Unlike other Asians in the US, we Indians have by and large chosen to pass on our Sanskriti to our kids in the form of their names. Except for the occasional lapses into Neel, Josh(ridiculous!) Dev and Lori(I plead guilty) we have heroically chosen exotic, hard-to-pronounce handles that even Indophiles would be hard-pressed to decipher(what on earth does Araav mean? or is it Aarav?) Of course, this has led to creative spellings sure to perplex the grandmas back home. Raghav becomes Raaghav, Arun becomes Aroon and the male Suman has to assert his identity by renaming himself Shoomon.

My own dear husband struggled with his unusual name ( Basab)during the early part of his career. After a threat to divorce a possible Buzz or Bob, he backed off on making his name more palatable to his potential clients and decided to vent his angst in his blog. Our realtor could not afford the risk (plus his wife was in the same business). He called himself Mirch, rhyming with perch, Mirchandani. Bob Dhillons and Jazz Gills have sold dozens of houses around the Bay. Venkys and Srinis have exercised compassion towards their phonetically challenged cousins across the Atlantic

But there are signs that at least in Silicon Valley, the worm may have turned.

Go Mukesh! So what if the rare non-Asian client rhymes the first part of your name with a choice 4 letter word. I look forward to the day when the Mike disappears too. In the meantime , if we have to put up with Droov(Dhruv) and Nay-run(Naren) so be it. Those occidental palates have to grow a few new muscles,because we’re going to keep naming our kids the way we want to.