I know by writing this blog I ll be creating a lot of foes in my fraternity i.e. the mallu clan, but since I m branded as a fake mallu (one who has a mallu root but doesn’t know a shit about anything like language, places etc etc) I decided to unravel the mystery behind the strange mallu names.
The queerness for these names popped when I met a girl named Shavy my junior, for a second I was taken aback when she introduced herself to me, I asked her to repeat in case I heard it wrong. The second time I cudnt hold back my laughter much to the disappointment of my junior who after that incident never talked to me. During the course of my stay in Bangalore I came across more such unique names rather I was flooded with such people. For a majority of my time I used to wonder what is the meaning of these names, how could parents name a kid which sounded soooooo funny.
So one day while trying to unravel the secrets I happened to visit this one blog called “Eavesdropping on Mallu Names” by Nikhil http://blog.nikhil.co.in/2007/07/eavesdropping-on-mallu-names.html
HAPPY READING FOLKS ( I have a quiz at the end of the post enjoy!!!)
In school I used to wonder what the name of a classmate Jiss meant. Since I knew my name had a meaning, I had this obsession during those times that all names should have meanings. But having spent a huge part of my life in Kerala this obsessive disorder died a slow death or had to.
I have heard of a doctor by name Tiny Nair.I had a senior in school by name Jerry. Sanish and Sanish were close friends of mine in school. The name Snith may sound like a typo, but have a friend from school by this name. There are some names which may sound to have Sanskrit roots like Ajesh or a Rejish. When translated Ajesh would mean god of goats.
Baby is a very common unisexual name/pet name among Mallu Christians.Don’t tell me you do not know atleast one Baby uncle /Baby aunty!!!
I have heard names like Joy, Job, Happy, Healthy, Shine, Shiny, Kavin, Bejoy. One does not need to live for long in Kerala to meet a Siji or a Biji or a Liji or the names ending with a Ju or a Jo.There was a time when lots of people had Kumar as their second names. Somewhere came the era of four lettered names.
And someone thought its cool, others thought the same and that ushered in the age of little names. A suffix mon(son) or mol(daughter) were added either to reinforce the gender or to show a little more affection to their kids.By the time these people grew up, they hated their names as much to file applications at the nearest notary for a name change.
Ignorance of some parents gave blissful kids lucky and classy names like Shitty(eeks!!!),Percy, Booby(whoa!), Dickson(oh my!!!),Blessy, Bright(really!).Some names would have been better if the people lived in some other part of world. A Tito, Prince, Fidel etc would have been not so weird elsewhere as much as in Malluland.
Many lucky souls were named so thanks to their parents’ whose names were remotely Biblical. The thought that such names are passé crept into them and so they combined parts of their names and named the kid. My friend Cijo’s parents CIcily and JOse would have had an easy time naming him.The Mallu liking for short names can be seen in names ending with ji(Siji,Liji, Biji etc) or jo(Lijo,Cijo,Bijo) or the ju(try any combos as you wish)
Amma as the second name existed in Central and South Kerala a generation back. These ladies must have had a tough time having an oldie name even in primary school! Though Amma ceased to exist in the Mallu names database, Kuttan and Kutty found a place as the second names.
A lot of these creative(?) and meaningful(?) names are unisex, for eg. a Shiji can be of either gender! Long live the society that doesn’t bias between genders.
I am lucky to have met people with names like Happy, Job, Pretty, and even a Betty! (Trust me, her parents did know the character). Sajin, Shibin Dibin,Bibin, and even Justin etc were the IN names at some point of time. There are some names which are Mallu version of European names or their smaller versions, like a Lissy (Lizy).
Long live the Mallu’s creativity or lack of it in naming kids!
So now that you have gone a fullscale training I have a quiz for u now, guess the parents names for the following names
Phijo (Philomena and Joseph)
Litto (Lilly and Thomas)
Shebin (Shelly and Bina) now dont ask how Shelly got the name I have trained u on this
To know the answers just select the entire text
