question about gender of two names

Ganesan ganesan at IFPINDIA.ORG
Mon Sep 26 10:25:06 UTC 2005


Dear Allen,
KAVITA is the name of a woman; Krishnakumar is the name of her father (if
she is unmarried) or the name of her husband. Generally in south India women
attach the names of their father (if unmarried) or that of her husband.
Tilak is mostly the name of a man; or it may be the family name as in
Maharashtra we have Bal Gangadhar Tilak.
But generally the naming pattern varies in many parts of India which seems
mostly a modern complication. For in the ancient India it was not at all
complicated. Everybody had only one name (except the religious teachers,say,
the saiva religious teachers, who had their initiatory names also which is
mostly known only within their disciples).
Thanks
Ganesan

Dr.T.Ganesan
Chargé de Recherches
Senior Research Assistant in Saivasiddhanta,
French Institute
11, St. Louis Street
PONDICHERRY-605001
INDIA

Tel: +91 - 413 - 233 4168 ext. 123
E mail: ganesan at ifpindia.org
Web: www.ifpindia.org
----- Original Message -----
From: "Allen W Thrasher" <athr at LOC.GOV>
To: <INDOLOGY at liverpool.ac.uk>
Sent: Friday, September 23, 2005 1:19 AM
Subject: question about gender of two names


A patron needs to know the gender of this person:

PANDIT, Kavita Krishnakumar  (1956- )

Temporal and Spatial Variation in Sectoral Labor Allocation during
Development.  Ohio State University [United States], 1987 (Ph.D. in
Geography).  Chairperson/Major Adviser: Emilio Casetti.  xi, 159p.  DAI 48,
no.9 (Mar. 1988): 2423-A; UM 8726704.

Kavita of course is female, but the middle name is male.  Is there any part
of the country where a woman may have a male middle name?  Could this be
from  a patronimic naming system, as in the Maharashtrian 'middle names'?
Attempts to get the information from Ohio State have been unavailing because
of privacy laws (sic).

A similar question from another source:  In Rajasthan would Tilak be a man's
given name or a woman's?  In Sanskrit the common noun is masculine, but on
the other hand one might speculate the meaning, "ornament," would also be
appropriate for a woman.

Thanks,

Allen

Allen W. Thrasher, Ph.D., Senior Reference Librarian
South Asia Team, Asian Division
Library of Congress, Jefferson Building 150
101 Independence Ave., S.E.
Washington, DC 20540-4810
tel. 202-707-3732; fax 202-707-1724; athr at loc.gov
The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the Library of
Congress.





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