The Patel I know has a couple of motels here in middle Georgia - a landlord, if you will.
Alright, here’s a last name ending that I’ve always thought sounded melodious - jee. Where does that come from?
Born into Brothels. Those kids took some really interesting photos.
Could you elaborate on this? As an Indian-American that grew up in America, i’m very clueless about caste. Heck, I didn’t even know what caste i was until i was about 18, and then i promptly forgot it.
So, there are tell-tale signs? Any examples?
Some huge percentage of Indian motel owners in the United States are named Patel. In fact, I was in the audience of a speech by a one-time president of their association, one “Mike” Patel, who said that at one point insurance companies were putting Patels down as insurance fraudsters, because the name kept showing up on motel insurance claims.
The “ji” that you hear most often – as in “Gandhi-ji,” is an honorific, a particle of respect, if you will.
Then there are those common Bengali Brahmin names – Chatterji, Banerji, Mukherji, Bhattacharji. I’m not quite sure where the “ji” comes from there, except that these are considered Anglicized forms. If your name is Chatterji, Banerji, Bhattacharji, Ganguli, or Mukherji and you earn a degree from Calcutta University, your degree certificate will read Chattopadhyay, Bandopadhyay, Bhattacharya, Gangopadhyay, or Mukhopadhyay. This has tended to cause trouble for Bengali Brahmins who have immigrated to America and are required to demonstrate their academic credentials.
I think Anaamika is referring to City of Joy starring Patrick Swayze.
Ah, well, there’s the rub. Being American-born, I’m aware of the matter, but can’t play the game. I know about the caste connotations of certain family names, but that’s about it.
That’s the bunny.
“Ji” is just a word of respect. It’s like “sir” but not really. My mom used to call my dad “Ji?” And it just means respect.
I’ve got you beat, **acsenray **- I’m not American born. 
(Teasing of course.)
Thank you for the great info! Does that apply to last names of Muslims as well?
It doesn’t apply to last names at all, really. You could say it to anyone.
Ok, dude’s name is Anand Bakshi, right? You could say:
“Anandji”
“Bakshiji”
“Ji”
“Mr. Bakshi”
For Muslims you might say “ji”, but where I come from it’s more likely you say “sahib”. I don’t know why. So it then becomes:
“Khan sahib”
or
“Salmanji”
Weird, right?
In Northwestern India Hindi, urdu and punjabi are all intermingled and sometimes even native speakers aren’t sure which language, precisely, they are speaking. Muslim actors recite religious sayings to Hindu gods in Hindi. Hindus are great lovers of Urdu poetry. So the divide between Muslim and Hindu in language blurs a bit.
I don’t think it’s the same in the rest of the country.
So, if I work with a man who’s older than me and goes by his initials of (for example) P.K. , I could call him PKji?
As others have said, anyone can tell what caste you’re from. Not only that, but which area of the country, etc. etc…
There are a few names that overlap between sub-cultures-Joshi, Desai and Rao are the big ones I’ve noted that seem to be running all over the place.
I wouldn’t really care if someone asked me what caste I am-it’s more amusing than anything else. Especially the follow up questions, which usually consist of “well, your family must be very rich then.” Just because you’re brahmin doesn’t mean your family was wealthy-many Brahmins were lower-middle class/not very monied. I can’t say what someone directly from India would feel-well, I am hot and fresh off the mothership in terms of birthplace but I left when I was 2 so I don’t think it really counts. I don’t know what anyone who grew up in India would actually feel-I know my parents would be simultaneously amused and eager to explain all about how India is The Awesome. But that’s because they are like the desi versions of My Big Fat Greek Wedding.
Nawth Chucka, those initials usually stand for someone’s long-ass legal name. I have one myself-I prefer to be called “Anu”. I’m “A.S. My Lastname” professionally, my dad is “S.K. OurLastName” professionally. We prefer to be called Uday and Anu-those are our “house” names. However, some people do go by their initials, usually because their house names are ridiculously funny.
Indian immigrants to the USA are classified as “brown.” Specifically, they are “technical support/cardiologist” brown, so unlike other “brown” people, we should treat them as though we don’t notice that they are “brown”.
This extremely offensive racist comment is brought to you by Aasif Mandvi and not to be taken seriously in any way.
Oh, yes, I’ve seen his full name and it is indeed long (five syllables for the last name alone) and doesn’t trip well off the Middle Georgia tongue. But since he calls himself PK, can I add -ji to that appropriately?
If you know him to be an agreeable fellow of moderately sound temperament with a modicum of humour, perhaps. Potentially he could be offended that you think he’s old enough to qualify for adult pampers.
See the thought of you maybe calling him “Uncle P.K.” at work is enough to send me into gales of laughter so I’d say go for it. If he’s not an asswipe he’ll recognise it for the adorable gesture and shoutout to his heri-taaaage that it is.
Yeeaaahhh - we ain’t that close. He’s not an asswipe, but I don’t want to look like one either. Maybe I should decorate my outside office window for Diwali instead?
The subject came up in college with some friends who were all several generations removed from their emigrating ancestors, and the response was “only Brahmin families keep that up beyond the second generation.” They had a :rolleyes: attitude towards Indians who still made a big deal about it.
Interesting thread. Thanks for the responses.
Practices of addressing people in India are extremely fluid and versatile. You hear people calling each other all kinds of things. Shopkeepers are likely to address you with a term that means “big brother” or “big sister.”
So, yeah, I guess you could call him that. He might find it strange to hear it out of context though.
Generally speaking, the vast majority of the people who go by the form P.K. Srivastavan on their official documents are people who, strickly speaking, don’t have family names. “Srivastavan” is the given name. “P.K.” stands for some combination of indicators, usually father’s name and ancestral village (e.g., Pandukrishnavasavan Kananahalli). So those people go by “Srivastavan,” not P.K., and it would make more sense to address them as Srivastavan-Ji rather than P.K.-ji.
A lot of other people might also use the form P.K. Rao, in which Rao is the family name, but you’ll see the names spelled out on documents (Parvinder Kumar Rao) and they’ll usually be addressed in informal contexts with the given name (just like in Anglo-American tradition) – Parvinder or Parv or Vinder or something. Some of these people, following traditional British custom, will just go by the initials “P.K.,” and in these cases P.K.-ji would make sense.
Anu, don’t you mean “P.K.-Uncle”? 
“Sahib” essentially indicates that you’re treating the person as being outside your identity group. So Englishmen were always addressed as “sahib.” In my parents’ Bengali-American social circle, one of the women is married to a Bihari and everyone addresses him as “Lastname-Sahib.”
Amongst Bengalis, it is traditional for Bengali men to be addressed either as “Firstname-Babu” or (slightly more formal) “Lastname-Moshai.”
You can almost always address a Sikh man with the respectful “Sardar-ji.” (“Sardar” meaning literally, “commander.”)
Family friends are addressed with family relationship terms. So your parents’ friends and your friends’ parents are addressed as if they were your aunts and uncles.
ascenray, thank you, that makes sense.
Sardarji I know, though I rarely use the term…too many jokes from Punjab with the “Sardarji” motif, so I find it’s safer just to say “Sasria’kal” and that always gets me a smile.
(People assume Punjabi=Sikh, though, which is a misconception I will spend my whole life fixing. I am not a Jatti! Of course this whole paragraph is probably incomprehensible to most non-Indians.)