Sunday, September 21, 2008

'Name' in a what's

Chalti ka naam gaadi, Badhti ka naam daadi, Naam, Gumnaam (clearly, one from before our time), The Namesake, In the name of the father, My name is Anthony Gonsalves, The man with no name (understandably not one of our favourites), Mera naam joker, Tere naam ... and that's just a smattering of movies I can name off the top of my head that have the word 'name' in them. From the looks of it, it must be a pretty useful plug. Hmm ... wonder why nobody has branded anything 'NAME'. Ask an expert how many words the English language contains and this is what you're likely to end up with. Luckily, the answer to the question which are the world's 500 most frequently used words is a lot simpler.

But of even greater relevance to 'namasutrists' like us is the fact that 'name' is the 126th most commonly used word of the many hundreds and hundred thousands that emerge from the fertile, fluid wellspring of the English language. That's why it makes eminent sense to leave the business of naming to professionals. Like us.