Name Confusion

In India, people in many States have given names and family names. Given names are like Ashok, Asha, Satish, etc. Family names are like Banerjee, Khosla, Patel, etc. However a few places, like Tamil Nadu, have only given names and no family names. They go by initials (father’s given name’s first letter) and their own given names. For example, our Home Minister is Mr. P. Chidambaram. Chidambaram is his given name. P stands for his father, Mr. Palaniappan.

In USA, for anything and everything, they ask for first name (given name) and last name (family name). In the above example of our Home Minister, what do we write as his first name? Palaniappan? That is not correct because that is his father’s name. His given name is Chidambaram. Therefore, we can write that as his first name. What should we write for family name? Palaniappan? That is not right also. Therefore, quite a number of people have a dilemma.

They have opted for several kinds of solutions. Some people have chosen to use their father’s given name as their first name and their own given name as their last name. Some have decided vice versa. This brings another problem. What will be the last name of their children? If they go by family tradition, they will have a different last name in USA. That will bring several other problems. Most people opt for their given name as last name and give it to their kids also.

Some others use their caste name as last name.

There are some folks Americanize their given names to make it easy to pronounce. Anandarangan is now Andy. Janakiraman is now Jerry. Even some Indians who have a proper given name and family name also Americanize their given name. I know a gentleman named Puri. It is a quite common name in North India. He changed his first name to Cook. Mr. Cook Puri? I am not joking. It is real.

Here is another real story. While filling out application form from a university, one guy wrote his mother’s name as his first name. I have no idea why he wrote like that. While he was a student in the university, everyone addressed him as Susheela.

Mr. Chidambaram got his MBA from Harvard University. Just interested to know what his friends called him? Chidambaram or any shorter version of that? Palaniappan or any shorter version of that?