Time and again I have my non Keralite friends telling me how difficult it is to pronounce the surnames of Malayaleei colleagues and friends. I understand their dilemma. A Thomas Mathew is easy to pronounce, but if he chooses to take his veetu peru (house name or family name) as is the tradition and call himself Thomas Mathew Vandanakkare, then I simply cannot blame my non Malayalee friends for their consternation and call them Xenophobic which would be easier anyways.
I mean the last person who tried to pronounce a Keralite house name had to be rushed to the Emergency Room to untangle his tongue from the 24 neat knots it had twisted itself into.
Now I like to think that I am a fair and equable person who can understand the phonetic difficulties of our non south Indian brethren. So here I have compiled some Malayalee “house/family names” to illustrate to you that our ‘house and family names” are nothing to be feared of. After reading this post I promise, you will be able to remember the family names of all your Malayalee colleagues/friends without difficulty.
1. Renji Pallivadikkal - Renji Church Door
2. Sunu Vaddakekara - Sunu Northern Side
3. Sunil Kunnath - Sunil on the hill
4. Mary Neerampuzha - Mary Redant river
5. Chacko Katticaren - Chacko Soldier
6. Joby Thekkeparambil - Joby Southern Fields
7. Paul Kinnatukara- Paul Well wall
8. Blessy Vattaparambil - Blessy round estate
9. Lily Madapally - Lily Covent Chapel
10. Jacob Alapattu - Jacob Blacksmith Song
11. Blesson Alilakuzhi - Blesson Peepal Leaf hole
12. Noble Padinjarekootu - Noble Western Group
13. Jiji Panjikaran - Jiji Cotton man
14. Jomon Puthanpurayil - Jomon In the new house
15. Shijo Thudianplakkal - Shijo Jackfruit Tree
16. Varkey Vettukuttil - Varkey Cut Forest
17. Girly Vadakumpadam- Girly Northern Paddy field
18. Baby Kallarakkal – Baby In the stone tomb
19. Susan Medhipara - Susan Threshing the rock
20. Jeejo Nedunkallel - Jeejo In the long stone
See zo zimble no?!
*phew*
Please note this was just the tip of the iceberg. But fear not, all of them are as zimble as the ones I have shown above.
Additions to the above welcome in the comments section with or without translations.
hey
ReplyDeletewhat I had to say on this is here
http://nikmuse.blogspot.com/2007/07/eavesdropping-on-mallu-names.html
Regards
while you're at it could you please also expand kadakampallil, vellambalayam, vazhuthacaud and sasthamangalam???
ReplyDeletethat was a gud thought put to words..
ReplyDeleteaddons from my side -
Vinu Parakkatil - Vinu Rock Forest
Anto Kollaparambil - Anto Backyard Fields
Roshan Maniampadavathu - Roshan ??? (i don't know!!)
PS: first names have been changed to ensure safety n security ;-P lol..
funny..!
ReplyDeleteGiven what you did to the poor HR, I am pretty loathe to take this at the face value without a second opinion. ;)
ReplyDeleteAnd even after n opinions, I wouldn't call anybody "Baby in the tomb" or anything... "Baby" is good enough for me.
Hilarious as usual. But the same thing could be said regarding all most names. But I liked the translations.
ReplyDeletea similar post on surnames here .. http://verbalspews.blogspot.com/2007/04/namesake.html
ReplyDeleteBlessy Vattaparambil - Blessy round estate
ReplyDeleteLol!!i thought this is the best one..it was worth the double dhamka posts today..
Btw Jiby.. seems like Kattakayam would be hep soon!! ;-P
I remember if someone from marapallam would prefer to be called 'thomas woodbridge' than 'thomas marapallam'..
Chacko vettukuzhi..Chacko dig hole
Baby Muthoot..Baby Full rip-off (Wow..I never thought they really meant it until i commented for this!! ;-P)
hahahahha
ReplyDeleteNikhil: Nice post!
ReplyDeletespidey: wow they sound quite a mouthful :p
venkatesh: LOL!!!
Arun: Thank you :)
fleiger: You don't believe me? *sob* :(
[:p]
Alexis: Yes, all the names have some simple meaning :)
sujay: I will look it up.
mathew: "Baby Muthoot..Baby Full rip-off
ROFL that was too good!!!
nasia: :p
that was a good one...
ReplyDeletemy husband's name is the passport is always stared at with amusement!...when he abbreviations of family name n father's name get added.....this is it..
Swargathmadam Sreedhara Prabhu Prasanth Prabhu!!!
though he is just prasanth he is addresse here as Mr swargathmaam.......
hey a cool set of funny name trans... out there...
ReplyDeletegr8 Cheers!!!
I actually have a guy on my team whose name is Robin baby.
ReplyDeleteNow that we work in remote extended teams, I have a lot of americans referring to him as her, and to add insult to injury, he dials into a call, and the whole room goes - "Hey, baby!"
:))
Sometimes Nambooris have names like Kukuzhiyeppram, Thekeliyethadaupram etc. Read in one of the Namboori jokes where couple of the above guys say "In South, they named a namboori Rameshan. Hay hay....what absurd names they use these days, Kukuzhiyepram" :)
ReplyDeleteNice one. Kunjunni maash wud've laughes on this!
Sometimes Nambooris have names like Kukuzhiyeppram, Thekeliyethadaupram etc. Read in one of the Namboori jokes where couple of the above guys say "In South, they named a namboori Rameshan. Hay hay....what absurd names they use these days, Kukuzhiyepram" :)
ReplyDeleteNice one. Kunjunni maash wud've laughed on this!
That was THE best post abt the mallu world that i've come across in ages. Good research there! Wonder what's YOUR surname :D
ReplyDeletenice list... but not of any use to me... i need house "zimble" name for chittilapulli
ReplyDeletewould appreciate your efforts in trying to decode the above
Madapally means Chapel ????...Silverine, you are on the verge of committing blasphemy....By the way what is the remedy for squinted eyes which I have got after trying to read all those zimble zames ??
ReplyDeleteWhat does Mannaraprayil mean?
ReplyDeletePray enlighten us, O wise one!!!
ROFL :)
ReplyDeleteSome of my Nair friends, who used both parents name as initials, with the mothers name last, are now called as Mr. Saraswathy, Mr Ponnamma etc.
ReplyDeleteI am 'Isaac on the rocks'. Howzzat!! :-)
ReplyDeleteRoshan Isaac
u know wat! Each time i pronounce one such long name properly, in a single breath, im just so immensely proud of myself! :D
ReplyDeleteHey ..
ReplyDeleteEven people in other countries have similar name.
like - Jack Blacksmith
John Fishborn
Thomas Estate etc etc....
so we are not alone..
Hahaha! You are too much, Silverine. Your well of humour runs deep.
ReplyDeleteOh well, how can I when I can still see the fate of that HR in my "Reader"?
ReplyDeleteGood one..
ReplyDeletewow, i guess that makes me sheetal little-field-in-the-east. never decoded it before :)
ReplyDeletelol...too good...i see mathew wants to drag me into this...i'll oblige!!!
ReplyDeleteeveryone's best guess is our family name came from a well then ancestors dug at the site of the first tharavadu and even after hitting water the kaaranavanmaar wanted to dig further to see if they would strike gold but hit solid rock!
a funner version circulating among us cousins is that the first ancestor fell into a deep well but achieved the perfect dive and hit solid rock at the bottom, lived to tell the tale, and left us with a family name that has always aroused amusement and wonder!
Also translation needed for...Kuruvilla
ReplyDeletethe mallu veetu peru does make for a good topic to blog on... err wait... i think i already said that before! Anwyay mine goes something like "Where the single jacfruit tree stands" rather cool eh :D
ReplyDeleteAlilakuzhi ... Panjikaran, ... Kunnath
ReplyDeleteJoining you in the phewing ...:D
Again, I haven't this one ... Panjikaran =))
LOL!
ok...i talked to my dad and got his permission for a name change...i am Jiby Hardwell from today...aint it cool!!!
ReplyDeletemadhu ambatt - ????
ReplyDeleteraman thuppale -raman don't spit
krishnan parakkat- krishnan measuring vessel forest
devan kulapully - devan pond's spot
shalini kalady- shalini foot
my coll no where near yours...
btb i am on the hill....
wats urs..???
joji pulimootil - jojo below the tamarind
ReplyDeleteRenju rathapilli - no idea of translation
The post was a riot...you have just considered the Christian population here . Now add to it a whole host of Hindu veettu peru and then the fun really start..Here are a fwe for starters which I couldn't translate - Kotiyath, Ambalavattam & Cheruvari
ReplyDeleteNandita: :))
ReplyDeleteguru: Thanks :)
toothless wonder: lol!!
pophabhi: LOL!!! That was a good one!
abhi: Thank you :)
iyer education: I am afraid I cant do that as my decoder is threatening to sue me after seeing my post :p
wanderlust: err... the only cure is that you don't read such names again :p
lalit: The wise one or her "sources" haven't heard of this name :p Maybe you should check the spelling.
annie: hehe your house name has so many connotations :p
Cool alien: :)
vinod: LOL!!!
anon: I believe you buddy! :)
Di: Same here!!
AP: You are right! We are not alone :)
Abhishek: Thank you :)
fleiger: lol!! I am beginning to suspect that you are an HR!! *horrors*
alameen: Thank you :)
Anon: I am trying to decipher that name :)
Jiby: There is a similar story of treasure hunt in my family to :)
PK: Seed Villa!! lol!!!
sreejith: It is so difficult to translate these names from English to Malayalam!! :)
akhil: :)
Jiby: ROFL!!! Sounds real cool!!!
neermathalam: Thanks for the contributions!! :)
Anon: ahem the pulimootils are related to me :p
Archie: Thanks for the additions :) I think "Ambalavattam" would mean going around the temple.
Thanks 4 the translazn...lol
ReplyDeleteHave copied a hilarious grooms profile that I came across during my sister's groom search onto my blog...
Can you please elucidate a profile description(obviously being hilarious is guaranteed by u) for a mallu???
Waah!!!
ReplyDelete-comes from a rajasthani in kerala.
Hey that was a cool post. Btw, I am Geeta Forest Church...LOL
ReplyDeleteI have seen many struggling to pronounce second names of keraliites... but it's not just in kerala, but each locality /community has its own contributions to the science of names... i have many such experiences...
ReplyDeletegood post..
LOL.. this is something which applies to me.... and its not easy to explain the meaning and reason of my family name... and i think only mallus pronounce my family name corectly.
ReplyDeleteHow dare you? If you weren't a lady, I would challenge you to a duel.
ReplyDeletepk: That profile was a real gem :)
ReplyDeleteparul: Thanks gal. Hope you are enjoying your stay :)
Geeta Forest Church: LOL!!!
myvision: The mallu house names are rather difficult to pronounce compared to others :)
monu: You are right :)
fleiger: ooops...I apologize for the inadvertent insult!! :(
:p
I keep seeing your blogs published in Bangalore Mirror. This particular one was published last week. Another one was published today too and I thought I'd drop in to say I really enjoy your posts.
ReplyDeleteKeep writing and keep us mallus laughing :-)
u jus got lucky!!.. bangalore irror huh!
ReplyDeletenisho: Thank you very much for dropping by :)
ReplyDeleteAnon: Yeah I know.