Do you like your own name?

Let me be honest. I wanted to change my surname for as long as I could remember. My maiden surname was ‘Shertukde’. Literally translated, it meant ‘Tigerpieces’ or ‘Lionpieces’. And when there are surnames like this…can teasing be far behind?

I’ve had people roar across the college floor or even at work call me Tigerpieces. My first email id was tigerpieces and it is still in use. But while Tigerpieces is good for a cartoon, it’s not so good for a person.

So when I got married, I very happily adopted the shorter and sweeter surname of Karir.

Actually, choosing names should be a matter of nothing else but convenience and personal choice.

The law of the country has made it legal for anyone to adopt names of their choice. So I wonder why it has suddenly become a feminist issue.  

For women who are known by their maiden names, for e.g. journalists, writers, celebs etc. it makes complete sense to stick with their maiden names.

For other women who like their old names, I’d say, stick to those.

For yet other unfortunate women like me, I’d say, choose the name of your liking to avoid sounding like a cartoon character.

Having said that, a common family name makes life much simpler. It helps the government identify you, your next of kin and more. But then no one’s stopping you from going ahead and getting a name you like…like Phoebe Buffet in FRIENDS who once got her name changed to Princess Consuela Bananahammock!!! That is until she learnt that Bananahammock was a slang for Speedo! J