The name’s Dhanya « Anything Under the Sun!!!

The name’s Dhanya

March 2, 2007 at 4:49 pm | In I,me,myself n my life | 6 Comments

Dhanya, the name my parents (actually my uncle chose the name!) gave me when I was born, has been tossed around mercilessly for quite a long time.

Living in the north was a torture with a name like mine. (There was a time when I used to cry that I want to change my name.) I believe the name of a person is their identity and people loved murdering my identity. Have heard all sorts of pronunciation – “dhaniya” (which means coriander in Hindi), “dhaanya” (stretching the ‘a’ actually made it similar to the word “grains” in Hindi), “dhany” (removing the ‘a’ in the end pushed me to the neuter gender) and many more. First all this mockery was drowned in tears but then it gave way to taking pains pronouncing it for everyone.

But it’s not just the North Indians who spoilt my name. Mallus (the ones from God’s own country) call me “denya”, though it is from Kerala that my name actually comes from. Tamilians call me ‘danya’ or ‘daniya’ or ‘kothamalli’ (coriander). Thankfully, I have been able to pronounce it for the rest of them before they even think of enroaching on it.

So, whats the actual way of pronouncing my name? It is “DHANYAA” with the primary stress on “dh” and secondary on “n”. Hope this would help people. The meaning of my name has been disputed for long, though, according to me, it means “the one who is blessed”. Some people say it also means “great”, “thanks”, or “Goddess Lakshmi” but I stick to the meaning I have been hearing for a long time.

Though Shakespeare said, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet”, the name of a person is his/her possession; something with which you can identify the person. So, people think twice and ask twice before you contemplate murder!!!

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Hii dhanya,
That was as if meant for me!!…I too had the same kinda experience as i was brought up in north!…I too love my name & feel like killing when someone mispronounce them.
You have a nice blog here; actually got hit because of similarity in name!!

Comment by dhanya — April 7, 2007 #

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Hey Dhanya!
Thanks a lot!!! I know there are many Dhanyas who go through the same experience so wanted to share mine… C ya and have fun!

Comment by stringer — April 9, 2007 #

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Hey… I’ve had the same experience with my name – Dania. Well – the same in terms of mispronounciations. So how do you pronounce Dhanya? I’ve never seen this name before today – cool to know there are other ’sisters’

Comment by Dania — April 24, 2007 #

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Hi Dania!!! As you can see in this post, the name Dhanya’s pronounced as “Dhanyaa” with the primary stress on “dh”… Most of us have a hell of a problem with the pronunciation of our names, but still people do not want to pronounce it properly…

Comment by stringer — April 24, 2007 #

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Hi Queen Elizabeth,
I know only one Dhanya, n she is Dhanya Nambair
This is the Blog written by her.
Its really sweet, the way she pronounce her name n u will love it when u will listen to that.

She is too Quick like : Dhanya!!!
But she is a good friend of mine n really sweet.

From
Dhawal

Comment by Dhawal — June 9, 2008 #

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hey dhanya!

As you can see we have the same name. I didn’t realize that it was such a popular name in India. I was born and raised in the US to parents from the Dominican Republic. I too have issues with ppl mispronouncing my name, though i don’t really mind. And, in fact, most ppl call me Dhany and I love it!

Anyway, what I was wondering is if you could explain differently how the name is pronounced bc I didn’t really understand.

Thanks!

Comment by dhanya — June 21, 2009 #

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