Black Australian - Chapter 1:

What's in a name, mate?

by Sunil GOVINNAGE

Today I started work in Perth. A new place, new people. Some said my name was very difficult to pronounce and sounded funny. I apologised for my name sounding funny and being difficult to pronounce. I was told not to worry, as there are a few Australians who have funny names, too. I met some of them at morning tea.

(From the diary of Siripala Wickramasinghe; 2 December 1988, Perth)

"YOU HAD BETTER TELL ME how to pronounce your name correctly," said Daryl. "Well, I can pronounce Siripala easily enough, but I'm not sure how to pronounce your other names."

"Vi-dha-na Pathi-rana-la-gay Siri-pa-la Wick-ra-ma-sin-ha."

I pronounced my full name phonetically. I explained the historical meaning of 'Vidana' and the meaning of 'Wickramasinghe,' translating my last family name as 'an adventurous lion.' Daryl looked puzzled.

"Shall we shorten it to Singh?"

"Oh, no! People might think that I'm a Sikh!"

Daryl looked out the window. I continued, "When I studied in Perth many years ago at Wesley College, my mates used to call me Wicks or Siri."

"Yes, I appreciate that, but I'm thinking of our customers' point of view. We must arrange a kind of a Western name for you! I'm sure a lot of our customers would find it difficult to pronounce your last name, let alone the middle ones."

Daryl paused and changed the subject.

"I'm sure you know that Aussies love to abbreviate things ...?"

He changed tack again.

"You were at Wesley College for a year, right? And you were an Aussie Field Scholar, weren't you?"

"Yes, but only for ten months," I said.

"Well, I studied there too!"

"Is that so? Then, you're an old college mate!"

"Yes. Come on, we've got less than five minutes to sort out your name.

I e-mailed all the staff to meet you for morning tea."

"I'm sorry about my name Daryl, but people will get used to it. I agree with you about the customers, but..."

"I'm sure you would've experienced a taste of our funny names here too; Hoare, Hooker, Porcupine, Sleap, Bull, and so on. There are a lot of funny ones!" Daryl laughed.

"In Sri Lanka, names mean a lot. For instance, any other Sinhalese person would understand my origin, that I'm not a Tamil, and even know my caste from my name."

I gave a brief historical background of Sinhalese names starting from their links to the caste system, but Daryl interrupted me.

"That's fascinating, mate! You'd better tell me that story later. By the way, we've got another engineer in the Planning Section. I think he's a Tamil.

He comes from Malaysia and studied here at Curtin University. He's spent more time in Australia than anywhere else, and he's married to an Aussie girl! He wants us to see him as an Aussie, not an Asian," Daryl chuckled. "He's the only fellow who won't join in a curry lunch! A bit of a funny character."

"What's his name?"

Daryl paused, looked at his computer screen and turned the monitor towards me.

"Ah, that's Gopal Balasubramaniam Chandrasekaran. But I don't know his ethnic background," said Daryl.

"Maybe he is a Tamil, maybe not! His last name sounds Tamil or Malayali," I said.

"I don't know how you people can differentiate all these names and track down ethnic origins! Keep an eye out for him because we need to work with his section closely, particularly with Frank."

"Who is Frank?"

"Oh, that's Bala. His wife calls him Frank. So we do. If you find an Aussie girl, you might be able to adopt a Western name too!" Daryl smiled at me.

"Let's go Siri, we're already late for tea."

He paused and shook my hand firmly.

"Welcome, Siri, to our team. It's a pleasure to have another Wesleyan in our office!"