Note 10 — Religion

There does not seem to be any special principle underlying the giving of names to children, nor do such names as a rule resemble those of their fathers. Like some of the lower castes among their Hindu neighbours, children often take the name of the day or the month in which they were born.10 Hence we often find such names as Deobar, Mangal, Budhu, as also Mághuá, Pháguná (names of months), &c., in use among the Kacháris. Other names are obviously adopted from the Hindus, e.g., Gangá Rám, Sáti Rám, &c. Others, again, were probably given by the mother in infancy expressive of some peculiarity in the new-born child’s mental or physical temperament. Of this type, probably, is a very common name, “Khángkhoá,” i.e., the “voracious one,” the “great eater.”11 Another illustration is the name Gáb-grá, i.e., the weeper, the crier, &c., &c. In short, any unusually prominent physical peculiarity is often seized upon to become the name by which the child is known throughout his whole after-life.