What's in a name ?

Living in the UK has some advantages. Around this time last year, Mom and Dad found out that I was going to be a boy. Which is so tremendously useful - they could start shortlisting the names, start painting the room blue & buy action toys instead of pink room, frilly clothes and dolls. Not that they were generalising or anything.

Their hunt for a good name was reduced by half now. To find a name, they had the following principles in mind
1. It should mean something - not an empty name e.g. Kevin, Fennil etc
2. It would not try and follow current fashions and risk being too common e.g. Aryan
3. It should not be something that I would be embarrased about at a later date e.g. Gopi
4. It should be easy for Brits to pronounce my name
5. Need not be restricted to letters as specified by my zodiac sign
6. The name should not be reminding them of anyone they dont particularly like
7. The name had to sound good along with the last name

Given these principles, they began hunting high and low. They were careful not to make the search open to public - it would have put them in a no-win situation. They searched websites, books and were consciously registering names they heard in conversations. Mom and Dad also had to bear some ridiculous suggestions like Pradeep ( PRAshant + DEEPali, geddit?).

Finally, they vetted down the shortlist of names, which looked like this
- Varun, Neel, Jay, Siddhant, Arjun

Neel and Jay were discarded afterwards because they were a bit lightweight. For a strong personality like me, they needed a powerful matching name.

These 3 names were then put forward to our immediate families. Arjun then fell by the wayside because our close relatives were not so keen on it. So now it boiled down to a close fight between Siddhant and Varun.

It was then that Dad thought hard about all his friends and influences in life. His best friends while growing up included Viren, Vandan, Virat, Vijay, the 2 Vishals in his college, Viren uncle and also Vikram Mama. It only seemed fair to continue that strong relation with the name V.

Mom too was keen on a name that seemed to fit naturally. Varun Gandhi is not an unknown quantity - my namesake is doing well for himself in Indian politics currently.

So thats how they decided on the name Varun. I am sure I will grow into it. If you are curious what it means, check this Wikipedia entry.

That should explain the picture of Neptune we have with this post as well..:-)