Saturday, October 22, 2011

08. Name Game!


One of my friends once asked me if I want a boy or a girl. I said, a girl. She inquired, “Why?” Obviously I had a selfish reason, “Girls are daddy’s girls!” But over time that feeling changed. Many people came and blessed my wife saying that she is going to have a boy. Some even went to the extent of predicting a boy from the shape of her tummy. As if pregnancy was an exam and its success and failure depends on you having a boy or a girl. 

It made both of us feel like we desperately need a girl. We realized that we were making a mistake, but it was a feeling that we could not get rid of. We were lucky that we had a little princess, but what if it was a boy? In our stupid desire to prove the society wrong, could we have given him justice? Our prejudice against a boy was no different from the one society, in general, has against a girl. Lesson learnt: never try to predict the sex of the baby, you are lucky either way.

Our prejudice was so strong that we had chosen only one name, and that was a name of a girl. Considering the long list of criteria’s we had, it wasn’t an easy task. We made a list of our criteria’s and then goggled. From Indian to Egyptian, we searched all possible names and ended up with one – Hridhima.

Here goes our long list of criteria’s?
-        The name should start with ‘H’. All the names of babies in our family starts with ‘S’, my Moms initial. It was as per my father’s wish. So, my wife wanted our child’s name to start with my dad’s initial.
-         We wanted it to be something that is not Bong-ish, we wanted our baby to have a name that is more Indian than a name that is state specific.
-         We did not want the name to be associated with any particular religion, like a god’s name.
-         We did not want it to be anything that is materialistic, like money, wealth, power, etc.
-         We did not want it to be a name that is easily mispronounced.
-         Obviously, we wanted it to sound good.
-         We preferred something related to happiness, smile, love or peace.

Well, never told you that it's an easy job. After a lot of search and research we finally came up with Hridhima. ‘Hridhaya’ means heart and ‘ma’ means loving. Hridhima is a loving heart. And that’s what our sweetheart is called.

44 comments:

  1. I like Hridhima :)

    It's a beautiful name...

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  2. Hridhima is the perfect name for the darling of the perfect couple-how sweet of your wife to think of the initial after your father:-)

    and also thumbs up again for attacking another prejudice so well:-)
    and we also wanted a girl when we had decided on Seeya-there is something so magical about them-they extract love and attention:-)

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  3. Beautiful name for a beautiful child of beautiful parets...

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  4. @Suruchi: thanks :D...with all respect to the boys...girls are just too cute :)...and they are not going to waste time playing stupid video games :D

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  5. God bless d little angel..beautiful name...even my name also start frm 'H'....:))

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  6. Hridhima is a nice name:)
    God bless the Angel:)

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  7. Yay! Little Hridhima should do a blog post here.

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  8. Love the name Hridhima... :)

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  9. @Venkateswaran Ramachandran: thanks soo much :)

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  10. SUB- I had no idea until now that a name can have so many criterias :P Learnt a lot frm this blog and will definitely be a great help in future some day..Hridhima is indeed sexy and cute name :D

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  11. @Droopy Rose- thanks...so u r ready to fall in luv? :p
    oh it is sexy and cute...so is she :D

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  12. I am sure, Hridhima will add happiness to your life; Hush!!! the little angel is sleeping and so I'm signing off....will be back soon.

    From: sriramnivas.wordpress.com

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  13. awwww...lovely...!! U knw what Sub..I'll share with u sumthing..I have already written good unique names of boys and girls in my diary. I like unique and beautiful sounding names..and though well I'm too young...but I like the idea of suggesting names..I'm good with words..and this brings me here too..lol:P

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  14. Hridhima is a lovely name and I LOVE the criteria you guys set! Narrowed it quite a bit lol :) Just wanted to tell you that I have gone through your blog and read everything and you are a brilliant writer. I could actually feel your sentiments while reading. Going to read As D Day approaches now!

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  15. @Beeni: Hey! Thanks soo much for being here! I am glad that you liked it...:)
    heard about you from her...thanks for telling her :D...

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  16. It is my pleasure :) I was so excited to find this blog I started talking to her about it immediately! Little did I know that she didn't know haha.I panicked when I read one of your comments saying she did not know!You have a lovely wife *touchwood* please do give my love to her and Hridhima :)

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  17. How cute!! I used to like the name Hridhima cause of the way it sounds but now when i know the meaning, i love it !! I love the pointers you had for name selection!!

    Your blog is too cute!! It makes for a fab read and i always make a mental note to make my present bf/Hopefully future husband read it!! :-)

    My world, my thoughts, my musings...

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  18. @Beeni: OH! i'm lucky :)....thanks again :)

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  19. @Upasana: thanks :D
    he will be...all my wishes to u for a wonderful life :)

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  20. liked the logic for the name not being state specific. my daughter's name Tanvi is hardly south indian or kannadiga.

    liked the last point too - name with love/peace & the meaning of your baby's name - loving heart. Tanvi means a delicate girl

    yes Sub it is a name "game"

    i was surprised u chose only one name & that too girl's much before the arrival of the baby

    it was nice to have the initial of ur dad for the name

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  21. Whoa! You guys had lots of decisive factors in deciding the name. Lol! But, no matter what, you came up with a beautiful name! Very new and very sweet for the lovely sweetheart! :) God Bless Hridhima!

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  22. @Sujatha Sathya: Tanvi is a lovely name too :)
    my wife's sis said that if it's a boy he can be called Hridhik...we were OK with that...but, we just had this feeling tht it will b a girl... :D

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  23. @Hope: oh yea...tough job :)....thanks soo much :)

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  24. A pretty name!!!

    Our girl name was Savannah Claire. We never got to use it. I still like it. I went to grad school in Savannah, Georgia. Then my husband is from Missouri. There is a Savannah, Missouri as well.

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  25. While looking for the name, I had some similar criteria too. The first and foremost was - It should be simple and easy to pronounce by anyone. Anyone means... anyone... from any culture!

    Let me be frank - I wanted a boy but what we got was a girl. But, believe me, there was no disappointment or anything when we got a girl. It was just a wish. Today, what I realize is that I surely wouldn't have loved him if it was a boy, as much as I do my daughter now.

    Even in our case, many people wrongly predicted that it would be a boy - looking at my wife's tummy, skin, face, etc. Like astrology, even these things have not matured enough yet. :)

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  26. @alissa4illustration: thanks soo much...that's a pretty name :)

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  27. @BHARATHIRAJA: thanks for sharing :)...
    well, they fail a lot of time :)...
    what's her name?

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  28. "Anjana" - It's my wife's favorite goddess name. We went with it because it met most of our criteria though sounded very out-dated. Like you, I also never wanted to have god/goddess's name. But, it's all about compromise in life, as you know! :)

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  29. @BHARATHIRAJA: no....it's a nice name...
    Happy wife...happy life :)

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  30. the name is well worth the effort .. and its beautiful name :)

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