You are in for a last name confusion treat here, brace yourself before diving in!
You probably didn’t know that my last name isn’t Dileep. I bet that you didn’t know that I have two names in my last name.
Dileep is my husband’s first name. Usually in India we replace our maiden name with husband’s first name or last name after marriage. For me, it is not official. I just use my husband’s name as my last name in social media. My passport and other legal documents have the two named last name which is difficult many times. And those two names are my father’s and mother’s names!
All through the school days I was Vinitha Viswanath. I loved my last name. That is my father’s name. I come from Kerala and there most of us have father’s first name or father’s and mother’s first name together as kid’s last name . During my 10th standard, my mom insisted on adding her name’s initial to my name, because a name should have initials, it seems. That’s how my name got messed up. My parents weren’t aware that in a passport, name goes by first name- last name mode. I would like to cut the second name from my last name someday, though my husband is saying it would be better to change my last name with his first name. But I would love to come up with a totally new last name for our little family and be united in the last name region.
I have run into many difficulties because of my two last names. My son’s last name is his dad’s first name. So when he used to go to his playschool in USA, it seems, my son said to his teacher that “my dad is Dileep, He is at his office.” Teacher was puzzled why this kid is saying his last name as his dad’s name! She asked me about this and I explained all about this and left her even more confused. 🙂
So are you confused enough with my last name story? If not, let me know, I will take care of it. 🙂
Linking this to Microblog Mondays hosted by Mel Ford at Stirrup Queens.
I changed my last name to that of my husband’s because I wanted to 🙂 Like you, I had my father’s name as last name before that. Your story made interesting reading. I can well relate how confusing this surname/last name business may seem to outsiders, especially as in Kerala we sometimes use the family name as surname, some people have their village name as last name, at other times the caste name. Sometimes girls had only their mother’s name attached to theirs. So much of variety from such a small state! 😀
Yes, many of my friends especially from northern side of Kerala, has their family name as surname. Some has caste attached to the name. It is confusing even within Kerala, because of this variety, can’t blame outsiders for their confusion. 🙂 glad to know that you are from Kerala too, shail. Thanks for stopping by. 🙂
Liked it Vinitha….first name last name, first name last name and the confusion goes on! nice read.
Yes, it is a never ending confusion! Thank you, shewta..
haha! Awesome Vinitha 🙂 I see you have so many options 😉 Well, my name has a first and a last name, all clear and yet, people here cut the last one and add it as T. Shashank 😀 And I go like… nooooo that’s not how you write it 😀 I can only wonder about the disasters you must have faced.
It isn’t exactly cool when they change our name to their will, right? Many of my friends have initials at the beginning of their first name. So for them their name becomes last name and sur name first name. What a confusion that would be! Yes, I always have to spell my name many times to get it right. 🙂
Not confused — I just think it’s cool. I think it makes a lot more sense for a child to get her parents’ names added to her name, and then not have that name switch. That way, you get to maintain a tie to your family while still building your new one, namewise.
True, Mel! I liked my name just the way it was before it got lengthier. 🙂
Not confused at all Vinitha 🙂
Random Thoughts Naba..#MicroblogMondays : On Last Name & Books Read…
Glad to know that, Naba. 🙂
Vinitha, I had fun reading your post, but I am still confused! 🙂 Just kidding! Heheh…no, not kidding! Really confused! 🙂
Mission accomplished!! I am at peace now Shilpa. 😉 Thank you, dear! 🙂
Names from south India remain a mystery but yet I think adding father’s name or husband’s name as last name is so much better than having a last name/surname which speaks about your caste as in north India. By the way I carry my pre-marital days’ surname and I would dislike to change it now or ever to my husband’s surname because its been my identity forever now and I would not like to loose that.
I understand that Anamika. Our name is our identity and changing it feels like losing our identity. It is good that you are able to retain your maiden name even after marriage. I have seen that North Indians, usually, change the name to husband’s surname. But in Kerala, at least, I haven’t seen anyone changing their last name legally after the wedding. I guess we don’t like to get involved witht he hassle of changing names. 🙂 I like the unified surname for a family as in North India and most other parts of the world, though! 🙂
First names ,middle names, last names…They are all okay when you are in India. But once you step out of the country, it gets so messed up. I had to take my maiden name because they wouldn’t accept my husbands name as my last name …hehehe..makes no sense to them that I had my husbands first name and not his last name. Valid question by them was that, how can we identify that you are all from the same family ?
Ohh!! I didn’t know you could run into such problems too, Uma. Did you try to change in your passport? Where did this happen? Outside India? Yeah, people get confused because my son has his dad’s name as his last name. Outside India, they are not used to it!
I had my maiden name in my old passport and they referred that for the residence permit. The new passport had my name with my husbands name, thst they said is not acceptable :o.This was in France. Now my son and husband are from one family and I am from another :p hehehe…it looks like that.