Long Signature

[MWG14]

His name is:- Karumanaseri Ananthapadmanabhan & he is one of the umpires officiating in the current India v Australia one-day International cricket match in Mumbai. Imagine having to sign your full name on a cheque or any other document when you name is as long as that one!

[piggynose]

Maybe he's got a name stamper!

[Bazile]

Imagine him having to remember how to spell his name

[Bazile]

Just call me Gurdip

[Buenchico]

You missed a bit!

His full name is Karumanaseri Narayanaiyer Ananthapadmanabhan ;-)

[piggynose]

I wonder what his nickname is?

[Bazile]

^I told you - Gurdip

[Buenchico]

My cancer consultant is Dr Ramachandran Venkitaraman but everyone, including both colleagues and patients, just calls him Dr Ram. It's a lot easier!

[theprof]

A young and very talented, Hindu female researcher came to work in the Chemistry Department at my university a few years ago from Havard. At the time she already had a PhD and as per convention, was formerly referred to as "doctor".
Her forename was Pooshitha.
I'll leave you guess by what name her colleagues referred to her behind her back with no malice intended.

[theprof]

To be honest, a few of her work colleagues considered it very unlikely that such a name could exist until they checked it on a search engine. I've just done it myself out of curiosity and yes, it seems it is still a reasonably popular Hindu name for a girl.

[naomi24]

We have Sri Lankan friends with names like this. They invariably use a shortened Anglicised version.

[Buenchico]

^^^ Thanks for making me smile, Theprof ;-)

Of course, it's not just foreign names that can be a little 'unfortunate'. One of my teaching collagues was called Miss Condon. It's not hard to work out how her teenage pupils pronounced it though!

[MWG14]

Strangely, my wife went to school with a Cherry Orchard.