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One of the things about Tamil Nadu at least is that a lot of people don't have surnames in the traditional sense. My "surname" is actually my dad's given name,
by quackquackquack 6y ago
One of the things about Tamil Nadu at least is that a lot of people don't have surnames in the traditional sense.
My "surname" is actually my dad's given name, and my dad's "surname" is his dad's given name. So it changes every generation, unlike most of the rest of the world, where a single surname lasts through generations.
The point about caste differentiability by surname is still valid, though in a different sense, because the given names also have caste bias.
IMO the easiest way to break this cycle would be a widespread campaign to de-stigmatize inter-marriage between castes; that would solve the problem of correlation between name and caste within a generation or two.
- olivermarks 6y agoThe option for immigrants to change their name at Ellis Island long ago existed in large part to combat bringing 'old world' prejudices into the then new USA, nothing has changed...
- ibejoeb 6y agoNobody made a better life in America? I'm certainly aware of at least a handful of people who have gone from poverty to at least comfortable living after coming to America.
- alisonkisk 6y agoNo one said that.
- umanwizard 6y agoFor anyone who is interested: this type of name is called a patronymic, and besides Tamil Nadu exists in at least Iceland and Russia. In both of those countries, a particular grammatical ending is added to the name, whereas in Tamil culture the bare name is used. In Russia, people also have family surnames, in addition to patronymics. For example: “Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev”, whose father was presumably named “Anatoliy [something] Medvedev”. Or: “Katrín Jakobsdóttir”, whose father was presumably named “Jakob [something]”.
- blocked_again 6y agoIts similar in Kerala as well.