{"id":43556,"date":"2015-10-17T00:51:34","date_gmt":"2015-10-17T04:51:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=43556"},"modified":"2015-10-17T00:51:48","modified_gmt":"2015-10-17T04:51:48","slug":"devising-auspicious-names-with-positive-vibes-for-everything-from-shops-to-babies-is-a-lucrative-business-in-sri-lanka-economist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=43556","title":{"rendered":"Devising Auspicious Names With Positive Vibes for Everything From Shops to Babies is a Lucrative Business in Sri Lanka – The Economist"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nAT HER<\/strong> home in a quiet residential compound, Sanda Samanthie Ahubudu runs a thriving business. She sells her clients lists of suggested names for everything from shops to babies. Staff are almost constantly on the phone to customers. Clients who visit Ms Ahubudu in person have to take a number and wait, as at a doctor\u2019s surgery. On one recent morning, more than 40 of them turned up. \u201cIt\u2019s not always this busy,\u201d said an assistant, before reeling off details of Ms Ahubudu\u2019s bank account to an eager parent on the phone.<\/p>\n

Demand, says Ms Ahubudu, is growing for the service, for which she charges 500 rupees ($3.56). Her patrons are mostly Buddhists, who make up a majority of Sri Lanka\u2019s population. But they also include Catholics, Hindus and Muslims. Some are actors and actresses, politicians or media workers who want new names for themselves, believing (as many do in Sri Lanka) that names can shape destinies.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

When a child is born many consult an astrologer, who will suggest auspicious letters to be used in the baby\u2019s name. Parents then choose names beginning with the letters. This is where the likes of Ms Ahubudu come in. She will propose names intended both to sound mellifluous and to convey a sense of what the parent hopes the child will become. Names \u201cmust merge with the universe as a positive vibe,\u201d says Ms Ahubudu. Those she devises are often of her own invention or her father\u2019s, who started the practice. She claims thousands have benefited from them.<\/p>\n

Naming has not always been so commercial. Traditionally a family elder, the chief priest of a local temple or an erudite villager would provide the service. Often names would reflect the baby\u2019s caste. It was fine to suggest a child\u2019s glorious future, as long as this did not imply the infant would break free from that shackle.<\/p>\n

Such conventions began to loosen in the 1950s. Parents now look increasingly for novelty. That the names chosen do not always bring the desired results appears not to deter them. In 1992 Ranasinghe Premadasa, then president, changed the first syllable of the country\u2019s name in English from Sri to Shri on the advice of soothsayers. They predicted it would improve the nation\u2019s fortunes. The following year he was assassinated. The former spelling was restored.<\/p>\n

Mahinda Rajapaksa, another former president, famously named a budget airline after himself, reportedly because he thought having his name in the sky would bring him good fortune. He stepped down in January after a surprise election defeat. The planes still fly under the same name.<\/p>\n


\nCourtesy:The Economist<\/em><\/p>\n

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AT HER home in a quiet residential compound, Sanda Samanthie Ahubudu runs a thriving business. She sells her clients lists of suggested names for everything from shops to babies. Staff are almost constantly on the phone to customers. Clients who visit Ms Ahubudu in person have to take a number and wait, as at a …<\/p>\n

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