The Namesake

India is not only a country with a wide variety of cultures, languages, ethnics, landscapes, religions, castes,...etc, but also a country with even more wide variety of human nomenclature. Don't U agree with me? ... No... U will agree with me after reading this post...

My name is "Umesh Ram". It sounds Good, Neat & Clear. Adding my Surname "Yarlagadda" to it, things get messy here. Some people especially Non-Andhra Ones don't know how to pronounce it. The Real complication occurs when you keep moving among different states like me.

In Andhra Pradesh, it is a convention that your surname comes first before your name. Just like mine it was

Yarlagadda Umesh Ram

I studied in IT-BHU, Uttar Pradesh. There, People have their real name followed by surname.
Example...

(Real Name) + (Gupta or Agarwal or Tiwari or Shukla or Srivastav or "Katiyar"...etc)

In all my certificates, my name is written as "Yarlagadda Umesh Ram". So when people pronounce my name, they start it right from the surname. As they try to  pronounce it, they come up with awkward sounds. That really annoys me. So wherever I go & when people ask me "What's ur name?". I say "Umesh Ram" so that I save some energy and complication.

I still remember all those days in IT-BHU when Profs. used to call names for attendance. In the attendence register, my name starts with my surname. When it comes to  my name, they find it really hard to pronounce it ("Yarlagadda"). In those attempts, they used to discover new words that starts with "Y". But they never pronounced my surname correctly. That used to be amusing for the rest of the guys in the class. I find myself relieved if Profs. takes attendance by calling corresponding roll no.

I wish my name could have been like this

Hrithik Roshan
Kamal Haasan
Atleast it can be Umesh Ram Yarlgadda ... so that it starts with the easy part ("Umesh Ram").

But now the situation is out of hands. Actually I can change it now also, but it is a hell of a process. I have to apply for an affidavit in the court and get it signed by the magistrate. Then, I have to publish in the newspaper that "My name has changed and here onwards, please call my name, starting with Umesh Ram". Huh... I don't think so...

Actually I don't have problem with my name. It's the Others who have problem with it. So Why will I change it??? It doesn't make any sense.

So Guys, try to pronounce my name correctly. That will help you in future when U face similar kind of words.

Do U want to know more about our diverse Indian Nomenclature??? These are some of them that I came across...

In North India, the usual convention is given name followed by last name(surname, caste name, etc). In south India, they have different conventions in different states. I am writing what I know, if I am missing something let me know...

Tamil Nadu : People use either the father's name or initial as a substitute for the surname. There is also widespread usage of a patronymic: use of the father's given name as the second name. This means that the given name of one generation becomes the second name of the next. In many cases, this second name is used as an initial and the given name may appear like a second name. For example a name like "Ajith Abraham" means "Ajith son of Abraham". If Ajith then has a son named Ashvin, then his name would be Ashvin Ajith. It is common for Tamil women to adopt their husband's given name as a second name. Sunitha Gopalan (Sunitha daughter of Gopalan) might change her name to Sunitha Rajiv (Sunitha wife of Rajiv) after marriage.

Andhra Pradesh : Family names of Telugu people are supposed to be the name of the village or area their ancestors came from.The family names of Telugu people precede the given name and are mostly abbreviated. For example, the name Kambham Nagarjuna Reddy would be abbreviated as K.N.Reddy. In this name Nagarjuna Reddy is the given name, and Kambham would be the family(Surname) name. Some of the people who belong to a particular caste include the caste names in their names, especially Naidu, Chowdary, Reddy, etc. For example, Vijay Reddy, Hari Chowdary, Devender Goud. In general, if the name of a person in Western format was Vijay Reddy Kandi (given name, second given name and family name), then the name in Telugu-speaking areas would be written as K. Vijay Reddy.

Maharashtra : A number of Marathi family names end in 'kar', e.g. Gavaskar, Tendulkar, Savarkar, Madgulkar, Mayekar, Acharekar, Navalkar, Joglekar, Juhekar, Deuskar, Manglokar, Chindarkar and are sometimes associated with the native village of the family or its ancestors. Marathi last names and origins are extremely well documented and the roots and lineage can be traced back hundreds of years.
In Karnataka & Maharashtra, the naming convention is given name, father's name (Middle name), last name (Can reflect Sir name, family name, place, occupation etc.).