I remember years back there was a famous blog post with the same title and it was blogged by a person named Kalaivani (kalai in short). I still remember in the year 2005, I got it as a forward and not to deny it was helping us to laugh like anything due to its beautiful narration of the situations.
Here i do post this with my siutations. Well, those of you who are not aware of my name in full, it goes as ‘M Raghavan alias Saravanan’, and i do prefer to have it in full in most of the places and wherever possible! 
May be because of the self-love one can argue!
It so happens many times that i am asked for an explanation of the term ‘alias’ and why i have two names? Not to miss the interview parts i have attended so far. Luckily if it gets missed out during the initial phases of technical interview, it is for sure to mark its presence in the HR interviews. I would ask them with a small question, “there is a small story behind it. would you like to hear?”. Well, most probably the answers were of type ‘Yes’, ‘Sure’, ‘Go ahead’
Very recently, i faced the same with the conversation with a new blogger friend Meenu on her post and so am i here with this post! As per her request, i am mostly writing it in english and wherever appropriate using the translation for the tamil slang!
Story behind my Father’s name
To start off with, the first name or name before the ‘alias’ is my dad’s name as well my grandpa’s.
Well, my dad also has a story for his name. My dad’s name was R. Muthu karuppan since my grandfather’s name being ‘SP Raghavan’. My dad felt a bit shy and/or reluctant for keeping the second part ‘karuppan‘ as it would be a catchy term for the fellow buddies to tease him with the meaning it gives as ‘blacky or black in colour‘ in tamil.
Hence he did remove that ‘karuppan’ out of his name and kept his name as his initial expanded. And his name got transformed from ‘R. Muthu‘ to ‘Raghavan Muthu’. Infact he did this all with the Gazette Notification.
I do remember during my schooling (nursery and i was in Standard V), there was a small argument between our school correspondent and my father for this naming clash and my initial should have been ‘R’ instead of ‘M’. My dad had to send the xerox copy of the gazette for the proof even after explaining those stuff. Obviously that’s the first time I also happened to know all these.
My Naming conventions so far..
Coming to the main track, i was given the so called name ‘Raghavan‘ for the naming to be continued across generations. But again in Tamil culture, women should not call the people by name which happens to match with either of her husband’s or father-in-law’s as it is treated as lack of respect. For that sake, i was given the another name ‘Saravanan’. As my dad felt like keeping those two names in the official records/certificates and they got it registered as such. Just to accommodate both the names, there came a conjunction ‘alias’. That’s when the name has been in existence.
Now coming to the other short/sweet/pet names i do have. Well the list goes like this.
As narrated above, i am called as ‘Saravana‘ by relatives and neighbors. I am specially called as ‘Saro’ by my family members which of course was originated from my beloved mom!
During schooling till class V, i was called as ‘Saravana’ as most of my teachers were my mom’s students and they got used to the same name.
After class 6th, i was called by ‘Raghavan‘. One small incident to share here is, after the initial few days in class 6th of a new school, one of my classmates came to our house on a holiday just for a pastime and when he enquired about me in lathe which is exactly in front my house, he was told that there was no one by the name ‘Raghavan’ and he had to simply return. The next day, i had to explain him as well the neighbors of the other name i do have! lol. 
Only one person called me ever as ‘Ravagan‘ [donno where he got that term] and few people just used to call me as ‘Ravanan‘ — just to tease me.
During my engineering, my name has got several forms. Some seniors and friends called me as ‘Raghav‘ which made me feel good at that time till when i came across the term ‘Raghs‘ during my 3rd Year. This term ‘Raghs’ - which of course stays till to date of my preference, has got its own variations. Few people use it as ‘Rags‘ while some others use as ‘Ragz‘.
Very few people use ‘Raghava‘ that sounded like either they are annoyed or over affectionate.
Few friends called me as ‘Raghavs‘ and some continue to do so :).
One of my best buddies who used to call me as ‘Raghs’ for long, she used the term ‘Raga‘ — donno what made her spell that way.
I exactly don’t remember the scenario but one or two called me as ‘Raghavendran’
Some of the selected lecturers used to address me as ‘Saravanan‘ - which brings a nostalgia of childhood schooling memories and i just enjoy the feelings within!
A peculiar set of people called me with the unused conjunction ‘alias‘ and that was also welcomed till now
Few of my college mates and friends call me as ‘Raghavachari‘ as i feel they felt good that way to call me!
Once I went to St Johns Hospital, Bangalore for the corn excision on my leg in Feb 2006, i was called as ‘Raghavan Pillai‘ by one of the sisters over there! mmm. yet another! :). I really din’t dig my small brain for the sources causing the name. :). [Thanks to my beloved colleague,friend,guide Rajasekar M for reminding this one after reading the blog post:p]
What’s a big deal.. a name is given to call you right. The purpose is getting saved!
Out of all these, i somehow prefer nowadays being called with the name ‘Raghs‘ and thats what in use everywhere including this address of this blog!
Some difficulties I face officially
Though having been identified uniquely in all academic environments, i used to face a tough time when filling up the application forms, where in i had to draw few more boxes to write my so called ‘name-in-full’ and it usually attracts a smile from the neighbors and/or the concerned official.
Names in the professional environment
During my employment with Covansys (of course my first employer), the naming convention for the emalil id was the first letter of your initial followed by your first name. And my email id was ‘RMuthu’ (as explained above). Though i had an option to have the email id as ‘MRaghavan‘ by reversing, i dint want to do since i had huge number of email ids on my own name itself, i thought of giving a credit to my dad
But the display name was ‘MUTHU Raghavan alias Saravanan‘. Most of my team members (it was a huge team having 70+ members) started calling me as ‘Muthu‘. Initially i was correcting them by saying its not mine but my father’s name. But no one seemed to agree and they justified saying that it was short compared to Raghavan. What a super analogy and analysis? Just a difference in few characters/letters. Huh! I was practiced to listen to the name ‘Muthu’ thereafter and it continued for 2 years literally. Even now some of my ex-colleagues call me as ‘Muthu’ only! Enna kodumai sir idhu?
Another important aspect was with the US clients. Initially they used to ask me in email as how to spell my name and what name they can make use for the sake of their convenience!. Some of them used to address me as ‘Muttu‘ (sounds like ‘Mute-u‘) in the conference call with which people around me have a good fun !
Now, my name has been registered in my present company as ‘Raghavan alias Saravanan Muthu‘ - just a reverse of place holders. Some of my present colleagues call me as
#1. ‘Raghavan alias Saravana Muthu‘ — [note the absence of 'n' here :)]
#2. ‘Raghavan engira Saravana Muthu‘ — of course thats how the term ‘alias’ gets translated in tamil!
#3. ‘Raghavan alias Saravanan alias Muthu‘ — beautiful!
What to do? Getting used to it!
After all, its a part of your name and its like a metadata!
Names in the Onsite (Bahrain)
I guess it was somehow missed though i thought of posting it months back. And now its the time to include that as well.
After coming to Bahrain for an onsite assignment i am given some more new names by some of my colleagues here. They are from TCS. Those names go as below.
#1. Raghavan s/o Raghavan s/o Raghavan — maintaining the full hierarchy from bottom to top! :). Software engineers they are, you know!
#2. Veettula Saravanan veliyila Raghavan – meaning ‘in the home Saravanan but outside Raghavan’
#3. Raghwan – that’s how the employees of our client (LMRA) call me. They mainly follow Arabiq here. It can be taken as ‘Raghwan’, ‘Raghghvaan‘ as it varies from time to time and depends on their mood
Name in the Passport
Well! It goes for a task man. I don’t know why it went like that. And no wonder, the ‘government employees’ are prone to do that i suppose. In my passport, my name is entered as ‘Raghavan ALSOKNOWNAS Saravanan’. All what i could do was to yell at my dad and he politely did the same back to me justifying that he got an answer from the officers that its their way of mentioning alias names! ouch..
Was very much concerned of it as was advised by some of my senior colleagues that it might invite some troubles during the visa interview especially for USA. Till now, i have not faced any issues and i hope the same in future as well.
Hope this answers the question in detail with few extra information and somehow it was interesting!
Donno how many other names are there in store for future? :P.
FBOK – Fellow Buddies only know
How is the new layout? Just thought of changing it and I did it today.
Let me know your thoughts on the same
Cheers!
