[quote=Believer;101385]Namaste,
With apologies to all my Telugu friends....
On A Flight James Bond Was Sitting Next To A Telugu Guy.
Telugu Guy: “Hello, May I Know Your Name Please?”
James Bond: “My Name Is Bond’ Continuing In His Inimitable Style.. James Bond.”
Then Bond Asks: “And You?
Telugu Guy: “My Name Is Rao…
“Siva Rao…
“Samba Siva Rao…
“Venkata Samba Siva Rao…
“Yarlagadda Venkata Samba Siva Rao…
“Rajasekhara Yarlagadda Venkata Samba Siva Rao…
“Sitaramanjaneyula Rajasekhara Yarlagadda Venkata Samba Siva Rao…
“Vijayawada Sitaramanjaneyula Rajasekhara Yarlagadda Venkata Samba Siva Rao…
Since Then When Anyone Asks Bond His Name He Simply Says James Bond
Pranam./quote]
No offence taken.
Family name or last names are an interesting topic to me. I would like to talk about it here; in telugu we have a very clear cut Family name or inti peru. I was gathering info on other linguistic populations living in the subcontinent, Iam yet to see such a classic example of family names methodology in other cultures , I mean in non telugu regions. Iam not going to take a swipe at others, eventhough it may appear so; that being the case, please do not take offence .
Thota Ramesh may name his son as Thota Venkateswar, and both the above names can also have a suffix of Naidu (Eg., Thota venkateswara Naidu), the latter suffix indicates their community (Jati or kula). Alternaively, one can name the son as Thota Venkateswara Rao, the latter suffix, Rao, is a classic generic suffix for telugus and it is (Rao) completely devoid of any comunity affiliations. Thota Ramesh’s second son’s name will be something like Thota Raja Ram ( Thota raja ram naidu or T R Rao are the possible other alternatives). Thota Rajaram’s son will be named as Thota Krishna Murthi. Thota Ramesh’s brother may be called as Thota Srinivas or Thota Srinivas Naidu. T Srinivas may call his daughter as Thota Saraswati ( Or TS Naidu). Noadays the caste suffix has almost completely disappeared, and that’s very good if I may say so. So thus presently most Telugus have a generations old distinct LAST name that becomes the first component of their full names, and the given names follows it ( I think Chinese follow a similar pattern). Community indicators as the suffixes are avoided mostly. In west the last and first names are written in reverse order. Lets consider now another family, say with a last name as Tirumala setti who belong to same community, may have above given names as well. Thirumala setti Ramesh, Thirumala setti Venkateswara Naidu or Thirumala setti Venkatesswar Rao etc etc. Last names may transcend community divide. You can also have thota ramayya sastri or Tirumala setti Krishna sharma, Thota krishnayya yadav, Tirumalasetti ramayya goud etc etc .Last names DO NOT identify a caste. A vaishya can also have a name like Thirumala setti Rosaiah or Tirumalasetti Rosaiah Gupta .
But then some people in north call themselves as Ranjan Gupta or Shekhar Gupta. Gupta or Sharma , which are community markers will become their last names in the North. Agarwal is another example. Patel? I think it is a very diverse Gujarati last name, Gujjus can help us out here. Thus the sharp diference in naming is clearly seen between the telugus and say, hindi speaking populations. Both Laalu Prasad Yadav and shivlalal yadav write their community names as their last names, their ancestry is hard to track.
If you take the example of Tamils naming their kids, it is a different story altogether. Ramesh's son’s name will be Venkateswar(an) Ramesh. And Venkateswaran Ramesh names his son as Jaya Raman Venkateswaran. Family name or Last name is not a part of the full name for Tamils. They may have Ayyar or Ayyangar, Nadar etc community related suffixes in their Fullnnames, but these suffixes in a classic sense are not a depicting any family name. Father's name IS the last name!!Family names have disappeared for Tamils. Am I right?
Sikhs in Delhi are getting into a new way of naming their children. There are any number of Jasvinder Singhs all over the place, so which one is that you are talking about now? Well some Delhi walas are getting creative and resorting to add the place they are living in as their last names. Jasvinder Singh Gorgaon, Jasvinder Singh Greater Kailash and so forth. This is reinventing the wheel, I must say. A lot of Telugu names have a last name that resonate with their ancestral village. For example Kondapalli is a small town and similarly Kadapa is a large town, many people have these towns as their surnames. Kondapalli suresh and Kondapalli Rosaiah can be tracked to their origins very easily to their native (one) town, but then both these individuals would belong to different communities.
So believer, your list of telugu names does not survive the test of scrutiny. ALL telugu names MUST begin with the ’ inti peru’ or family name (last name). Iam intrigued if that kind of distinguishing naming practice is available for other cultures. How do you hindi speakers incorporate your last names. Namaste.
PS: This may not be right thread for this post.
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