What is in a Name?

"Rose by any other name would smell as sweet".

This is what my mother would tell me time and again when I as a small girl used to ask her why she named me this. My name with the spelling as it is, used to cause a lot of confusion whether I was a male or female, no..most of the times it never caused confusion, it was decided that I was male. It used to embarrass me no end. The few occasions when I have felt very upset at being called is when I was felicitated because I got the highest marks in class 10 in our locality. I had specifically gone upto the compere and told him that my name was Rama with the 'a' sound longer in the second 'a' and not Raamaa. But to my horror, he called out not just my name but saying Mr. Raama. I did not want to go up stage and receive the certificate. But I had to. I just went up took the certificate and told everyone out there that I am Ms. Rama Hariharan and I am proud of my name. Now it makes me laugh in amusement to think about that. But to me as a 15 year old, it was the worst humiliation possible.

I came home and wept like never before. My mother who could not stand my state came upto me and told, we had named you this as the meaning of the name Rama is harbinger of happiness or one who gives happiness. I asked her why did my spelling not be Rema instead and she said "you are Rama and not Rema. But if this is bothering you so much, you choose a name you like most and we can officially get your name changed". It was then that I realised, Oh God, no way can I change my name. It is part of me and I like it. I am proud of my name and so if people cannot pronounce it right, well it is their problem not mine. Since then I have had no qualms about my name though I do have some light moments when people do goof up.

Like for instance, recently one person called up and said I want to talk to the advocate, can you please give the phone to your husband. I with a smile told my husband, someone wants to talk to you. The person on the other end started querying about Trademarks and Patents and hubby dear told him, Oh, you should be talking to my wife, she is the advocate. He apologised profusely both over the phone and also later when he came to the office to meet me saying he did not know as he saw the spelling "Rama". It is fun at such times and boy I do love it at such times. Makes up for all the times when I used to feel bad about my name.

I read this the other day about how names influence and it brought back some memories.

I personally feel it all depends on how your attitude is shaped and the environment you are exposed to, in addition to your inherent likes, dislikes which mould your personality. Name is just part of it, not that important a factor. After all, what is in a name?