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Comment by itisit | Hacker News Reader

Not to gloss over his accomplishments, but does anyone know how his mononym stuck? It’s one thing for an entertainer who’s marketed as such, but quite another for an academic.

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When I first met him in 1978 and asked for his last name, he replied "Arvind is my name". He was very deeply against the caste system and felt that using last names (IIRC, which also indicated caste) was something that he refused to do from high school (his high school diploma name is just 'Arvind'). It seemed that this was a hassle his whole life, but one he continued because he felt so strongly.

He said that after 9/11, the US government came down very hard on MIT to force use of last names and that is the first time I ever knew what it was.

Deeply thoughtful, highly caring and warm to all the people he met, he will be deeply missed!

Indian naming traditions vary by region. It gets intricate upon emigration and matching to Western formats. e.g. this distinguished biophysicist also goes by one name:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Govindjee

Indeed. I had a professor in undergrad named Kanapathipillai Thirugnanasambanthan. He might've been from Sri Lanka rather than India proper, though.

He went by "Sam Thiru".

When I first began I asked a friend if he knew anything about this "Professor Thiru". He said "Well, that's not really his name. His real name wouldn't fit in the schedule." :-)

Later, a different professor used him as an example of why it was a bad idea to hard-code the length of name fields.

Great guy, and one of the best instructors I've ever had.

> Indeed. I had a professor in undergrad named Kanapathipillai Thirugnanasambanthan. He might've been from Sri Lanka rather than India proper, though.

Almost certain he's a Sri Lankan Tamil. South Indians and Sri Lankans transliterate slightly differently.

> I had a professor in undergrad named Kanapathipillai Thirugnanasambanthan

My son had a high-school classmate whose name was something similarly long. Everyone called him "R-18."

Lots of people from Andhra/Telugu people have many names, and are known by initials or drop them if they come to the US. That sometimes includes optional caste names or titular names that come at the end, with the family name leading (as in China and Japan). My uncle, for example, had a four-word given name, formally introduced his given name in India or in temples as the latter two, and then dropped the first of the two, and swapped family-first for first-family when he came to the states.

For example, if you ever fly into Bangalore or Mumbai, you'll see GVK on their airports. That's for Gunapati Venkata Krishna Reddy, who goes by GVK. Gunapati is the family name, Venkata Krishna is his given name, and Reddy is the caste name.

Other examples are NT Rama Rao, P.V. Narasimha Rao, and my favorite, is a person I know of who went by KRKVNS Sharma.

I had an Indian colleague that only had one name. To fit in with the company she went by a double first name. i.e (I can't remember her Indian name) Jane Jane.

There's a noted chemist named Warren Warren. Washington State had a football player named Samoa Samoa. Hawaii had a great volleyball player named Allen Allen.

The beat goes on. ;-)

I really don't understand why people give names like this. I understand how they happen when you're trying to force a name into a naming convention that isn't the one it comes from, but why start your kid out that way?

Near-miss: the poet William Carlos Williams.

In that vein, another distinguished theoretical chemist/physicist: Philip Phillips

A bit annoying to search for this guy because there's a Phillip Phillips who won a season of American Idol.

But the scientist has only one 'l' in his first name.

He also graduated from the University of Walla Walla.

Walla Walla University (formerly college). Really annoying because there's a relatively much better known WWU on the other side of the state. Your ordering would have been a better choice when it renamed.

Not to be confused with Whitman college, which is the more well known college in Walla Walla.

Whoops. Correction noted.

I think the naming convention of naming your kid William (as an example) just so they can be called Bill the rest of their life is even more peculiar. Why walk that extra mile?

I think it’s mostly so they can have some degree of choice over what they are called.

You might call them Bill, but they can decide to call themselves Billy, or Will, or Willy, or William - without the hassle of actually changing their name.

There is also a class thing where naming a kid with a short form is seen as being lower class.

Class is absolutely part of it in my experience. The difference between Chuck and Charles, between Chad and Chadwick, Bob and Robert, and so on. The old money folks I’ve known were very particular about that sort of thing, while few others seemed to care too much.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_Major_Major_Major

My colleague had FNU on his US visa (and hence on his driving license as well) https://citizenpath.com/faq/fnu-first-name-unknown/

So it was like FNU Raj (if his name was Raj - it wasn't)

Google DevRel had someone who went by his last name (Surma). In the company directory, he was Surma Surma.

The article (about Arvind) says he had two sons, "Divakar ’01 and Prabhakar ’04" can somebody explain their names in this context?

In publications from colleges/universities, that usually means "graduate class of year". When no institution is specified, it usually means "this institution".

So in this case, it means Divakar (graduate of MIT class of 2001) and Prabhakar (graduate of MIT class of 2004).

This checks out - if you search for their names with MIT you'll find both of them. Both are medical doctors.

To add to your clear response, listing a year without giving any other detail also indicates a Bachelors degree.

If instead they had earned a graduate degree, that would be indicated with some abbreviation for the granting school/college. (I don't know the MIT terms, but at Yale it could be SOM '01, MED '04, LAW '05, etc.)

I thought it was their year of birth and was confused.

That was probably his whole name. The IBM Fellow Mohan sometimes adds an initial “C” to avoid this kind of confusion (“C Mohan”)

Also see https://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-... , for example item 20

Even in Europe, surnames weren’t that common until a fashion for or wave of surname assignments spread from the mid 19th century into the 1920s.

Arvind Mithal:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arvind_(computer_scientist)

I scanned all responses to see if someone had posted this link! One of the great blog posts about the intersection between computer science and humanity.

Item 40 is the best one. Of course, the majority of items on this list will create problems in society long before they are an issue with computer systems.

Some surnames of people seem to be based on the names of the traditional occupations of their ancestors.

Examples:

English or British origin people:

Carpenter, Miller, Fisher, Tailor, Weaver, Smith, Cooper, etc.

This happens in some other countries too. E.g.:

India:

Munim, Vakil, Gavli, Engineer, something-vala or -walla (this last one for Parsis, typically), Pandit, Kulkarni, Shimpi, etc.

Lots of German ones too.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Category:German_surnames_from...

The best example I know for India is a Dr. Devika Icecreamwala, who is not an ice cream seller but a dermatologist. (It's her married name; she was born Patel, which is about as boring as you can get for an Indian surname.)

I prefer the Indian singer Kunal Ganjawala. Also shoutout to the Tobaccowalas and Daruvalas!

Best one that I have heard of is Sodabottleopenerwala.

Not sure if it's made up or real.

That’s a restaurant chain that serves Parsi food afaik! Like a modernized Brittania. I remember that they hired mostly hearing impaired wait staff and have instructions for interacting with them. It’s a really cool concept and the food is good too.

Interesting. Where is the chain, in Mumbai?

And is Brittania the name of a Parsi restaurant?

I’ve been to one in Delhi and Gurgaon. I think there’s one in Mumbai. Brittania is one of thr OG Parsi spots still open in Mumbai.

I give you Sir Cowasji Jehangir Readymoney

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cowasji_Jehangir_Readymoney

He preferred it.

When you are the only Indian at CSAIL at that time, everyone knows you by your first name. These days it wouldn't work as Indians are no longer scarce in the US.

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