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MeenaKumari
This message was updated on 6/22/2003 11:14:12 PM by MeenaKumari |
How to recognise an indian by their surname?
replied on: 6/20/2003 2:29:47 AM quote: Actually, I was trying to wait until I could ask my dad this question because he explains this stuff pretty well. If I mention such and such last name, he can tell me instantly, "Oh, she's Punjabi" or "He's from UP," etc. Since I haven't had a chance to ask him yet, I'll write what I know thus far. Basically, from a person's last name, you can tell their religion, including which caste if they are Hindu and which part of India/Pakistan/Bangladesh they are from, sometimes even down to the village that they are from. Knowing where they are from can also tell you what language(s) they speak. As far as the last Bengali last names go, the most common ones are Mukherjee/Mukherji, Banerjee/Banerji, Chatterjee/Chatterji, etc.. In Bengali, these names would be Mukhopadhay, Bondhopadhay, and Chottopadhay, with many varations of these spellings. These names were Anglicized by British, obviously. These -jee/-ji names would be the equivalent of Jones, Smith, etc. because they are so common. Rahel mentions caste names, and the last names that end in -jee/-ji do indicate that they are Bengali Brahmins, which means that they are of the highest caste and can be priests, etc.. The caste system doesn't matter in the big cities and over here; I know Brahmins who've married Vaishaks, etc., which means that some have gone down a level or two, and nobody cares a fig. I'm not sure what happens in the rural villages, though. Choudhary can be a Bengali last name, but is not always a Bengali last name. For example, the last I heard, Mahima Choudhary wasn't sure if she was a Bengali or not; she needed to ask her mom to find out. Among the Bengalis, I've seen it spelled Chowdhary, as well. Mallick is another name that can be a Bengali name or a Pakistani Muslim name--I have both Bengali and Pakistani friends with that last name. Other Bengali last names include Kerr, Nandi, Das Gupta, Sen Gupta, Sen, Sarkar, Roy, Rai, Ray, Mitra, Ganguly, Dutta, Biswas, Bhattarcharya, Tagore/Thakkur, Ghoshal, Ghosh, Dey (I think), Basu, Burman, Shome... For the Bollywood/Tollygunga Bengali connections, Guru and Geeta Dutta (nee Roy) were Bengali, as are/were Aparna Sen (nee Das Gupta); Soumitra Chatterjee; Debashree Roy; Satyajit Ray; Shaymal Mitra; Debabrata Biswas; Rabindranath Tagore; Sharmila Tagore; Shreya Ghoshal; Bipasha Basu; Manna Dey (I think); Rituparna Sen Gupta; Rituparno Ghosh; Hrishikesh Mukherjee; Bimal Roy; Sachin Dev Burman and Rahul Dev (RD) Burman; Hemant Mukherjee; Kishore Kumar (Kishore Ganguly); and Tilotama Shome (Alice--the maid-servant who marries the wedding planner--in Monsoon Wedding). These are just the last names--I can also tell from people's first names if they are Bengali. I'll ask my dad and see what else he can tell me about Indian last names in general. Edited to add: Yes, Manna Dey is Bengali. He's going to headline a Bengali conference later on this summer in Long Beach, CA. Had no idea he was still alive! |
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