If you were an English freak what would you name your child? Let me suggest a few, Rose? or Romeo if you were Shakespeare’s fan. Well, there are a few names which wouldn’t strike your mind even in your wildest dreams.

Many Khasi names in the villages of Meghalaya are so funny that you will end up believing the unbelievable.  The sleepy village Elaka, which is close to the Indo-Bangladesh border, has a little over 850 male voters and 916 female voters, have a record number of peculiar names registered in the voters’ list.

Italy, Argentina, Sweden and Indonesia voted to choose their representative to the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly this February.

You must be wondering how these countries have voting rights in this hill state in Meghalaya. You are in for a surprise. Italy, Argentina, Sweden, and Indonesia are the names of voters of Umniuh-Tmar Elaka village under Shella constituency in East Khasi Hills district.

Most of the inhabitants of the village are fond of English words which rhyme good but they don’t know what exactly they mean. In some cases, people have names after days of the week like Sunday and Monday. Not to leave behind names of the states, some people have named their children Tripura and Goa.

Isn’t it interesting to know that people may have such names? Not just these there are a few more names which would surely put a smile on everyone’s face.

Office items like Table, Globe, and Paper, members of the solar system like Venus and Saturn besides the Arabian Sea, Pacific and Continent also find a place in the voters’ list.

And now, hold your breath, the best English name is that of a 30-year-old class 12 educated woman whose mother ‘Sweater’ named her ‘I Have Been Delivered!’ Isn’t this funny!

Parents obviously do not understand the meaning of the names they give to their children and sadly the children with funny names have suffered for lifelong.

Of course, we have this tradition of peculiar names like Dolly, Bunty, Lovely, Jolly etc mostly in Punjab but the names we have seen on the Meghalaya Voter list beat them all.

One should not expect stereotypical names all over the world. You will find English words like Beauty or Dreaming being used by our tribal people, but what about Sundar or Swapna? Aren’t they too mainstream now? Why should one think that these names are peculiar? People ought to change their perception.

A person whose name is Hitler could be a good person. Similarly, people who are named after god may have a bad character. But leaving all this behind we should believe that the name has got nothing to do with the character of the person.

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