LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK

<<I am interested in personal names which take after flora and fauna.
Forexample, in modern Karnataka especially in the Dharwar-Belgaum belt,
itis not rare to find personal names such as IruLLi (onion),
meNasinakAyi(chillies), gubbi (sparrow) etc. It is possible that such
names are used to ward off the 'Evil eye'.>>

>Are the names given above first names or family names? If family names,
I suppose you can also add "TeGginakAi"( coconut) to the list
and badAmI to the list.( I however am not sure about the origin of
"badAmI", could be from the name of the nut( almond) or could refer to
the fact that the ancestors of this family came from the town of badAmI.

  As far as names which are flora and fauna inspired, I suppose in
>addition to avoiding the evil eye, the names can also be given in view
of the beauty/grace etc of the flowers i.e names like gulAbI/gulAb
(Rose), champA/champakalakshmI( as in the name of the historian), palAz(
Flame of the forest, a common name for males in Bengal), rajnigandhA,
mahuA( a common name for women in Bengal, refers to a flower that is
used for brewing liquor), kimzuka( a flower that looks beautifulbut
lacks smell, refered to in the subhASitam "vidyahInA: na zObhantE
nirgandhA iva kimzukA:", a very common name among men in Bengal),bElA(
jasmine) etc....there is a long list of flowers which are used as first
names for both men and women.

   As far as surnames go, I know that in Andhra, there are family names
like zoNthi( asafoteida?), vEpa( neem), vEpacEdu( as bitter as neem) and
paccimiriyam( raw pepper). These names I'm told, are a consequence of
the fact that some ancestor/progenitor had a sense of
humor/wit/intellect/all which was comparable in terms of
sharpness/pungency to the spice in question. In mahArASTra, I know that
there are surnames that run along similar lines though I'm not sure of
the origin. It is interesting to note that there are family names like
parATHE( not sure if this has to do with "parATHAs":-)
>
>  Of course, in the realm of poetry, you have very flowery names being
taken as nom-de-plumes:"bonophUl"( Bengali "Forest Flower") and kannaDa
"kADumallige"( Forest Jasmine) being two random examples.

Regards,
Krishna


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