Smith? and other names
As I, like many South Indians, don’t have a surname, and have been forced to adopt one for my life in the US, I have some things to say about surnames, and there will be a post about them someday, probably. (There was a draft lying around which had “tyranny” in its title, but nothing much good besides.) In the meantime, someone very bored might be able to amuse themselves with related news I’ve been collecting, such as this latest one from a BBC article on zombies:
In their study, the researchers from the University of Ottawa and Carleton University (also in Ottawa) posed a question: If there was to be a battle between zombies and the living, who would win?
Professor Robert Smith? (the question mark is part of his surname and not a typographical mistake) and colleagues wrote: “We model a zombie attack using biological assumptions based on popular zombie movies. [..]
Some paragraphs later:
Professor Smith? told BBC News:
(Apparently he’s an Australian citizen and got his name changed while living in the US… quite an achievement. His major complaint seems to be that Facebook won’t let him use his name.)
I’ve been forced to adopt a surname too (patronymic) because I’ve lived in Gujarat all my life, and schools there require you to have a surname.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been asked the questions “But what’s your father’s name?” “But that’s your surname!” “How can they be the same?”
Argh!
Sunayana
Thu, 2009-08-20 at 01:39:53 +05:30
Ah, a fellow sufferer… great must one’s fortitude be to bear such in one’s own home.
Shreevatsa
Thu, 2009-08-20 at 22:49:05 +05:30