What's in a Name?

A lot, really.
Our names are core to our identities and we carry them with ourselves till we die. Names are like custom-made tags that give us individuality and most people wear them throughout their lives without really questioning them.
But for some of us, the name-game is not fair. People with unusual names, especially with hard spellings, come across difficult situations on a daily basis. Most parents who give their children 'out of the ordinary' names often do so because they are seeking individuality for the newborn. Since we naturally take note of things that are different, someone with an unusual name may be more easily remembered and perhaps, that is the only bright side to having such a name.
Odd names can be great conversation starters too, particularly if they have a special meaning or story behind them but more often than not, such names are troublesome. There is always at least one kid in school who immediately raises his/her hand as soon as there is a pause in roll call. Monoshita Ayruani happened to be one such person back in her school days. She says, “Though I love my name for its beautiful meaning, it gets me into sticky situations. People who do not know me, call me 'Ai-roo-ani', whereas it should be 'Au-ro-ny'. That is, if they choose to attempt to pronounce my second name at all and those who know me, call me by funny names like Aloni or Aluni, for convenience.”
People with unusual names repeatedly get asked why their parents named them that way. “I still give my mother a hard time about the name choice,” says Happy Choudhury, who was very unhappy about her name when she was a teen. Ilfat Abedin says “People would actually question if I have misspelled my own name while others would spell my name wrong as Iffat or Ulfat on Facebook even when it is listed only inches away from the comment/chat box.” Then there are the unisex names that create havoc. Shafqat Aurin says, “My first name sounds more like a boy's. So, strangers often mistake me as being male.” On the other hand, Debjottye Biswas, a 12-year-old says, “My name is hard to pronounce for some of my teachers. Sadly, they just call me by my roll number.”
Overly common names have their fair share of problems too. With more than one person sharing a name in a group of friends, creative titles like 'fatso,' 'egg-faced,' 'drama queen' are used to distinguish the same name-holders, quite like 'Shukna Shadman' and 'Mota Shadman.' Then there are the names that threaten the name holders' public images. Imagine a tall, dark and serious man being called 'Babu' by his coworkers. “I actually tried going by another name for a year, and I realised that as much as I truly hate my name, it is an essential part of me,” says Babu Rahman.
Many sociologists and name experts agree that our names greatly determine our ability to connect with our peers and also how random strangers picture us in their minds. A few years back, New Zealand had imposed a ban on weird baby names because naming a newborn 'Semicolon' or 'Lucifer' just was not right. Though not-so-common names are often subject to bullying and ridicule, they do set people apart from the crowd. Lastly, a child with an odd name might actually grow up to be a fairly normal person, just like I did.