Lost Name
When ever filling an online form or an application, I used to stuck at last/sur name . Is it Pandian(my third name) or Annamalai(My Father’s Name)? . After a moment of doubt, I would write one of the two and click submit. After all, its my name.
But the question of last name was always a doubt. Finally, today, i searched for last name in wikipedia. Its a very big explanation. I keep on reading and reading, reading for a while.
Obviously, Last Name is used as additional identifier for a person. In various part of the world, the last name is used for different purpose. In Tamil Nadu & kerala, Nowadays, Father’s Name was used as last name while some hundred years back, caste or clan or place name were served as second name. Credit goes to Periyar. but all in vain.
It was happened to me to watch periyar movie, last week. As per school knowledge, I remember Periyar as a freedom fighter. But after watching the movie, I realised that he was more or completely devoted himself to fight against untouchability and casteism and he rarely spent time for fighting against Independence. He also called for a new country called dravida nadu (dravidstan) during 1938 – 1947 but it was not happened during Independence.
From this movie, I came to understand even at those time, everyone has acted with the political motto than thinking for the beneficial of the whole country.
Anyway, A must watch movie for Tamils (Also Malayali).
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I cannot tell if you really appreciated the info or you are being sarcastic
I like to think of it as the first…
Well said.. Karthik.. Thats more Informative..
espescially.. McDonald ..
in McDonalds, I used to have McChicken Sandwich .. (Son Of Chicken Sandwich)
The idea behind the surname/last name is to distinguish people with the same first name…(between a Arun Annamalai and a Arun Thomas
)
there are a number of ways these were formed in the west.. the use of father’s name as surname is not done nowadays.. but has been around for a long time… for eg.. Peterson -> ‘son of’ peter… Johansson -> ‘son of’ John, ‘MacDonald’ -> means ‘son of’ Donald..
the surnames were also based on one’s occupation… for eg. Smith -> must have been a blacksmith, Fletcher -> must have made arrows… etc…Gardner, Carpenter, Shepherd(reminds me of the fat and bubbly umpire David Shepherd ), (Harry) Potter… etc
Remember, the successive kings of Chozha, Pandya, Chera. They always had their surname tied to their name. Surname and Maiden Name is not because of the British rule. But, may be due to English application form..
I have also noted that in HP, but never thought about that when i was reading Ponniyin selvan.
It seems like, Earlier in TN, we used family name, and then, it becomes a caste name. Then it becomes Father’s Name.
In US/UK, the last name is the family name, isn’t ?
And one more thing related to this is, there people will refer using last name unless you are very close, when they start calling by your first name, or if u ask them to call as `so and so’ !
( I actually did a research in this stuff, with HP series as to who all referred people using their first names, and who all with their last name, he he he
)
You must also have researched about Mother’s maiden name ??
Probably this particular thing might again due to the British rule over here..