In Tamil Nadu, at least, in the old days, children who contracted dread diseases like smallpox or cholera, or who were born after many other children died, had their names changed to, or christened as, something unattractive like "picchaiswami" (alms or charity from god) or "vemban" (one who is bitter like the neem tree) in the hope that the gods would find the names unattractive enough to spare the child....Kiran, would the same practice account for some of the names you have listed?
Deepa. On 10/9/07, Kiran Jonnalagadda <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On 09-Oct-07, at 8:28 AM, shiv sastry wrote: > > > After all a name like "Viswalingam" would translate literally to > > "world-penis", and Shivalingaswamy would be "Mr Shiv's penis" or > > some such > > thing. And we have people in North Karnataka with names like > > "Thenginakayi" (coconut) and "Menasinkayi" (chili) > > I recently learnt the meaning of several such regular Kannadiga names: > > http://community.livejournal.com/jacemobile/230605.html > > Huchamma -> Mad woman > Tippeswamy -> Garbage man > Gundappa -> Grinding stone man > Saakamma -> Enough women > > >
