A Baby with any other name would smell as sweet.

One of my most popular blog posts ever dealt with the…um…”unique” names that Malayalee parents bestow on their helpless offspring. Most bloggers get a large number of hits via Google searches for all sorts of random things; HERstory is visited daily by people who wish to marvel at the ad hoc list of contrived and tortured nomenclature I compiled during one ennui-laced jaunt through Friendster.

I think I might have to amend the list:

Tsunamis are associated with death and destruction. But that has not stopped a couple in Kerala’s Alappuzha district from naming their new-born baby girl after the killer waves.
Kutten and Priyanka of Valiyazheekal in the district, where several people have been killed by the disaster, named their child Tsunami following her miraculous escape from the killer waves.
Priyanka and her daughter were rescued by a relative.

I have no words.

Okay, that’s a lie. I have a few. I guess they can call her…”Tsu”? As a nickname?

Oh, it’s all so wrong…

Via Rediff.

:+:

Update!

Sepia Mutiny reader “JK” points us to an article where “Kutten”, Baby Tsunami’s father, states that he did nothing as foolish as naming his kid after the worst natural disaster in years. Apparently the kid is named “Nakshatra”. So Baby Nakshatra’s Daddy didn’t do it, got that? Yeah, me neither. 😉

14 thoughts on “A Baby with any other name would smell as sweet.

  1. I think Nakshatra is the Hindu (Vedic?)Zodiac.

    I’m sensing a bad pick-up line in the works.

    -D

  2. IN ALL SERIOUSNESS, I FILLED A PRESCRIPTION TODAY FOR A 4 MONTH OLD…NAMED TSUNAMI. (I WORK AT A PHARMACY)

  3. Strictly speaking, Nakshatram is Sanskrit for “constellation” or “set of stars.” However, in the modern parlance, or at least in response to the question of a baby’s nakshatram, it means “start” or “star sign.”

    The American south is pretty … uh … creative with names as well. So far, I have come across Aquanet, Inkwizitana, Rockshell and, no jokes, Female.

  4. talking about terrible celebrity names -hutchinson’s (the famous guy who killed himself in sydney,australia) daughter’s name- Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lilly…poor thing. but apprently she’s quite rich now hoarding in on the the $$. and julia roberts twins- Hazel and Phinnaeus…:S

  5. i have a theory on how mallu christian parents name their children. i know someone whose parents named them reuben- sensible biblical name, right. then their second child came along, and becuz they felt the overwhelming need 2 make the 2 names rhyme, they names #2 juben- as all u intelligent people can guess that means absolutely nothing. so basically, mallu chris parents put two nice sounding syllables together and claim its a name. beat that, yo.

    thankfully, my parents named me a sensible, sanskrit-based name

  6. my name no joke is Tsunami. i’m just looking up people with my name, and this is like the third thing saying my name is weird and people should name their kids that. i don’t appreciate it. i very much like my name cause it’s unique and you will never here it around. and people call me Tsunami. no nicknames or anything. i’m proud to have the name i have.