of my name, that is. I don’t know about you guys, but I have had a history of name mutilation.. How difficult can a name like Smitha be to pronounce, one would think – but going by the number of variations that I have been called – very difficult!
It first started when I was a little three yr old playing outside with my friend, when she called me ‘Sushmita’!
Apparently. I told her, ‘Mera naam Smitha hai’ and this girl came back with, ‘Nahi, meri mummy boli hai , tumhara naam Sushmita hai’ !
My parents still laugh about how upset I was that she was calling me with a different name 🙂
As I was growing up (and during my grownup years), I had people calling me Sushmita, Ismita , Sumita, Samita, Simtha(One of my manager used to call me that and even address mails to me with my name written like that!!!! I had to literally correct him each time that he introduced me in meeting with that name and funnily enough – he never got it correct) and Samantha – when I ordered a Thai Takeaway – she just could not get my name! And this was apart from all the ribbing I got with nick names like ‘Silk Smitha’!
That just ensured one thing – there is no way I was going to name my daughter with a name shared by any famous(or infamous) person. But you can’t be sure, can you about who is going to get famous or infamous 😦 I just pray that there are no infamous stars(?) in the future with my daughter’s name.
What really took the cake was after a long and very difficult conversation with a customer service agent with a very thick Scottish accent(I’m sure he must have been talking about my Indian accent). I was not sure if either of us understood half of what we said to each other. I get a letter addressed to ‘Pimpha’ – Now, how he derived this from ‘Smitha’ – after all the spelling ‘S’ as in ‘Sam’.. you get the drift , right? – is out of my comprehension!
So have any of you suffered from name mutilation?
me first 🙂
Yay! Congrats 🙂
busy right now.. will comeback for sure and read and comment..
itchy and scratchy.. i’m first 🙂
Cool 🙂 Will wait for your comment, Mystery 🙂 I’ve been busy too – have not read most of the posts in the last 3 days yet 😦
poor you smitha.
lol at the comparision to Silk smitha.
I know 😦 I never forgave my parents for naming me this 🙂 And the worst thing was that it was such a common name! Biharis, Marathis, Malayalis all wer very fond of it – every class would have atleast on Smitha/Smita 😦 I so wished I had a unique name 😦
‘Pimpha’..how could he even think of such a name. I can understand how you feel when someone gets ur name wrong..
Though people get my name correct, it’s the spelling they mess up with.. English is ok but if it’s in telugu/hindi, Everyone assumes their own spelling is correct and make a mess of my name.
LOL! Spelling is normally ok – of my name – Pimpha was the first mutilation beyond recognition.
Atleast my blogging name is one no one is/can mess up..
unlike Solileo 😀
Yes, luckily your blogging name is something no-one can mess up 🙂
PIMPHA !!
ROTFLOL !!! 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆
Buhahahahahaha
Muhahahahah !!!!
Stop laughing DhirenDRA!
me second! 🙂 yay!
tho all that was funny smithu, i will not laugh at ur plight *crafty resolves to hold in laughter*
even tee of tee hee hee will not escape me……
Et tu, Crafty 😦
can i join ur club of name mutilation victim pliss?? here’s my saga / application:
Oh please! You are welcome!! I am so happy to have company 🙂
my first name is Shini and is pronounced as “Shiny”
don’t ask about spelling…not my fault for once! 😛
(my best friend in school used to call me Shines n that stuck with rest of my friends!)
interschool science project. apart from own project, we 9th std participants were to assist 7th std juniors in their projects. i call this junior up and her grandma answers n says she’s gone for tutions, so i left a message for her to call back.
she calls back:
her: did u call me?
me: yes, i left a msg with ur granny
her: *laughing like a lunatic*
me: *waiting patienly hoping this will be worthwhile*
her: my grandma didn’t get ur name right! but i guessed it must be u! she told me “some chinese had phoned for u!”
me: 😐
Chinese!!!! Chinese! ROFL ! 😆 Sorry – but I can’t help it 🙂 Yours is even funnier than mine 🙂 And I would have thought that a name like Shini – is totally non mutilatable(is that a word) 🙂
now with this shiney ahuja case, i have my sadistic friends have spammed my inbox with mails that have pun jokes on “maid” or “bai”
🙄
I can imagine that happening 🙂 Poor you 😦 Just thank your stars that you are not a boy 🙂
plus my name was pronounced “sheenee” (coz of spelling) every year during first roll call in new std. and in 8th std, the entire class yelled out to the teacher “Miss!!! its not sheenee, its SHINY!”
😀
😆 I can imagine that 🙂 The entire class yelling 🙂 Kids love such situations don’t they 🙂
come smithu…lets bake a few cakes n drown our sorrows shall we……
LOL!!
Chinese!!! 😀
Hahahaha! 😀
lol… Crafty..u have a wonderful tale to tell about ur name..
as smitha said, thank god u weren’t a boy, otherwise u would have been compared to Shiney ahuja..
😆 😆 😆 😆 😆
*stares at hitchu in disbelief*
is this the same hitchu who gave crafty a tough time on laughing at him????
is it???????
1,2,3,4,5 – GASP 5 lol wala faces??????
boooo hooooo
*crafty motions for senti background music*
accha silla diya tune mere pyaar ka….*
I know Crafty!!! Just call him DhirenDRA 🙂
but am still getting the email forwards mystery…
😐
Put a spam block on ‘maid’ or something! Better still – find out Shiney Ahuja’s email id and put in an auto forward 🙂
tee hee smithu! what a idea that auto forward one!!! what fun!!!
*chuckles*
He deserves that and more! Wonder why somebody’s parents would name a boy ‘Shiney’? Such a girlie name no?
Me too can’t get it. Why is a boy named Shiney 😉
Arre…. cant get any sweeter… have to be the devil from time to time…
btw didnt smi put this post for us to laugh… I just laughed… its actually a compliment to this post !!!!!!
Now that is a valid point 🙂
Chinese!!!!!
ROFTL
Nice name Chinese ha ha ha !!!
Do you mind if I call you Smita 😀
Sure 🙂 Anything goes – as you have seen 🙂
Hail Smithus,
ROFL!!!!!!!!!! 😛 I liked the reference to “silk smitha”….ROFL!!!!!!
are your frds that mean???? 😛 😛 😛 😛
Just some close ones – including my mean husband 🙂 – to get me all riled up 🙂
thankfully my first name does not get mutilated much…
“Ajit” turns into “Ajeeeth” here in america 😛
You are lucky, I have a friend called Atul – and he is called ‘A tool’ – in the US 🙂
And I saw that you have a new post – but haven’t had a chance to read – will read in peace – later today 🙂
LMAO!!!! “A tool”……. 😛 😛 😛 😛
yes, read later on…. though it is only half of the story 😛
Yes, I have had many versions of my name pronounced in such a varied way that sometimes I had to wonder what IS my real name?
-Manpreet- is my name-Mampi gets pronounced nicely though.
🙂 You too 🙂 Guess Mampi is difficult to spoil 🙂
Yeah I have suffered from it here in US a lot, but not in India as far as I remember. The meaning of my name is Treasure, but whenever people call me here they say it “Needy” instead of Nidhi, what an irony…I have people call me Nadia, Nadhia, Nadhi and my manager still calls me NEEEEEEEEDY…so I totally understand your feelings sweetheart :). It has haapened with Aayush also, eventhough most of the americans here get it his name right, but when he was born, we told the nurse is his name, and that girl just culdn’t get it. She kept on forgetting and then she wrote I-USE on the white board for his name. I still get mad when i think about that, but you know i was too tired that time to argue with her 🙂
Goodness!! Being called ‘Needy’ 😦 Not nice at all 😦 My name was comparatively less mutilated abroad – funnily enough 🙂 And calling Aayush – I-USE? Wow! How did she arrive at that!!! Heights, no 🙂
I just had to face the name Vimala during college! and you know why? my name in our college records was such. I had this name for one whole year until the exams came !!!
Seriously! How could they do that 🙂 So the sex change is not a new thing 😉
Quite recently, I also came to know that my name in my dads mobile (for some reason) is Vimala. Checkout my bros comment in that second part of the Sex change post (comment by thesaintlysinner) !!! I didnt know until he had mentioned it during my europe trip. Gotta change it this weekend.
Oh goodness- your Dad too 🙂 Guess they must have wanted a girl when they had you – so maybe they are clinging to hope by calling you Vimala 🙂
Vimala? 😀
this is an old tradition I see 😀
Absolutely right Smitha 😀
the switcheroo must have been a cakewalk for Vimmuuu 😉
I know, Indyeah – now that we know the inside stories 🙂
aliya Vimal(a), plese dont make such confession here….
These evil girls, lap up every single word we say 😛 😛 😛
Why are you calling us evil? We are the most angelic girls you will find – anywhere 🙂
Hail Smithus,
I did not call you “evil”…..
*OG hopes that Smithus joins his side*
Sure 🙂 Whoever gives my supari – I join that side 🙂
it is only the other “girls”…… who are evil 😛
Wait till the other girls see this 🙂
My name is easy to pronoince for them Westerners but they do struggle with, and often end up mutilating, the last name! So I so get what you go though! 🙂
My last name is such a mouthful – that I don’t even blame them for mutilating it 🙂 I end up just spelling it out for people 🙂
I do have faced difficulty for make my name pronounce correct. From Sushant the various versions came out as : Shushant suhant shushanto some even pronouncing it “su-hunt” the time to make it pronounce corrected briefed from a day to months. Then I decided to for “Sunny” with make it sound correct almost every where.
Yes, Sunny certainly seems the easiest 🙂 Yes, I have met lot of Sushants who pronounce their names as ‘Sushanto’ – I think a lot of Bengali names are like that.. So probably thats why you get called that 🙂
But su-hunt! That’s new 🙂
I didnt face much of this,but here my manager used to call me sarika,i always fail to understand why he used to call me sarika inspite of correcting him many times 😦
That is so weird na? To call you Sarika even after you’ve corrected him! Guess he is very fond of Sarika – the name just drops off his tongue 🙂
yea.. my name gets put thru the wringer too!
they attach suffixes to it and my beautifully short name suffers.
Oh oh – they add suffixes to it 😦 why why why? Why is it so difficult for people to pronounce things correctly.. Once we had a Client called ‘Crick’ and my manager would call him ‘Crook’ 🙂
LOL!!! Crook!!! 😀
And that too on his face! Can you believe it!! How can somebody mispronounce Crick as Crook was beyond me – it just made me happy that at least my name was not Crick 🙂
LOL @ Crook and that too rt on his face Baap re 😛
Hello Pimpha! That’s more than mutilation. One can simply not get back to the root.
I know!! He changed it completely for me. And then when I called them back to correct it – I had such a tough time explaining it to them.. and getting them to change it. Because the very first thing they ask is – ‘Can I have your name pls’ and I had to tell them, ‘Well, you’ve got my name down as Pimpha….’ It was horrid 🙂
Your name is not that unpronounceable. Some cases are really unmentionable, particularly if you happen to carry them with you to the US.
Madhuri was lucky. She became Nene in the US. How much can you mutilate that? Just imagine what would have been her plight if she had continued with “Dixit”!
Oh sure 🙂 She must have taken an informed decision to change her name 🙂
LOL 🙂 Pimpha….thats so HILARIOUS!!! I can’t stop laughing.. 🙂
I called myself ‘Bianca’ in the US, as it avoided too much confusion 😉
lol! That is much easier 🙂
ha ha ha. Nice one Smitha.y name is a complete tongue twister, so i have had it all my life. And had it bad. After marriage, amongst the DH’s family, besides his brother and him, everyone else mis-spells and mis-pronounces my name. And after trying hard, I have now officially given up.
Oh you have it much worse! Atleast family can pronounce my name – Thankfully 🙂
Pimpha?!?!? *no comments*
Everyone has a tale or two to tell about name mutilation.
Ofcourse I’m a victim too. I’ve even done a post on it last year. And you can only imagine the slack I get. Both my first name and last are on almost any most wanted lists!!!!
Oh goodness! That is a much more dangerous problem! Do you get stopped at airports 🙂 I will look up that post of yours 🙂
And you know what’s the worst part? It is understandable people getting a name wrong the first time. But even after you’ve corrected them, they still screw it up again! I mean, how difficult can it be?!?
‘But even after you’ve corrected them, they still screw it up again! I mean, how difficult can it be?!? I agree – I just cannot get why people don’t get it even after we’ve corrected them!
My name is not common you see… I have never met a Dhiren yet.. !!
Funnily enough – I have met loads of Dhiren.. Especially when I was working in Ahmedabad and Baroda! We had atleast three in our office itself!
in gujarat the most common name is Hiren… and a lot of them take me as that…
Yes, Hiren is quite common too 🙂
In MP over here… they simply add DRA behind it… !! it irritates me to a point…
Dhirendra !!! how many times I have to correct and tell them boss… DRA nikalo.. !!
LOL! 😆 Now we know what to call you 🙂
otherwise since I have been shortened to dhirubhai.. its been a lot easier… !!! I kinda like being called a zillionaire… wish i had 0.01% of the money he had….
Dhirubhai does have that air, doesn’t it – of a rich rich man 🙂
DRA nikaalo 😉 Thatz sounds so hilarious
crafty will NOT make fun of hitchy….
she never had that streak in her….
never ever ever…..
You are the sweetest, Crafty !
Dhirenbhai 🙂 the ‘Dra’ is very evil sounding by itself 😀
good you dont add it 😀
grrrrrrrrrrr 👿
Dharmendra Jeetendra Dhirendra !!!!!!
I didnot even think of the other ‘DRAs’ 🙂 See now I can’t think of you without your companions – ‘Dharmendra and Jeetendra’ 🙂 😆
Cool 🙂
DhirenDRA?!!! 😀
LOL!!!
hahahaha…
bhai sounds so much better now doesn’t it?!!
*running away before Hitchy can catch up!!*
Pixie – Dhiren must be cursing his stars for telling us this 🙂
you bet… somehow i am loving giving laughter out of making a joker of myself… !! i never knew i had that streak in me… !!!
You know, it is not easy to do that 🙂
Pimpha is heights.. 😀 ROFL…!!!!
me too have had many such incidents where my name loses the meaning totally..
my personal heights is my passport has my name wrong. as some idiot at the passport office didn’t know that we Tamilians use their Father’s name’s first letter as initial so he added it to my first name.. making it sound hilarious. 🙂
Oh you know what – that reminds me of somebody from my school. We were told to check that our names are correct in the ICSE register because apparently there was a guy called D S N Rao. Apparently his results came back as S N Road 🙂
i have a histroy of mispronounced and misspelt names.. all my cards and even my driving lisence have my name wrong.. no one can beat that.. 😀
Oh oh! Thats not nice! My dad has that problem – his name is wrong everywhere – but he does have a long long name 🙂
Girl, I was so bugged up digging up docs @ work today. Thank u so much for this post.
You are totally welcome 🙂
I have talessssss to tell.
My name is Swathi n one girl @ school used to say Swarthi .. can anyone take that 😦
I hope she never meant it though 😛
How can them make it ‘Swarthi’? Isn’t Swathi so much easier!
Then, some people used to sat Sauthi [‘Souten’ is Sauthi in Kannada :(]
Oh goodness!!! That is even worse!
The funniest one was when I received a receipt from some organization recently
and they had combined my name with the husband’s and it read Swanth Ram – how on earth did they get to do that – I hv no clue :))
😆 People can sure mess up names!!
But, Swarthi n Sauthi – nahin kabhi nahin!!!!!
😆 Yes, Kabhi nahin to those two 🙂
arrre swaram!
who is this sinster girl who called u swarthi???
tell me her name…..we’ll make some very intersting versions of her name
👿
*crafty rols her sleeves n gets ready*
😆 I am sure that girl must be quivering in fear 🙂
sho cute 😀 Crafty rolling up her sleeves and getting ready to tackle meanies 😀
So sweet of u Crafty. Hugs 🙂
Swarthi !!! heeee hawwwww…. !!
sorry sorry crafty but couldnt resist !!!!
*crafty successfully resists urge to make fun of the dra-suffixed hitchu, takes long swig of coffee instead*
:grrrr. I thot u wud support me Crafty 😦
ROFL …yeahh i can relate myself very much to this post.When i joined 4 my engineering in Coimbatore,I got lot of mutilation based on tamilians,telugus,north,north east,middle east NRI’s ,western NRI’s etc.It goes like AAAnish,hanesh,haaaaanish,Eenish th’aa’ma paanikaar,thaamas etc.I had a tough time correcting everyone but after some times i got fed up and never attempted to correct them.anyways myfriends had a nice time by pulling my legs.But is is fun to recall all that now :).
Oh oh! And I thought that a name like Anish would be comparatively safe!
@ Silk smitha…that was quite too muchh…too bad friends 😦
No – just the very close ones 🙂
@… Pimpha..ROFL
How he got that – I will never understand!
most of them added a regional touch to my name and i was fine with that…but the irritating one is anish ‘thaamas’ :D….I can understand how U r struggling to explain U’r name to U’r brtish friends.I always introduce myself to foreigners like,my name is Thomas 🙂 …So that i don’t have to teach them how to pronounce it and thatz safe 4 me 🙂 …..
🙂 You know, my daughter’s name is Anisha – and we had thought that it would be an easy enough name 🙂 Here they change it to ‘Alisha’ 😦
wow even my sister’s name is Anisha 🙂 ..so sweet 🙂
@ Alisha….lol 🙂
seriously Silk Smitha and Pimpha!?
😆
sorry! sorry!
🙂
I kind of get what you are saying:)
People don’t usually mutilate my name at least in India…they simply make it more male as in Abhilash 🙄 I have to remind them to add an extra A 😀
They make it male 🙂 Here to make it easier for them to spell – I say ‘its Smith with an ‘a’ at the end :)’
I have not interacted with non-Indians much 🙂 the few I have met in my line of work are the ones who make an extra effort to learn the name:)
though there was this one time when one British guy heard my name and simply went on to write it as Abby Lash !!!! 😀
😆 Abby Lash 🙂 Miss Lash – I quite like the sound of it 🙂 We could call you that , you know 🙂
Apparently that IS a name in the world 😀
I guess it could be a name 🙂
lol at smith with an ‘a’
miss Abby Lash, how are you 😆 ha..ha..ha
For once we have exactly same experience 😉
Smitha, Asmita, Samita, Suchismita, sushmita, sunita and to beat it all “lata”.
Oh yes – I have been called Lata too!
Lata is what most of the tele-callers call me!!!
Tele-callers – me too! I don’t know how I forgot abt that! Really eerie co-incidence 🙂
It can be darn irritating!!!
I hate being called ‘Smith’ but yes I love being called ‘Smit’ though I don’t allow many people to do that
I have never been called Smith or Smit for that matter 🙂 I just wished it were not so horribly mutilated sometimes 🙂
Poor you dear…‘Silk Smitha’! lol…sorry sorry ok 🙂
I never had this problem.. My good that my name is not so popular 🙂
Lucky you 🙂 Nimmy – are you back in the blogging world for good now 🙂
LOL! I know what you feel like! my sis goes thru the same stuff 😀 Lucky for me.. my name is quite easy and its known to most coz.. dracula’s love interest had the same name.. but most used to tease me with mee – naak- sheee!! ( for meenakshi) thats about it lucky for me 🙂
LOL at ‘mee – naak- sheee!!’ The things are friends come up with 🙂 Especially at school 🙂
And you told me that you’re sis went through the same 🙂
A lot of people used to call me Shilpa char chand lagaye(yes the whole thing!)
Nowadays in the US people know shilpa shetty and when I saw I am shilpa they ask me if I am shetty!!!
Other than that, Panera bread, Chinese takeaways etc hae ruined my name quite a few times(shilaba, shipa, shiba etc) and my last name has been decimated by a credit card company to undecipherable levels(desiponde)
Oh oh! Shilpa Shetty has certainly made life difficult for you 🙂 ‘desiponde’ – lol 🙂 My last name is another stpry – but it is a mouthful – even by Indian standards 🙂
Silk Smitha?! Ha..ha..ha..that must have been humiliating. My husband’s name which is very simple still goes through mutilation. Mine so far so good.
Lucky you 🙂 I am sure my parents would not have dreamt of the possibilities of mutilation 🙂
Smi, you know Peanut’s real name na. It is tough for her teachers but you know what..all her friends can pronounce it correctly. I think kids learn things faster. I have never seen a kid distorting her name but adults have a tough time taking her long name. 😀
Yes, I think you are right -children do learn faster – grownups I guess are more set in their ways – tongues probably not as flexible, I guess :). One of my friend’s daughter is named Mrunal and apparently her teachers used to call her ‘Bhunal’ 🙂 Where they got it from – I haven’t the slightest clue!
Have you read this one? It is not about individual names but still
http://mesoliloquy.wordpress.com/2009/03/16/no-snickering-that-road-sign-means-something-else/
Yes, I remember reading this 🙂
People here call me Am-Hit Shaa-maa!!! 😐
I can totally imagine that 🙂
pimha.. the scottish guy was playing games with you..
Certainly looks like that 🙂
Pimpha? HTF did he come up with that one?
ROFL at Silk Smitha…..
As you said, Smita/Smitha is a popular name….so why mutilations happen in India, especially the ‘Sushmita’ variety, remains a mystery!
Exactly! They are such common names and yet people have to go and murder them 😦
Cheers,
Quirky Indian
Pimpha…huh, that is the oddest imagination! Attaching ‘silk’ to Smitha is too common! Chinese name…another huh!
🙂 I know!
My son’s friend addresses me as Saandya, I was expecting him to call me auntie..!
I find it very uncomfortable too. All my daughter’s friends address other grownups by name – but somehow I still get her to say ‘Aunty’ – just not comfortable with it 😦
Ok,now,Pimpha..let me just get up from the floor and sit upright…I’ve been rolling here laughing at that mutilated name of yours 😆 😆
poor me 😦 Such a simple name and yet it gets murdered!
Yes,I have had my name crucified many a times too.Its quite bad,u know Smitha,this side.The Arabs invariably get my name wrong..either its Deepat,or Pipti(thats when I try to tell my name over the phone),Difti,etc etc…It gets hilarious after a point.
Really? Your name is also crucified 🙂 😆 It does get hilarious after a point 🙂
Thank god they get Namnam’s name right because,apparently hers is an arabic name too. But I’m sure I’ll have a different story to tell when I come visiting you in that part of the world 🙂
I think, NamNam’s name is simple enough to escape mutilation – but we can never be sure, I guess 🙂
How does Dee even sound like Pi ??? Just like I became Swarthi 😦
I have many such experiences! And it’s not by foreigners and even though my name is so simple, Nita! Mostly people say Neeeeta or Neeeetha or Nita with the “t” said as in Tom. It’s very irritating specially when people say Nita Nobody (comic strip) or Nita’s Natter (Stardust column) or Nita’t nitpicking or something like that! Then there are the ones who love me who say Nitu, Nituli. On the blog once someone called me Nits and that was the worst I had heard! 🙂 But this is nothing. My maiden surname Jatar was mutiliated terribly as it is an unsual one. Jatta, Jathar, Jattar, Jatar pronounced with the “t” soft and also Jantar Mantar! 🙂 I was glad I became a Kulkarni after marriage, oh to have an ordinary name!!! But I guess foreigners won’t be able to pronounce this either.
And here I was thinking that a name like Nita cannot be mutilated 🙂 A lot of people think that Nita with a ‘t’ as in Tom as quite posh! I remember some friends who suddenly became Rita with ‘t’ as in Tom 🙂
Nita Nobody or Nita’s natter must be so annoying and Nits too 🙂 Yes, probably foreigners would have trouble with Kulkarni too 🙂
Oh lala!! I came from Deeps blog and man I am glad I stumbled on your blog! (I am a sucker for well written witty blogs:P) My poor husband’s name is butchered beyond recognition 😦 His name is Jayaram, they think that J is silent like jalapenoes and make it Ayaram. So he ended his misery by calling himself Jay. Stylish eh? 😉
Welcome here SJ 🙂 and thank you for your lovely compliments:) Oh oh to be called ‘Ayaram’ 🙂 I remember finding this silent ‘j’ bit very funny – especially when we went to La Jolla 🙂 We prided ourselves on knowing that ‘J’ was silent – only to realise that ‘ll’ is supposed to be ‘y’ too 🙂 And here in the UK – people don’t seem to know that about the ‘J’ in jalapenoes. They insist on calling it Jalapenoes – without the silent ‘j’ 🙂
Silk Smitha lolz…well I feel for you coz am blatantly called S-E-X-Y every time and it doesn’t help much that it comes from men and women of all ages. Even my son’s 5 year old friend calls me that. Well the best is when I see my husband wince when a guy calls me that….serves him right for never telling me how sexy I look in a new dress..sigh!! Came through SJ here and am glad I did
😆 That is funny, Sakshi! welcome here 🙂 ‘Even my son’s 5 year old friend calls me that.’ – really cute 🙂 Your husband must be wishing that your name is anything but that 🙂
With a name like Alankrita, I hear you sister!
It had been mutilated so often in India that when i moved here to the US, I was quite ecstatic when people got close to the pronunciation. Imagine my joy when professor after professor, sought me out and went through my tongue-twister of a name again and again till they got it right- and kept on with the correct proununciation.
Oh that is so sweet of them – to go over your name again and again till they get it right! My name was actually quite easy for them 🙂 Just ‘smith’ with an ‘a’ 🙂
By the way, I really really like your name 🙂 If I had come across it before I maned my daughter – I would have probably chosen it 🙂
surprisingly yes…. i’ve sufffered far less name mutilation in the UK than i did in india
one reason cud b that they have no idea of this name anyway so they dont want to suggest any alternative spelling!! and two, they’re very happy with ‘ash’… two of my professors in london also used to call me that only 😛 including all my other classmates except the ones from india
LOL Smitha 😆
always the names are get mispronounced and many people never ever make an effort to pronounce other names…
I know! I find it quite irritating too that people do not feel the need to make that effort!
My name is a very long one and unique also..kanagaraj Pandian… both were my names only.. It has been read on the first day of my college as ‘Gangaraaja Pandian’… don’t know how they derived it… I have given it by written it in a form 😦
Gangaraaja 🙂 Now that takes mutilation to new levels 🙂 That too, despite being in written!!!!
but Pimpha is really an invention… 😆
Why is it Smitha and not Smita?
its a south-indian spelling 🙂
Thanks Ash for clarifying 🙂 This is one more pet peeve of mine – why people ‘correct’ it to ‘Smita’ 😦
dont worry.. thats nothing
mine always gets converted to ashwati 🙂 and i have to hasten to rectify them…
sometimes i just leave it be… as long as it not a cause related to keeping my name on imp records… too much of a pain! 😦
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this is nothing, smithus…. listen to this:
most ppl i know find it difficult to know such a typical keralite name of ashwathy. thats why i ask them to stick to ‘ash’ altho i dont care abt any reference to aishwarya rai 😛
I can imagine that ! Yes, Ashwathy is very Keralite name – I love the way it sounds 🙂
i used to write to magazines during my younger days…
i used to write to them as Ms Ashwathy and the letter used to return as Mr Awasthi 😐 go figure!!!
it was enuff to make me go aaaaaaaarghh!!!
Mr Awasthi! Goodness! Are they blind ! How could they do that!! That too when it is in writing!!! Mind blocks! That’s what it is!
lol.. smitha is a good name.. there are lots of derivatives from it like susmitha, smrithi, asksmithat,suchismitha etc etc.. i can understand ppl trying to relate ur name to some film star.. mine is sanskrit name.. ppl in tamilnadu dont have letter”sha” . so, they end up calling u something else. like babu is called as papu as there is no “ba” in tamil.
🙂 Each of us have stories related to our names, don’t we 🙂 And no matter what name we choose for our offspring, I am sure they will be unhappy about it at some point in time 🙂