Celebrity Baby Names

Aarav - Akshay Kumar's son
Alexander Pete - Naomi Watts' son
Alimayou Moa-T - Wesney Snipes' son
Anvay - Rahul Dravid's son
Arin - Madhuri Dixit's son
Aryan Khan - Shah Rukh Khan's son
Bluebell Madonna - Geri Halliewell's daughter
Cayden Wyatt - Kevin Costner's son
Charlie Axel - Tiger Woods' son
Clementine Jane - Ethan Hawke's daughter
Daisy True - Meg Ryan's daughter
Dona Ganguly - Saurav Ganguly's daughter
Emme Maribel - J.Lo's daughter
Emmy Charlotte - Ricky Ponting's daughter
Finn - Christy Turlington's son
Hania Riley - Vin Diesel's daughter
Hayes Logan - Kevin Costner's son
Henry - Heidi Klum's son
Henry Daniel - Julia Roberts' son
Henry Tadeusz - Colin Farell's son
Honor Marie - Jessica Alba's son
Isabella - Matt Damon's daughter
Jayden James - Britney Spears' son
Knox Leon - Brangelina's son
Lucia - Mel Gibson's daughter
Max Liron - Christina Aguilera's son
Maximilian David - J Lo's son
Nahla Ariela - Halle Berry's daughter
Nysa - Kajol's daughter
Oscar - Gillian Anderson's son
Pax Thien - Brangelina's son
Quinn - Sharon Stone's son
Rasha - Raveena Tandon's daughter
Ryan - Madhuri Dixit's son
Sadie Madison - Adam Sandler's daughter
Sebastian Thomas - Tommy Hilifiger's son
Shiloh Nouvel - Brangelina's daughter
Tennyson Spencer - Russel Crowe's son
Valentina Paloma - Salma Hayek's daughter
Valentino - Ricky Martin's son

Pawpaw

Talk about funny names. The pawpaw is a native american fruit and name of a town in the state of Michigan. It is also often called 'prairie banana' because of its banana-like creamy texture and flavor. You can read, even, more about it, here. And more.

How wrestlers get their names

The sport of professional wrestling is punctuated with some of the more outlandish names in the history of branding. (For instance, the dashing fellow shown here goes by the delightful moniker 'Nacho Libre'!) In this post, I direct you to the riveting story behind another wrestling/er brand, the 'Rock and Roll Express'. And more.

"Have you ever wondered where some of the names wrestlers use come from? Well they can only come from two places. Either the wrestler gives himself a name or the booker/creative people do. In earlier times, a guy could get a name in 30 seconds. Now, it might take weeks to run copyright and trademark searches. The Rock and Roll Express didn't have to wait long. Click here for the story of not only how their name was arrived at but also their gimmick."

Speaking of which, who is your favourite brand of wrestler? Mine's, hands down, 'The Undertaker'. In fact, the mere mention of the name sends a chill down my spine. Talk about brand personality.

Sunami and Tsunami

There's a Sanskrit word called Sunami. Me thinks, it will make a great name for a naming company. Decoded it means 'well named'. But the only hitch is the acoustics. Sunami seems like a Siamese twin of Tsunami. And that can be a huge problem in India. Because the word Tsunami evokes the imagery of a cosmic dance of death. Too bad.

What is the name of the largest number?

A Googol is 1 followed by a 100 zeroes. That is 10^100. Edward Kasner popularized this concept in 1940. It's not the largest number known to mankind. Wikipedia says the Shannon Number (the exhaustive number of possible moves in a chess board) amounts to 10^120. This was computed in 1950. Long before, Kasner or Shannon, Valmiki gave us a clue about numbers not known to mankind. And Hindu wizard mathematicians had names for it. Listed below is a set of terms that should boggle your mind -

10^5: Lakh
10^7: Crore
10^12: Shanku
10^17: Mahashanku
10^22: Vrindam
10^27: Mahavrindam
10^32: Padmam
10^37: Mahapadmam
10^42: Kharvam
10^47: Mahakharvam
10^52: Samudram
10^57: Ogha
10^62: Mahaugha

Georges Ifrah mentions another set of names for large numbers in ancient India...

Koti —10^7
Ayuta —10^9
Niyuta —10^11
Kankara —10^13
Pakoti —10^14
Vivara —10^15
Kshobhya —10^17
Vivaha —10^19
Kotippakoti —10^21
Bahula —10^23
Nagabala —10^25
Nahuta —10^28
Titlambha —10^29
Vyavasthanapajnapati —10^31
Hetuhila —10^33
Ninnahuta —10^35
Hetvindriya —10^37
Samaptalambha —10^39
Gananagati —10^41
Akkhobini —10^42
Niravadya —10^43
Mudrabala —10^45
Sarvabala —10^47
Bindu —10^49
Sarvajna —10^51
Vibhutangama —10^53
Abbuda —10^56
Nirabbuda —10^63
Ahaha —10^70
Ababa —10^77
Atata —10^84
Soganghika —10^91
Uppala —10^98
Kumuda —10^105
Pundarika —10^112
Paduma —10^119
Kathana —10^126
Mahakathana —10^133
Asankheya —10^140
Dhvajagranishamani —10^421

Asankheya is supposed to have figured in Vishnu Sahasranama. It also happens to be the Hindi word for countless. It is larger than the Shannon Number. And Dhvajagranishamani beats Asankheya by a mile. So is that the largest known number? Nopes. The largest number is a never ending story. In the begining, we were told it's Googolplex (10^Googol). Then came Googolplexian (10^10^Googol). Then Googoltriplex (10^10^10^Googol). The mathematicians didn't stop. The tweaking continued. And now we're at Googoldecaplex. That's like 10^10^10^10^10^10^10^10^10^10^Googol. The only larger number I know is Anantha :-)

Name Trivia: Blu-Ray

"The name Blu-ray Disc is derived from the blue laser (violet-colored) used to read and write to this type of disc. In part because of the shorter wavelength (405 nanometres), substantially more data can be stored on a Blu-ray Disc than on a DVD, which uses a red (650 nm) laser. A dual-layer Blu-ray Disc can store 50 gigabytes, almost six times the capacity of a dual-layer DVD, or ten and a half times that of a single-layer DVD."

Source: Wikipedia.

Chanderpaul gets his own street

New Garden Street in Georgetown, now sports a new name. It's called the Shivnarine Chanderpaul Drive,a nod to Guyana's most famous cricket son. With this honor, Chanderpaul becomes the fourth cricketer of Indian origin to have a road/street named after him. The other three being: Anil Kumble, Kapil Dev & Sunil Gavaskar.

Just for pun

I think of myself as a fairly punny guy. Punnily enough, most people in the writing profession don't care much for puns. We think it might have something to do with the fact that coming up with a good pun takes some skill, and they aren't quite upto it. Pokes apart, here's a collection of fine, and not-so-fine, names that pun. Have pun. (Image courtesy, Torontoist. Find courtesy, the NYT Freakonomics blog.)

What a bunch of sports

I work in sports. I used to be a sports writer. I still, on occasion, write a column on three on cricket. But, I'm no longer a paid sports writer (hey, I'm no hack). Does that exclude me from the hallowed clan of sports writers? I hope not. Because if there's one thing I love more than writing, writing blogs and writing other stuff that few people read, it's being offered up the opportunity to watch sport in the midst of thousands of passionately cheering fans and being asked to write about it. Throw in the myriad pleasures of travelling to different venues and I'd call it an perfect life. Almost. (What did you expect, perfect? Naah. Honestly, perfection is bloody boring.) As it is, I have a far, far, far from perfect life. So when I read something like this that makes me laugh heartily, it makes up, even if only momentarily, for some of the shit I have to endure on a daily basis. Here's a far from exhaustive list of really weird names for sports team. Enjoy. And, as always, feel free to add to it. (Don't know why I said that. Heaven knows no such thing is going to happen.) Image courtesy, www.faniq.com

A puppy called 'Condom'

Imagine this: You walk into a friend's place and you see that he's gotten himself an adorable little puppy. (Yeah, much like the one in the picture.) Naturally, the first thing you're going to ask him is what the little critter is called. He tells you it's called 'Condom'. Of course you do a double take and ask him whether he's serious. He tells you with a straight face that he indeed is. How comfortable would you be to call out its name? It's true. There is a puppy that goes by the name 'Condom'. And you can find out more about it here.

Names by George Lois

While I was reading up on George Lois (the original dude of advertising), I discovered two brands named by him. Both, a little ahead of their time. Enjoy...

Names that stuck

God Shamgod, Dick Trickle, Nathan Boob, Alexander Semin, Angry Anderson and some more of the best names of all time according to these guys. I'm sure you have your set of favourite names too. I'm also sure you won't be chartable enough to share them with us. As always, I look forward to being proved wrong. After all, as my friend and partner in crime Anantha says ... well, never mind what he says about me. This is about some really funny names I took the trouble to dig up and share with you. Enjoy. And how will all this help you come up with a great name for your company? Well, if you ask us we'll tell you exactly why these names make the kind of impact this other article talks about. Incidentally, can you tell me who the guy in the picture is? Trust me, going by the name, it's very guessable.

Factonama # 5

The most famous Esperanto word is Mirinda. It means amazing/awesome/wonderful. It is widely believed that the founder of Mirinda knew Esperanto. So quite a few people think that Mirinda is the best known Esperanto brand name. Can you think of any other Esperanto brand name?

How Crazy Mohan thinks up his crazy plays.

Playwright, screenwriter and funmeister Crazy Mohan shares one quirky trait with me. Both of us think of the title first and then write the script. It's always worked for me. So I can totally understand why it worked for him. Such is the power of a title. It contains the seed of your concept. Take Jurassic Baby, Alauddinum 100 Watts Bulbum, Marriage Made in Saloon and Crazy Thieves in Palavakkam. All of these titles have intrigue value and offer a new context for whipping humour with a gag-a-minute sitcom. The fantastic thing about the title-first approach is, if you think the comedy ain't working, you can always craft another story with the same title. As I said earlier, such is the power of a well-thought title.

Frank 'Lefty' Rosenthal and other gangster names

I'm a huge fan of gangster names. (Don't ask why.) The reasons, if you still insist on asking me, are pretty obvious. What's not to like. They're distinct, they communicate the unique quality about a particular gangster and they make you smile. Attributes that are eminently useful to have in a brand name. Shown here, Frank 'Lefty' Rosenthal and his sisters. (Yeah, right.) He died recently. Here's a bit about him: 'GAMBLERS usually go on until they have run out of both luck and money. Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal went on until he was blown up. But then Lefty was not your usual sort of gambler.' For more on Lefty and his exploits, read the rest of his obituary here. Meanwhile, Googleji and myself have unearthed some links on what makes for a good gangster name. (You'll find them all at the end of this post.) They're instructive in that most of the qualities that go into making a good gangster name apply to product brand names too. Jokes apart, you could learn a thing or two about brand names from gangsters. And us. (Picture courtesy Getty Images.) Link love.

What does Aegan mean?

When I first heard the name Aegan, I had a waddafuk moment. Why on earth would a tamil film be named after the Aegean Sea? Intrigued, I googled for the etymology of Aegean Sea. It threw up a little story on a Queen named Aegea (meaning The Pole in Greek). That didn't seem convincing. My mom came up with a better explanation. She said it may have a Sanskrit origin. May be it's a short form of Ekalavyan. Just when I was about to take her word for it, I read an interview with Ajith, today. He let the kitten out of the bag. Aegan is one more name for Lord Shiva. It means All in one. When he uttered those words, I was like, why didn't I think of it. Anyways, that's the story.

Indian surnames & their meanings

Will keep updating this list as and when I get some time...please feel free to contribute...

Agarwal = Derived from Agarwala or 'a descendant from Agroha' (the ancient name of Hissar city). Agroha had 18 districts - Garg, Mangal, Kucchal, Goyan, Goyal, Bansal, Kansal, Singhal, Jindal, Thingal, Airan, Dharan, Madhukul, Bindal, Mittal, Tayal, Bhandal, and Naagal. All of these names are synonymous with Agarwals.
Ahluwalia = A descendant of a person from Ahlu (a village near Lahore).
Ahuja = A descendant of Ahu. Does anyone know anything about Ahu?
Arora = A descendant from Aror (today's Rohri in Sind).
Bandopadhyay = Venerable teacher.
Banerjee = Teacher from the village of Bandoghat.
Bharadwaj = One who has strength or vigour.
Bhat/Butt = Priest or Scholar.
Bhattacharya = Priest & teacher.
Chaturvedi = Learned the 4 vedas.
Chattopadhyay = A teacher with roots from the Chatta village in Bengal.
Chopra = Descendants of warrior Chaupat Rai.
Dhawan = Messenger on the field of battle.
Dubashi = Person who knows two languages = Translator.
Dutta = Drived from Aditya or Sun.
Dwivedi = Learned in 2 vedas.
Gill = Lake/Moisture/Prosperity.
Guha = Another name for Lord Kartikeya.
Gupta = Ruler/Protector.
Iyer = Derived from Tamil word Ayya which in turn is derived from the Sanskrit word Arya which means Noble.
Iyengar = One who has undergone the 5 purification rituals.
Jain = Follower of Jainism. Which is derived from Jina (one who overcomes).
Jha = Reciter.
Johar = Sanskrit for Jewel.
Joshi = Practioner of Jyotishi or astrology.
Kakkar = Strong.
Kapoor = Descendants of Moon.
Kaul = Means well-born. Derived from Sanskrit word Kula.
Kaur = Princess.
Khan = Turkish in origin. Means Chief/Ruler.
Khanna = Derived from Khanda (sword).
Khatri = Punjabi version of Kshatriya (ruler). Khanna, Kapoor, Seth, Mehra, Malhotra, Chopra and Walia are all Khatris.
Kocchar = Armour.
Krishna = Dark.
Mahajan = Means literally Big People. Perhaps an indicator of status.
Malik = Arabic word for King.
Mehra/Mehrotra = Descendants of Mihr (Sun).
Mishra = Mixed or blended.
Mukhopadhyay = Main Teacher.
Nehru = One who lives on the bank of a Nehr or canal.
Patel/Patil = Village headman.
Rana = Ruler. Some speculate it's the male version of Rani.
Saini = Head of army.
Sethi = Derived from Sanskrit word Sreshti (Merchant). Incidentally Shetty/Chettiar has the same roots.
Shah = Persian word for Monarch.
Sharma = Joy/Protection.
Shukla = Bright.
Singh = Derived from Sanskrit word Simha which means Lion.
Tagore = Anglicised version of Thakur (Lord).
Talwar = Swordsman/Sword.
Tandon = Warrior or sun.
Trivedi = Learned in 3 vedas.
Verma = Shield.

Kinda like Paris Hilton

Hands up (and comments down), everyone who can tell me who the men shown in the picture are? Clue: Theirs is a brand so popular it has become the de facto name for the product category. And if you know the answer, can you give me the names of 38 other people who are like them? All is revealed in this most engaging slide show of the story behind 39 of the world's leading brands named after people: Trivial pursuit. Warning: It doesn't work in Google Chrome. Warning: It doesn't work in Google Chrome. (That's just in case you didn't believe me the first time I said it.)

Naf said

Shown here, Ad for the Naf Naf Spring collection. The naf-naf is saying, "Pink is my fetish." Almost everybody knows the story of The Three Little Pigs and how the big bad wolf huffed and puffed and blew their houses away—all houses except one. But it seems that only the French named the little pigs — Naf Naf, Nif Nif and Nuf Nuf — and 35 years ago, brothers Gerard and Patrick Pariente decided to name their clothing store after the pig that built the house made of stone and survived the wolf — Naf Naf. Greedy for more? Go to the source.

I tell you, these fucking Chinese

A brand of condoms named after football ace David Beckham has taken the Chinese contraceptive market under its sway. Although the Beckham contraceptive is not being endorsed by the former England captain himself, its makers claim that the users will 'score in the bedroom like David does on the pitch'. (Actually, he doesn't score all that much ... on the pitch.) This brand now sells more than any other brand in the country. (Source: Google)