Evaluation of Bangladeshi names

Shakespeare said "What's in a name"

But what is it really! 

If I say again, "I am the name you also the name. Things can identify by the name."you cannot throw away.

If I name some. Then you, citizen of any country, believer of any religion, gender, social and economic status, age, educational qualification can be told in one breath.

Because "name is not just name" which poet Rabindranath Tagore also said.

The matter of naming seems very small but it is not small. It's a big deal.

With the passage of time, there has been a change in naming. A generation can be identified by looking at the trend of a name.

Much has been written about India's naming trends. But nothing much has been said about how the Bangladeshi names changed from generation to generation. We will discuss this naming change over time.

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The fifties

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After the partition of East Bengal  became East Pakistan.

People in this region with poor, uneducated and highly educated population did not bother much about naming the baby. At that time, baby boom was going on all over the world. The number of people's children was high. Therefore, the market was running only if the name was current.

At that time, religion had a lot of influence in naming. Hindu names were based on religious Puranas, Upanishads, Vedas, Gita, religious epics - Ramayana, Mahabharata, character names, thousands of names of gods and goddesses.

Gita,Sita,Ganesh,Radha,Gauri,Parvati, Krishna,Ram,Janki,Gayatri,Saraswati, Janvi,Ramesh ; name with dev such- devika,Davdas, Deviyani,Devadittya,Devoprashad, Devopriya was common among hindus.

Radhamadhav,Kalidas,Ramprashad, durgacharan was also common that's time.

And in the name of the Prophets and Messengers of Muslims, in the name of their wives, in the name of the Companions, adding Amatun or Abdul or Abdu or Abdur or Abdus to the ninety-nine names of Allah.

Mohammed, Yusuf,Omar,Mariam, Abdullah,Musa, Ayesha,Fatima was way more common for this generation.

Gulnaz ,Sarfaraz,Farzana and other persian name all the times prevalent among the Muslims of the subcontinent.

The Muslims of Bangladesh also had Bengali names such as Kamala Banu, Manik Mia, Jaiguner Nesa, Sabuz Majhi, Lal Mia or Golapi Begum.

However, Bengali names were not seen in educated noble Muslim families then.

 Christians named them from the Bible or after Christian saints. Such as Joshua, John,Peter,Mery, Agustin, Elizabeth.

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In the sixties

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People whose names in Bengali - Shanti, Suman, Swapna, Swapan, Suvarna, Jotsna, Badal, Sumona, Sajal, Ratna, Jharna, most of them were born in the sixties and seventies.

Basically, the practice of naming names in Bengali was already a little old in the country. However, in the sixties, it became widely popular. Behind it was the language movement of fifty-two. Bengalis are awakened to the consciousness of their own ethnicity.

At first foreign names were written in a slightly different way. If someone's name was Rakibul Alam Chowdhury, he changed it to Rakib Alam or Rakib Chowdhury. Later came the Bangla name. First the nickname was kept in Bengali, later the real name also started to be kept in Bengali.

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In the seventies

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All the births of Ajay, Bijoy, swaraj, Swadhin,Biplab, Kranti,Joy, estafa, azad, Sangram were born after independence.

Indira was named after Indira Gandhi, Mujib, Osmani were named after national leaders.

Swapna and Swapan names started to be widely used. Because the people of the new country start dreaming.

Sabina Yasmin, Runa Laila, Kabari, Razzaq, Farooq, Babita, Shabana were the names of popular actors-actresses, musicians.

Shanti, Jharna,Ratan, Shiuli, Jotsna, Ratna, Suman, Sumona,Meena, Champa, Suvarna were also Bengali names.

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In the eighties

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Small size Bengali and foreign language names started trending. Big names were considered old fashioned or backdated. Behind it was the influence of movies and TV serials.

Names were Mike, Jenny, Jamie, Sarah, Annie, Nancy, Jessie, John, Prince, Millie, Molly, Hans, Jack.

Priya, Sondha, Joy, Raj, Chhondo, Rita, Ruma, Reza, Seema, Raja were also names.

juthi, Bithi, Sithi, Sathi, Maya,Tara, Geeta, Sita, Chaya, Champa, Shampa, Joba,Seema,Toma, Choya were many.

In Arabic, short names were kept Rafi, Sami, Saad, Raad,Shafi, Ara, Maan, Reema,Ali, Huma, Iza, Farah,Saadi,Saba,Nafi.

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In the nineties

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Then came the nineties, the rollercoaster era. Economic growth was achieved in this decade.

People do not only work for food, clothing and shelter. After satisfying thier basic needs, People started buying luxury goods. Their influence later became famous.

Small Bengali names like Tuli, Jaba, Mau, Shanto, Pranti, Jui,Trisha,Dipto,Shuvo,Propa  were kept.

Names like Srishti,Brishti,Varsha,Badal, Jivan,Sagar, Nodi,Akash, Anando,Tushar, Ananto, Antar,Tuhin,Shova,Prova are also influenced by the cinema.

In Arabic, Zereen, Meem, Jannat, Sadia, Sumaiya were girls' names.

And the boys were named Sifat, Rifat, Shihab, Rafi, Shahariar, Siam,Nahid.

Foreign names like Jennifer, Ludmilla, Michael, Jessica, Jasmine, Monalisa started to be given due to the influence of cable TV.

Along with the Akash culture(Cable TV culture); Hindi serials and Bollywood movies started trending. Its influence can be seen in the naming of children. Rahul, Anjali, Tina, Simran, Aman, Raj are notable among them.

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The decade of two thousand

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The influence of Cable TV culture increases in the naming of children.

The anime's character names are Ash, Shinzo, Sarina, Saranna,Sari, Sonam, Marina, Elena. The character of the cartoon was Strawberry, Lichika,Roxanna, Saddie,Assi,Benny was also named.

The influence of Hindi serials and Bollywood movies is more visible in this decade.

Aman, Dia, Mehek, Sameer, Aryan, Rhea, Muskan, Neha, Sneha, Sandhya,Samira, Sanjana, Rahul, Prerna, Anurag, Meher, Simran, Duggu, Shaurya, Rohan, Ishaan, Shilpa, Shweta, Shreya,Mahi, Rohit, Nisha, Rehan is notable among them.

Aamir, Shah Rukh, Soha, Saif, Priyanka, Aishwarya, Sushmita, Kareena,Amitabh,Rani, Hrithik, and Salman were also names.

Although Bengali names were at the peak of popularity - Ananto, Antar, Arpita, Mohona, Dipto,Arko, Arnav, Apoorbo, Disha,Anamika, Preeti, Priya,Dip,Anima,Antara,Trisha, Nupur, Sadhvi,Pritam,Mayank,Lichu,Payel were among the popular names of this decade.

Random English words and names like - ShiningStar, Sunshine, Angel, Princess, Prince, Rainey ,Moonshine, Sweety, Moon, Mini, Sky, Happy, Lucky,King, Queen.

Some of this names were a bit more strange like - Goodluck, Promise, Faith, Innocent, Baby, Hope, Pilot, Primrose, Rocket, Sunny, Sunrise, Moonrise, Moonstar, Rockstar, Golden, Silver, Holly,Diamond,Ring,Dimple, RingKing, Twinkle, Pinkie,Honey, Kitty, Simple,Bo, Lovely, Ringpink,Star.

During this time the birth rate decreased. More people have one or two children only, so parents start scrambling to name them.

Basically, in the early 2000s, people started getting mobile phones, internet cafes were born in neighborhoods. And this internet cafe changed the whole matter of naming.

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The decade of two thousand and ten

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With the advance of smartphones in hand, the influence of the Internet has increased on name of children.

Now to keep a good name, parents do not search for Religious scriptures -puranas, poetry-epics; they Search on Google.

Now many have one child or two children. Now many are become parents after thirty's. So naming is also very different now.

Today, only 15 percent of children have the top thirty names, compared to 40 percent in the 1950s. 

The names of the children are so different that no one's name matches.

Children are given poetic names - Aarna Kamalika,Archi Madhurima, Prakriti Shamolima, tribal names - Jhumur,Sadhyni,Arinti; old fashioned Bengali names - Madhavi Latha, Ratnamala,Muktamala,Kajalrekha;

scientific names especially botanical names - Clitoria,Rosa,Oryza Sativa,Tulipa, Instagram filter names- Ludwig, Valencia,Willow, Helena; place names such as Lima, Mithila,Shimla, Savannah, Milan, Vienna, brand names - Chanel,Fila, Hermes; footballer names - Javi, Benzema,Rui Silva, .

Adding "a" to the name of the civilization is the name of girls. Foreign names are also being given to children along with native names such Serena, Issac,Lora, Silas.

Girls' names now end with "i", "a", and boys' names end with "an","k", "s","v", "r", "z", "in", "dan", "den", "o", "ansh". 

However. Bengali names are still popular. Speacilay poetic Bengali name - Rupkatha,Tusharini, Arundhara.

60's to 00's era most middle name was Religious name.Middle names are also preferred now.

Some of this name are playful - Lali,Tu,Lama,Siri, some are spiritual such Duaa,Dhyan,Labbayk,Armo,Molitva,Grace , Vedant and some are Nature inspired - Totini, Toringini,Gahin, Breeze,Ivy,Adri,Giri,Gahan,Aranya.

Now every "Aparna","Arha","Ayanti" is with "Alija","Emily","Lana", as is "Aritra","Sarthak","Mithil Shravan" as well as "Mason","Liam". "Keiden".

Children are being named after parents' names like Shaon or Nishan( Ani+ Shyama) which is popular now.

Just as the big name is kept, the small name is also kept. One-two to three-four names are also given. Sometimes the same name has ten different spellings.

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Thus the practice of naming has changed over time.

One thing you will see, the problem of naming is as big as Rich and middle class only.

Poor people don't have to look up names in the dictionary. Whatever becomes a name. But sometimes a shadow of latent desire remains in the name. 

Some such names are Daroga Mia, Sultan Ali, Police Mia, Biddo (BDO) Mashai, Cake Bibi, Beauty Begum, Sundari Begum, Saheb Mia, Kishmish Bhuiya, Shahjahan Mia, Badsha Mia, Zamindar Mashai.

Here is a list of an underdeveloped region that got 100 days of work. Shankar Das, Uttam Mia, Tahmina Begum, Amena Bibi, Durga Bauri, Felani Begum, Gaydi Begum, Babul Hossain, Lal mia, Soleman Mollah, Mangala Bagdi, Ahladi Akhter, Sabuj Mia, Suhail Mia, Kadon Mia, Mansa Devi, Sapna Khatun, Mithun Mia.... 

They may have had the same name for the past two decades. Only a few names like Uttam, Mithun can be added.

There is a trickle down theory about the name.

 And according to this trickle-down theory, first the rich people started keeping new names, then the middle-class people followed the same trend, then the names entered from the middle-class to the lower-class families. Then these names were no longer trendy. So the rich started a different trend.