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ArchivesRe: help on Indian name
in reply to a message by Bridget
Could you provide anything else? How is this name pronounced, for example, and even if it is from a literary source, could you provide some indication of the cultural context (last name, religion, linguistic background etc.) I do not recognize the name with this spelling, but it sounds vaguely similar to a few familiar names.
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I dont really know that much about it. but you pronounce it (son-seer)
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Could it, for example, be shamsher? That is closest (in my reckoning) familiar name to son-seer. It is used in Punjab (but also in the muslim world) and the folk etymology links it to sam (like) sher (lion), though I am not sure that is the correct (i.e. historical: some parents definitely use this as the meaning, so it is `correct' in that sense) etymology. I could try to think more about it, but do not know off hand.
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Sorry, forgot to mention the cause for my doubt: from the distribution of the name, the phonological structure of the word, and the curious combination of elements in the folk etymology, I would have guessed it is actually a Farsi word which moved over to the Hindu culture through the Muslims. I am not at all sure, though: in part, because the folk etymology is certainly possible, and in part because Farsi is completely Greek to me :-)
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