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Our Surnames
- Prof. Narasimham Brahmandam

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In a community, it is necessary to identify every one. Every person is, therefore, given a name within a few days of his/her birth. But when the same name is borne by more than one, to avoid confusion, it is necessary to have a tag to distinguish them. It is for this reason that we often have two or three names for a person. One of these names is known as the surname. The word seems to have been derived from the word sire which means father. It is found that in all legal records, it is recorded as so and so, son of so and so. This practice seems to have given rise to prefixing ones names with that of the father. This practice is still in vogue in many parts of India, notably in Tamilnadu and Maharashtra. In many countries, including the west, a family name is chosen as the second name, which is common to all the male descendents in the family. But instead of preceding the personal name, it succeeds it. Muslims do not seem to have surnames. However, the clan name is often added before the name. There are clan names like Shaik, Syed which are prefixed and Khan which is suffixed to the name. Some are also adding their village or town name While in most countries and North India, the personal name and the father’s name are abbreviated into initials and the surname is fully written ( as S.L. Patel. M.V. Thombare etc.), in South India, the personal name is fully written and the surname abbreviated to an initial (as in V. Apparao, C. Ramagopal etc). In Tamilnadu and Kerala, the village name is used instead of a surname, followed by father’s name. Some in western India, use their professional name as the surname as, Merchant, Doctor, Tailor, Pilot etc. Which of these two names should come first? Biologists name the species by a binomial nomenclature. The first is its generic name and the second is the specific name, e.g., Solanum melongina (Brinjal). There are several species in the Genus Solanum. This system is followed in Andhra and Karnataka. E.g., Gunturi Subbayya. Gunturi is the generic name and all male descendents in the family will have this generic name as abbreviated into an initial G. and each person will append his personal name as G.Venkayya, G.Narasayya etc. In pursuance of the general policy of Telugu people of mimicking the west, this scientific method is fast being replaced by the western system and these persons begin calling themselves S. Gunturi, V. Gunturi and N.Gunturi etc. In the west, the person is usually referred to by his surname with his personal and any extra names as initials as Mr. G.W. Bush. His son will be also called Mr. Bush. To distinguish the two, the father is known as the Bush Senior and the son is known as Bush Junior. His wife is Mrs. Bush and his daughter, until marriage, will be Miss Bush. Again his son’s wife will also be Mrs. Bush. Many Indians have also adopted this method and call a person by his surname (or clan name) e.g., Mr. Patel, his wife as Mrs. Patel and so on. There being innumerable patels, this system goes against the very purpose for which names have been introduced, namely, identification. In Tamilnadu the personal name, which comes last, is used in a similar fashion as Mrs. Ramachandran, but in the next generation, the daughter-in-law is known as Mrs. Rajagopalan, if that were the son’s name. This hybrid system is followed also in other parts of south India including Andhra. Some Telugu names have endings which have no particular significance such as, Rao, Murthy, Sastry, and Sarma etc. Now a days, persons are called by these appendages, the rest of the names being abridged to initials. (E.g., G.N. Rao. His son may be G.S. Murthy and his grandson as G.V. Sastry). Persons coming to the US are confused for some time about writing their names fitting into the first name, middle name and last name pattern. The well known kisan leader, whose original Telugu name was Gogineni Ranganayakulu, split it into Gogineni Ranga Nayakulu, began to write it as Nayakulu Gogineni Ranga, abbreviated it into N.G. Ranga by which name he became famous and the AP Agrl.University is named after him as Acharya N G Ranga Agrl.University. Some include their community name instead of (or in addition to) a family name. Such names are like the Reddy or Naidu in Andhra, Patel, Patil, in the west, Chatterjee, Mukheerjee, Roy, in the east and Yadav in the North. Many keep both the father’s name and the clan name. Some Tamil persons have such caste names as Chettiar, Nadar etc. Telugu people put the family name first, personal name next followed by community name. The community name is included as a matter of pride. During the Independence movement, abolition of caste was one of the prominent policy matters. Then some people dropped their caste names. The famous Marxist leader, Pucchalapalli Sunder Rami Reddy, dropped the suffix Reddy and has been known as comrade Puchhalapalli Sundarayya. On the other hand, 50 years after independence, the well-known dalit leader proudly added his caste name and calls himself Manda Krishna Maadiga. You now hear a number of people adding the suffix Yadav in Andhra also. While most surnames in Andhra are village names, some seem to have been acquired for obscure reasons. Vepa, Burra, Sonthi, Uppu, Neti, Perugu etc. I shall be happy to have a collection of surnames and, if possible, their origin which will make an interesting study. One practice which is common in both the west and east is that a woman must change her surname to that of her in-laws after her marriage. Of late, some ladies with feminist leanings are resisting this practice and continue to use parental surname after marriage also.

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