Names, Names, Names

*Disclaimer: You probably should read up to chapter 7 of the Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri before reading this post.*

Thinking about my blog post for this week, I was so lost. What the heck am I supposed to write about this week? Gogol is just growing up with an absurd name... So I thought about it, obviously - so I could get a good grade. It came to me - I remember hearing about names in a class that I went to.

The instructor said something like: "There are three names that people have: one that strangers call you, one that family and friends call you, and one that you use to address yourself."

Well great! Now I have a blog post that has a topic!

I think that those three names accurately describe Gogol's struggle throughout the novel. 

For his first name (the one that he gets called by strangers) used to be Gogol, now Nikhil, is purely based on legal circumstances. At first, his legal name is Gogol and then changes it out of hatred to Nikhil. For most people, the name that you are addressed by by strangers is just someway for others to get your required attention. Nothing really more. For Gogol(or Nikhil - now I am confused on what to call him) however, this name is something more. I believe that he wants to stray from his past and literally and figuratively "clear his name".  His first name becomes more significant when is changes to Nikhil, as he becomes more confident, "grows a goatee, [and] starts smoking Camel Lights at parties" (105). When strangers call him "Nikhil, he changes into a different person. 

His second name, the one that family friends calls him, has also changed like his first name. Unlike the first name, this name has a different significance. The change from Gogol to Nikhil was a lot harder for him and for the people that were close to him. He had to constantly ask people to remeber and admitted that he was "reminding people to forget" (119) the name Gogol. When his parents began calling him  Nikhil and completely disregarding Gogol, the name they used to call him, it was unsettling for Nikhil/Gogol. This second name is probably the name that conflicts him the most. Even though Nikhil is a more 'Indian' name than Gogol, it seems as if "Gogol" has more ties to his Indian culture. 

Lastly, his third name, the one of which he calls himself. I believe that this name should be regarded as most important and with the utmost reverence. After all, it is the one that reflects what you think of yourself. For Gogol, he struggles with this name. He constantly waivers between Nikhil and Gogol. When he changes his name to Nikhil and when people have began to call him that (his first name), "he doesn't feel like a Nikhil". (105) At this point, I would like to call up Jhumpa and politely scream at her through the phone to tell her to rewrite this classic novel with a more decisive character. 

Basically, we are unsure of each of the three names(we have some decent clues, but they keep changing). I think that Lahiri challenges us to find the character's names - the one stangers call him, the one his family/friends call him, and the one he calls himself. Well, my challenge to you reader is what are your three names? Are you as confused as Nikhil/Gogol is? Are your names changing?