What's Your Name?
Breaking tradition for babies two and three
December 4, 2010
Kristin Rushowy
TORONTO STAR
Their daughter has a traditional Indian name.
Her two younger brothers do not.
“We racked our brains, but we didn't like any of the (boy) Indian names that came up,” says dad Sanjay Cherian.
“Sometimes we do get questions — why is she named Anjali, and the other two boys not given ethnic names? But people love the names; they suit the kids' personalities.”
Sanjay, whose family hails from India, says Anjali wasn't his first choice — Isabel was. Wife Kasia, who was born in Poland, loved it. She says she likes how it sounds — although it begins with an a, it is actually pronounced un-jah-lee.
“There is difficulty in pronouncing it, but it was important to us that the name reflect the ethnic diversity that we both had growing up in Toronto, and that was part of our own makeup,” says Sanjay.
Anjali Isabel Cherian was born Aug. 28, 2006 at North York General Hospital, weighing six pounds, 10 ounces. The family lives in Unionville.
Anjali means gift or offering to God.
Younger brothers are Lucas, now 2, and Philip, 8 months.
He said both the boy's names translate into Polish names, “so they are not really different” for that side of the family.
Did you recently have a baby and choose an interesting or unusual name? Email krushowy@thestar.ca