Did you know that a girl was named ‘Talula Does The Hula‘ in Hawaii or that a Chinese couple wanted to name their child ‘@‘? This might sound strange, but what if I told you about a whole village in south India where children are given unusual names.
Located inBhadrapur, a village in Karnataka you will find people with the most unusual names like Coffee, Military, Glucose, English, British, Anil Kapoor and High Court, to name a few.
The Hakki Pikki (a tribal community) has a bizarre naming ritual that was started almost a decade ago. They name their children uniquely after any urban objects that they find around them. The tribe originally lived in the forest and this unique naming ritual is probably a coping mechanism of being driven into urban spaces.
From random objects to celebrities they are fond of, people of this community name their children after anything that catches their fancy.
And the result is quite interesting. They have a Shahrukh, an Elizabeth and even a Google in their community. Japan has a nephew named High Court and Mysore Pak has a sister-in-law named Bangalore Pak. And Supreme Court, One by Two and America are best friends. You will be surprised to know that they even have Congress and Janta.
Each name has a history associated with it and it seems to be more interesting than the name itself. For instance, Coffee was born at a camp near the coffee plantations of Chikkamagaluru and Jithinder was probably named after the bollywood actor, Jitendra. Any guesses how Compound got his name? Maybe, just because he was born near a compound wall.
When asked about the history of the tribe, KM Metri, chairperson of the department of tribal studies, Hampi University said,
Hakki Pikki tribe that is mainly found in South India, has a rich history behind them. They were associated with Rajput king Rana Pratap. They took the surname Singh and hunting was their main occupation, In the earlier days, they used to name their children after the river or the mountain that they worshiped. Following the political turmoil and change in regimes, they got dispersed in different regions of South India. By the 20th century , the association with crime made the tribe want to hide their identity. They started giving their children weird names like the Pistol, British etc.
Not only this, people have passports, Aadhaar cards and voter IDs by the same names. Woah!
People of this community can speak at least 14 dialects. Be it their names, their marriage or their divorce, this community’s practices are very different. For instance, dowry is actually given to the bride by the man. And the marriage happens in the night and Mangalsutra is tied at the stroke of midnight. Another one is that during separation, the woman has to return half the dowry the man had given during marriage.