Surnames

Surnames (feminists may prefer to call them family names, as the sur may be considered a slur) are varied, and this is an incisive (!) analysis of my favourite ones.

Smith, or its variant, Psmith, used by Wodehouse. These also occur in various colours, like Black, but to the best of my knowledge, not Purple.

Sharma, which could be the Indian equivalent, as it is found in every corner; sometimes the 'h' goes into hiding (out of sharm?) and it turns into a Sarma.

Goodenough- if he's good enough for Priety Zinta, who am I to complain?

Patil, also comes with variants, usually prefixes such as Kolte or Butte..even Dangat.

Suzuki, a family name that changed the way families in India pereceived private transport. Used to be driven by another surname, (Hamara) Bajaj. Wheels within wheels, did you say?

Bandookwala, with its cousins Jalnawala, Sodabottleopenerwala, Screwwala, ...

Karmarkar which is literally Do-die-do if you split it up.

Walker, which is the name assumed by The Phantom when he walks the streets of town like an ordinary man..

Some names trigger dialogues. The name Jain reminds me of the Tarzan dialogue- Me, Tarzan. You, Jane. Some rare ones I have come across are Mulky, Jharkharia, Beri, and not so rare ones are Sinha, Mahapatra, Rastogi, S(h)rivastava, Verma, Yadav, Chauhan/Chavan, Deshpande, Chaudhary/Chowdhury, Menon, Gupta,.. my own surname is pretty rare, research has shown.