ScottMalaysia
02 May 2009, 01:41 PM
I'm wondering, did any of you on this forum who converted to Hinduism have a formal Namakarana Samskara, whereby you took a Hindu name? And if you did, did you change your name legally (on your passport etc?)
I would like to have one to make my conversion to Hinduism formal. I'm not sure about the procedure in Malaysia - I don't speak Tamil and I don't know if there are any temple pujaris here who can speak English. Maybe I could ask someone who speaks Tamil to help me out.
My full name is Scott Michael Inglis. My wife and family call me Scott, but my work colleagues and students all call me Michael. I thought that I would choose a name that sounds similar to the name that I already have, so this is the name that I have thought of:
மயில்வாகனம் சிவாதாசன் Mayilvahanam Sivadasan
(I originally thought of it as Mayilvahanam Shivadas, but then I looked up the Tamil for "servant" and it was "daasan", not "das", which is the Hindi. But then Tamil often does an an -n to the end of names, for example "Krishnan", "Ganesan", "Raman" "Sivan" etc.)
Would it be okay for people to call me "Mayil" for short? It sounds like "Michael" but Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami's book How to Become a (Better) Hindu lists "Mayil" as female. That's why I chose "Mayilvahanam". However, the book does list "Suguna" as a male name, yet one of my students was called Suguna and she was female.
I know that it doesn't correspond to my Nakshatra, but it sounds similar to my given name.
I would like to have one to make my conversion to Hinduism formal. I'm not sure about the procedure in Malaysia - I don't speak Tamil and I don't know if there are any temple pujaris here who can speak English. Maybe I could ask someone who speaks Tamil to help me out.
My full name is Scott Michael Inglis. My wife and family call me Scott, but my work colleagues and students all call me Michael. I thought that I would choose a name that sounds similar to the name that I already have, so this is the name that I have thought of:
மயில்வாகனம் சிவாதாசன் Mayilvahanam Sivadasan
(I originally thought of it as Mayilvahanam Shivadas, but then I looked up the Tamil for "servant" and it was "daasan", not "das", which is the Hindi. But then Tamil often does an an -n to the end of names, for example "Krishnan", "Ganesan", "Raman" "Sivan" etc.)
Would it be okay for people to call me "Mayil" for short? It sounds like "Michael" but Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami's book How to Become a (Better) Hindu lists "Mayil" as female. That's why I chose "Mayilvahanam". However, the book does list "Suguna" as a male name, yet one of my students was called Suguna and she was female.
I know that it doesn't correspond to my Nakshatra, but it sounds similar to my given name.