I am getting into some problems because of my name in USA.I guess this is the case with almost all tamilians in USA.
Almost all tamilians write their name as G.Kumaran, T.Vijaya kumar etc.The initial is their father's first name.Nobody adds their last name.when the passport is taken the initial of father becomes the last name.
Thus my name "R.sampath kumar" became "sampathkumar Ranganathan".People assume 'Ranganathan' as my family name.But actually this is my father's first name.They call me as "Mr.Ranganathan".
many tamilians have such problems in USA.For example "Rajan varadarajan" is a prolific name in field of marketing.He has published many articles in marketing journals.But all credit goes to his father because in marketing journals they publish the last names first.Thus his articles appear like
"Varadarajan, P. Rajan and Satish Jayachandran. 1999. "Marketing Strategy: An Assessment of the State of the Filed and Outlook." Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 27 (2): 120-143."
The above said 2 authors are tamilians.But their last name in USA are jayachandran and P Rajan.Jayachandran and Rajan actually are their father's first name.So in the field of marketing 'satish' is known as "mr.Jayachandran" which actually is his father's first name.
why is this unqiue to tamilnadu?why do tamilians have their father's initials in english?Why dont we use our family names?Except tamilians everybody in the world use their family names.Westerners are "john smith,joseph rutherford".Northies are "Ramesh tappar, vijay malhothra".kannadigas are 'basavappa gowda".Andhraites are "kalyan obalampalli".Only we, tamilians are different.why?
When did tamilians start using english initials?why dont we use our family names?Family names are different from caste names.For example If I write my name in firstname/last name fashion ,I can write it as 'sampath nambur'.
In PS all characters have family names like 'vanthiya thevan' 'kandamaran sambuvarayan' etc.Even pinakapani is referred as 'vaithiyar magan' a.l.a 'Ivanaovich'.(Son of Ivan)At which point of time in history did tamilians drop our family names and started using english initials?
not an answer to your question but just a small trivia. some communities in the south especially nagaraththaars use the english version of their tamil initials
ramanathans son mueugappan will be called Rm. murugappan.( raavanna maanaa) alagappans son arunachalam will be called Al. arunachalam( azha)
families are often called with initials of their anscestors.