What’s in a name?

The above Shakespearean’s quote, reminds me of the ad where a Hari Sadu's name is spelt out...and later I came to know that a real guy named "Hari Sadu" had sued the admakers for spoiling his name and finally the case was ruled in favour of Mr. Hari Sadu.

When I talk about name, I don’t necessarily mean individual's names. It applies equally to name of companies, events, films, tournaments, etc.

Having a good name brings the initial recognition and attention. It enables you to pull the audience towards yourself. It gives the first impression. Let’s explore those areas where name plays significant role.

The best example where a name can work winders is seen in politics.
Many politicians have made a mark in their career because of their famous title.
In this world of politics, look at Benazir Bhutto (Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s daughter), Hillary Clinton (Hillary Rodham Clinton’s daughter), Shekh Hasina (Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s daughter), Khalidasia (Iskandar Majumdar’s daughter), Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga (Wijay Kumaratunga’s daughter). Needless to mention our own Indira Gandhi or Sonia Gandhi. The only exception that I can think of is Margaret Thatcher. They all have entered politics because their husband or father was a known figure in politics. And their party wants to promote the title by using them as scapegoats and get the votes.

Names can also be used to show one's dominance.
This can be clearly seen in nomenclature of important roads, cities, buildings, institutions, etc. after politicians. The opposition always opposes whenever such namings happen and they revert back to the names when they come to power. This is just to demonstrate power and authority through names.

Names also act as brands. A person attached with a title like Ambani, Mittal or Bachchan easily gets in a top position in any enterprise. For example in films, Abhishek Bachchan would not have directly jumped into films, if it were not for his title. On the other hand, other wannabe actors would have to go to various acting classes. Similarly we can see the entire Kapoor parivaar venturing into films. There is nobody to question the talent? Many talents go unnoticed because there is no media interest and they never come in limelight. It is very tragic that one’s career can depend also on names.

Another area where the naming is exploited is in corporate world, where sometimes, the name of the title or designation matters more than the salary. Employees crave for a tag like CFO, CEO, COO, CTO, etc. attached to themselves, although the difference between the title would be very trivial. It is something like No1 and No2 are always very close, but as they say, topper is topper.

Even in movies, directors pay lot of attention in naming the movies, the characters. When remaking Sholay, Ram Gopal Varma was asked to change everything from the title to the names of each and every character. If there is nothing in name, then why so much attention and controversies?

Now let’s finally come to the naming of individuals.
Many couples, just before having a baby, do a research on what names would be suitable for the newborn. They buy books, visit websites, discuss with other relatives and so on. Some name it after scientists, filmstars, etc. But often when the kids grow up, they don’t like the names given by their ancestors on the pretext that they are too traditional and doesn’t suit their personality or job description. They might even find the name as funny and obsolete. For example many people who want to be DJ, VJ or do modelling, have their name changed so as to make it consistent with their profession and make it more "cool", “fancy” and “hip-hop”.

In Bollywood, names like “Ramu”, “Chottu”,“Banwari Lal”, etc. are stereotyped as of that of servants, milkman, pan-wallah.
Take the movie "Namesake", where a guy named Gogol is dissatisfied with his peculiar name or the movie "Khosla ka Ghonsla" where a guy who doesn’t like his name "Chiraunji Lal" because he says it doesn’t suit him as a software engineer and is more close to that of a pan-wallah.

Come to the case of Indians residing in US, the name gets transformed to some Americanized name, or they themselves do it. Hari becomes Harry. Hardeep might change to Hardy. Krishna prefers to be called as Chris. Shall I ask them why do they want to hide their identity through names?

Overall, I conclude that having a very fancy name gets you attention at the start. It puts you in a leading position, gets you lot of opportunities, the initial fame. So, names give you the much needed push, from where one can soar upwards.

But after that it is upto the person or the company to prove itself. If they are not able to keep up what their name suggest, then no tag or name will help them. All the initial crave will immediately go down, as media can forget things as easily as they can remember. The first impression might get you the first step, but you need talent to have a long lasting impression.