For a long time I was wondering what to write about on my blog. Should I write about what’s happening in my life or my thoughts on some subject. Finally, I decided to write on a subject which touched both these aspects. The most difficult decision that I had made. It is what happened with me as also my thoughts on that matter.
I guess, deciding on the name of your son or daughter is the most difficult thing in the world! Anyone who has gone through it will agree readily. There are so many hurdles till one decides on the final name… That name can also change at the last moment. So until the naming ceremony is over, you are not out of troubles.
We had decided that Riya’s name should satisfy four criteria. It should be simple, sweet, small and meaningful. I wanted to have no more than four to five letters when spelt in English. I also wanted it to be without any “jodakshar”. The criteria, though they appeared to be easy, were really going to make the decision tougher.
I started with a excel sheet that a friend had mailed to me. It had all hindu names and their meanings. We also got two books with names. Our research started with this. We scanned each and every name in the excel sheet and the two books. We used to like some name, finalize on it and later discard it either because it did not fit our criteria or simply because we (or in most cases it was I) thought that it did not suit our lovely daughter. Sometimes, a name that was short, sweet and simple would have no meaning. Sometimes, a name with a very good meaning would be a little complex or lengthy. Names like Vaidehi, Shruti, and even Riya were discarded. Riya because it had no meaning. (True, Rhea means some Greek goddess. But we were thinking only of Marathi names. And we intended to spell it as Riya rather than Rhea even at that time.)
Whenever we decided on a name, we would start calling her by that name. After doing that for a day or two, I used to develop a feeling that this name is not suitable for our daughter. I would then discard it outright. I realized that this did not happen with the name Riya. Rather, we found that it was a perfect choice. So I decided to find if there is any meaning associated with that name. I started to search vigorously on the net in hope that somewhere and somehow I will find that the word had some meaning. Initial searches were fruitless and I kept changing search engines! Finally my efforts rendered results and I found Riya’s meaning not on one but two different sites. And fortunately for me, at both the places the meaning given was the same. Had it not been the case, I would have had to start my search all over again or settle for some other name.
Riya means singer or graceful. Now another hurdle was that it is not a Marathi name. I guess, the meaning comes from Bengali. We decided that we have to compromise on that and go ahead with the decision. But till the last moment, I had an underlying feeling "this is not a Marathi name… should I change it?"
Thankfully, I did no such thing and today when I look at her, I think there is no name more apt than this one!
