by D. Samarender Reddy
Shakespeare wrote in Romeo and Juliet, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other word would smell as sweet”. Juliet says this line to Romeo to convey that names are just conventions with no meaning.
However, if Shakespeare had asked the question, “What’s in a surname?” he would have been forced to reckon with an altogether different reality, especially in India.
A surname in India often comes with a whole lot of baggage, indicating one’s caste, region, mother tongue, etc.
For instance, my surname “Reddy” is associated with a host of stereotypes, which people are quick to use to form an opinion about me. No matter how different two Reddys may be from one another as chalk from cheese, people are wont to see only the truth of stereotypes in every Reddy and are blinded to the individuality that each of us possess.
To be sure, there could be a few similarities between two people with the same surname, but that is true even of two people with different surnames. However, when the former comes to our attention, we are wont to use that to confirm our stereotype about that surname, and in the latter case, dismiss the similarities as being due to an anomaly or an aberration.
What is worse, we ourselves slowly begin to form an opinion about ourselves and form an identity about ourselves around the stereotypes of that surname because how others see us often shapes our own views about ourselves.
The fact is, every one of us has more or less similar natures as human beings, wanting the same damn things, such as affection, love, respect, admiration, money, name, power, etc., differing only in degree, and beset by very similar vices, such as pride, vanity, jealousy, envy, sloth, hatred, anger, etc., again differing only in degree.
That being the case, it is fallacious to think that we are somehow different from each other, based on caste, race, ethnicity, nationality, religious affiliation, etc.
But, the surname (and often the name also) circumscribes our identity to an erroneous field of Being, as if that identity is formed due to an ontological difference and not due to the sociopolitical, economic, and historical factors shaping our identities.
Hence, to truly liberate people from this abomination, we should seriously consider not having any surname. Everyone should have only one name, the first and only name, that they answer to.
Of course, even a first name can give away a lot, but at least some evils we would have conquered by abolishing surnames aka last names.
See also:
Know Thyself 
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