7 ms·

I know, my surname is incredibly distinctive. To anybody who's vaguely knowledgeable about these things, it not only points out my nationality, but also which

I know, my surname is incredibly distinctive. To anybody who's vaguely knowledgeable about these things, it not only points out my nationality, but also which region of India I belong to, my religion, and also my caste[0]. [0] Not that I pay attention to caste, but as you can see, Indian surnames contain a lot if information, to anybody even remotely trained in reading them.

blhack 13y ago
You don't have to say your name, for obvious reasons, but would you mind giving an example of an Indian name, and how all of that information is encoded in it? That's REALLY fascinating to me.
- chimeracoder 13y ago
  Any name that ends in "-jee" or "-ji" is a British variant on an Indian Bengali name[0]. Almost anybody who has it (Mukerjee, Banerjee, Chatterjee) is originally from West Bengal, a state in India that borders Bangladesh. Beyond that's, it's a Hindu name. Almost all Hindu names are specific to a particular caste (the origins of the caste system are simply a precise codification of socioeconomic status, so it's similar to someone being called "a Trump" or "a Kennedy"). Priests can also tell further information from the name, such as the gotra: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gotra http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gotra . In layman's terms, this is a way of identifying one of your earliest known ancestors. The name even has a Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mukherjee http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mukherjee [0] The British changed a lot of names of both people and places when they were in power - ex., they changed "Mumbai" to "Bombay", although people are now starting to use the original name again.
  - blhack 13y ago
    That's really interesting, thank you!
  - anuraj 13y ago
    Only that caste names not just socioeconomic markers, but plain racial bigotry as well!! Regret what happened to you, but please don't defend caste which is almost mean the same racism in India.

blhack 13y ago

You don't have to say your name, for obvious reasons, but would you mind giving an example of an Indian name, and how all of that information is encoded in it? That's REALLY fascinating to me.

chimeracoder 13y ago
Any name that ends in "-jee" or "-ji" is a British variant on an Indian Bengali name[0]. Almost anybody who has it (Mukerjee, Banerjee, Chatterjee) is originally from West Bengal, a state in India that borders Bangladesh. Beyond that's, it's a Hindu name. Almost all Hindu names are specific to a particular caste (the origins of the caste system are simply a precise codification of socioeconomic status, so it's similar to someone being called "a Trump" or "a Kennedy"). Priests can also tell further information from the name, such as the gotra: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gotra http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gotra . In layman's terms, this is a way of identifying one of your earliest known ancestors. The name even has a Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mukherjee http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mukherjee [0] The British changed a lot of names of both people and places when they were in power - ex., they changed "Mumbai" to "Bombay", although people are now starting to use the original name again.
- blhack 13y ago
  That's really interesting, thank you!
- anuraj 13y ago
  Only that caste names not just socioeconomic markers, but plain racial bigotry as well!! Regret what happened to you, but please don't defend caste which is almost mean the same racism in India.