My comment in the square brackets:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->What is so important for name? Try this name for a change!
By Rajendra Chaddha
What is common between Daya Shankar, Dinesh, Sunil, Nirmala, Deepak, Kirti,
Shakti Singh, Bhanu Pratap, Vivekenanda, Kapil, Manohar, Vidyadhar, Arvind,
Shanti Prasad, Premchand, Vimla, Anand, Vinod Kumar, Jyoti, Rajni, Jai Shree,
Yashwant, Shalini, Ajay Singh and Ajat Shatru?
These are Hindu names, seem to be the only common factor between the above
mentioned words. Prem Chand was the great Hindi writer, Vivekananda the Hindu
saint, Kapil (Dev) the cricket player, Bhanu Pratap (Shukla) a media
commentator, Yashwant (Sinha) India's Finance Minister and Ajat Shatru the
Tourism Minister of Jammu and Kashmir. The rest names like Dinesh, Sunil,
Deepak, Manohar, Arvind, Anand, Vimla, Vinod and Jyoti are the most popular
Hindu names. What else could be the common factor between the above mentioned
names and hundreds of similar names?
These are Christian names according to the book "Hindi Christian names"
published by the priests and brothers of the Society of St. Paul who "proclaim
the Gospel through the modern means of communication". A team of Christian
theologians under the Hindi Catholic Literature Committee has compiled the
names.
These names have been meticulously selected by the Christian missionary
organisations as the Hindi version of the Christian names to be used during
their evangelicalisation process in the Hindi belt. The existences of similar
text for other regions of India like Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and the
West Bengal could not be ruled out.
"The present list of Christian names is not exhaustive; still care has been
taken not to omit any name commonly used in northern India. Where this was not
feasible, the translation has been made to sound as like an existing name as
possible," says the forward of the book published in 1990.
This the Christian whose name should have been Abraham becomes 'Kulnath' having
the same meaning of "father of the multitude." Absolem meaning the father of
peace is given the Hindi name of Dayashankar. The Chrtistian name Adelbert
meaning nobly bright becomes Dinesh in the Hindi heartland. Deepak one of the
most common names of this part of the country is the Hindi equivalent of Albert
meaning illustrious. Similarly a Christian having the name Agatho which
literally means good and kind is popularly known as Sushil.
Adam, another Christian name, which means red earth, is known as Prithviputra.
The real name of Vir Singh, a Christian convert, is Amos meaning strong and
courageous. Bhanu Pratap is the Hindi convert of Apollonius, Kirti the Hindi of
Augustina meaning Exalted and consecrated and Rajendra and Bhupendra in fact
really is Basil meaning Kingly.
The Christian missionaries have changed Bertram into Vivekenanda and
Gyanachandra.
If Bruno, meaning brown, in Hindi has been given the name of Kapil and Bhurelal,
Callistus, meaning beautiful, becomes Manohar and Sudershan.
The names Vidyadhar, Budhi Chandra and Gyan Chandra has been chosen by the
Christian missionaries as Hindi equivalent of Conrad, meaning bold in counsel.
A baptised Erasmus is named Lalit and Sunder, Justin becomes Sunita, Joseph
becomes Buddhi Chandra, Joel becomes Anant Prakash, James becomes Vikrant, John
becomes Anugrah, Josue becomes Mukti Sagar and Imelda becomes Dev Raksha.
The compilers of the book say that the Hindi names have been chosen with similar
meanings. "In finding an Indian, or rather Hindi, equivalent the normal
procedure has been to choose an existing Indian name having same meaning," the
forward of the book points out.
Thus Leander, meaning lion-man, is known as Shakti Singh; Lucy meaning light as
Jyoti; Margaret meaning pearl as Mukta; Martin meaning dedicated to Mars as
Mangala; Martha meaning ruler of the house as Malika; Matthew meaning gift of
god as Ishwarprasad and Dev Prasad; Mercedes meaning ransom as Neha and Monica
meaning lonely as Manika and Rani.
The Hindi name of Paula is Vinita and Anima; Peter becomes Shilalnanda or Shila
Chandra; Philip becomes Ashwaghosh; Rebecca as Rupa or Manjula; Richard as
Narendra; Rita as Swati; Roderick as Yashpal; Sabina as Manish; Samson as Surya
Kant; Sarah as Rajkumari; Sabistian as Shradha Kumar and Silvia as Vipin Kumari.
The book has also tried to give a rough guideline about giving names. "Indian
names ending in Anand should normally be taken by priests or religious only;
wherever such names occur, another equivalent has been provided for general
use," it observes.
According to the book the real name of Muktimani's should have been Stephen;
Jugal Kishore and Yugal Kumar as Thomas; Dev Das as Timothy; Vijay Kumar as
Victor, Jayanti as Victoria; Shanti Bala as Wilfred and Mukti Prakash as Xavier.
It is no surprise that Swami Mukti Prakash is a Christian leader.
The book has taken every effort not to include the Hindu religious names like
Rama, Krishna, Hanuman, Indra, Sita and Lakshmi. "Names reminiscent of Hindu
mythology have been carefully avoided," the book says.
The effort of compiling such Hindi names is not new. The very first attempt to
compile Hindi Christian names in a book form was published in 1956 under the
name of Hindi catholic Literature Committee. The book concedes that the
publication has been in demand. "The fact that after a lapse of thirty-two years
a pressing demand is made for this book is a sign of progress. Our Catholics are
becoming aware of their Indian heritage," the book notes. <span style='color:red'>[Why this sudden interest in heathen heritage, how do we not know if this ain't another trick in the inculturation strategy that is to be used to harvest our souls?]</span>
However the book has remained silent to certain questions that has been raised
due to its publication. The most prominent of them being: "What is the need of
such an organised effort and how closely it is related to their conversion
activities?"
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/hinduciviliz...n/message/10319<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
And these are not Hindi names but Hindu names, for example Vir Singh is used all over North India not just in the Hindi speaking states.
Some of these names like Yashwant are also found in South India.
--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo--> Joshua Project/Southern Baptists etc would not recognize spitituality if it bit them in the behind <!--emo&
--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo-->