I have come to the opinion that one is not considered a true Tamil-ian unless one has the appropriate name to back up the claim. No, I don't mean names that end with -murthy and -krishnan and the like.. I've actually observed that names with at least 3 syllables are more preferred. There are of course names with the ordinary 2 syllables, but I believe these are viewed with suspicion.
For example:
my name: Bharati Malar - 4 syllables (double thumbs up)
my sister's name: Kundhavi - 3 syllables (pass)
my cousin: Annapoorani - 5 syllables (off the charts!)
my mommy: Geetha - 2 syllables (tsk tsk)
There are some people I know, who I honestly thought had normal names.. For the longest time, I wondered how these people got away with it. Little did I know..
Priya - actually Shanmughapriya
Indu - actually Indumathy
Viji - actually Vijiyavalli
Radha - Anuradha
and then there's my cousin who I always knew as 'Giri'. Turns out that was just a pet name! His real name - Krishna Prasad.. :|
That's part of the reason, why, when we decided our third cat was to be given a Tamil name and raised as a pukka Tamil cat (don't ask..), we picked Palaniappan.. coz you can't go wrong with five syllables.. or something like that :)
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