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Indian naming traditions vary by region. It gets intricate upon emigration and matching to Western formats. e.g. this distinguished biophysicist also goes by
by OldGuyInTheClub 2y ago
Indian naming traditions vary by region. It gets intricate upon emigration and matching to Western formats. e.g. this distinguished biophysicist also goes by one name:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Govindjee https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Govindjee
- Turing_Machine 2y agoIndeed. I had a professor in undergrad named Kanapathipillai Thirugnanasambanthan. He might've been from Sri Lanka rather than India proper, though. He went by "Sam Thiru". When I first began I asked a friend if he knew anything about this "Professor Thiru". He said "Well, that's not really his name. His real name wouldn't fit in the schedule." :-) Later, a different professor used him as an example of why it was a bad idea to hard-code the length of name fields. Great guy, and one of the best instructors I've ever had.
- vrc 2y agoLots of people from Andhra/Telugu people have many names, and are known by initials or drop them if they come to the US. That sometimes includes optional caste names or titular names that come at the end, with the family name leading (as in China and Japan). My uncle, for example, had a four-word given name, formally introduced his given name in India or in temples as the latter two, and then dropped the first of the two, and swapped family-first for first-family when he came to the states. For example, if you ever fly into Bangalore or Mumbai, you'll see GVK on their airports. That's for Gunapati Venkata Krishna Reddy, who goes by GVK. Gunapati is the family name, Venkata Krishna is his given name, and Reddy is the caste name. Other examples are NT Rama Rao, P.V. Narasimha Rao, and my favorite, is a person I know of who went by KRKVNS Sharma.
- OldGuyInTheClub 2y ago> Indeed. I had a professor in undergrad named Kanapathipillai Thirugnanasambanthan. He might've been from Sri Lanka rather than India proper, though. Almost certain he's a Sri Lankan Tamil. South Indians and Sri Lankans transliterate slightly differently.
- dctoedt 2y ago> I had a professor in undergrad named Kanapathipillai Thirugnanasambanthan My son had a high-school classmate whose name was something similarly long. Everyone called him "R-18."
- gadders 2y agoI had an Indian colleague that only had one name. To fit in with the company she went by a double first name. i.e (I can't remember her Indian name) Jane Jane.
- OldGuyInTheClub 2y agoThere's a noted chemist named Warren Warren. Washington State had a football player named Samoa Samoa. Hawaii had a great volleyball player named Allen Allen. The beat goes on. ;-)
- Koshkin 2y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_Major_Major_Major https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_Major_Major_Major
- madcaptenor 2y agoI really don't understand why people give names like this. I understand how they happen when you're trying to force a name into a naming convention that isn't the one it comes from, but why start your kid out that way? Near-miss: the poet William Carlos Williams.
- OldGuyInTheClub 2y agoIn that vein, another distinguished theoretical chemist/physicist: Philip Phillips
- madcaptenor 2y agoA bit annoying to search for this guy because there's a Phillip Phillips who won a season of American Idol.
- OldGuyInTheClub 2y agoBut the scientist has only one 'l' in his first name. He also graduated from the University of Walla Walla.
- clort 2y agoThe article (about Arvind) says he had two sons, "Divakar ’01 and Prabhakar ’04" can somebody explain their names in this context?
- icegreentea2 2y agoIn publications from colleges/universities, that usually means "graduate class of year". When no institution is specified, it usually means "this institution". So in this case, it means Divakar (graduate of MIT class of 2001) and Prabhakar (graduate of MIT class of 2004).
- madcaptenor 2y agoThis checks out - if you search for their names with MIT you'll find both of them. Both are medical doctors.
- hilux 2y agoTo add to your clear response, listing a year without giving any other detail also indicates a Bachelors degree. If instead they had earned a graduate degree, that would be indicated with some abbreviation for the granting school/college. (I don't know the MIT terms, but at Yale it could be SOM '01, MED '04, LAW '05, etc.)
- ripjaygn 2y agoI thought it was their year of birth and was confused.