Mero Dhangadhi

what are the tope 10 most common nepali names and surnames?dont you think its weird how our parents have names like ram or laxmi and the younger generation doesn't? like woah things have changed by 180° within one generation

I couldn’t find a list of first names (one list I found listed Ashley and Bianca as common Nepali names lol). As for surnames, here you go (source) :

1. Chaudhary/Chowdhury  
2. Tamang
3. Gurung
4. Thapa
5. Rana
6. Yadav
7. Magar
8. Rai
9. Shrestha
10. Lama
11. Chhetri/Chetry
12. Shah/Sah
13. Sharma
14. Singh
15. Bishwakarma/B.K.
16. Maharjan
17. Nepali
18. Pariyar
19. Pokharel/Pokhrel
20. Tharu

I think the naming shift might be correlated to education and how accessibility of information has increased through the years. For example, the literacy rate in Nepal has increased compared to the past generations, so people can do research and read books to pick names for their kids. Another reason might be because of Bollywood and other movies or entertainment industries exposing people to new names. Back in the day, majority of the common people knew of gods and goddesses (Ram, Laxmi, Sita, Bhagwati etc etc are all popular names) so they named their kids as such because the names are very auspicious. In my family, for example, even my grandparents have fairly unique names for their generation, and it makes sense because some of my great grandfathers were priests who could study and pick names from religious texts, and such. I think in Hindu families, the priest is involved in the naming, so maybe back in the people only consulted the priest and didn’t really do research on their own. This is changing now. And names also depend on the time frame and what’s most popular when; maybe back in the names of gods and goddesses were more popular vs now where there are a whole other list of names. 

Disclaimer: This is NOT to say that unique names or more “modern” names are only given to people who come from more educated families!!! Or that the more common names of gods or goddesses are only given to people who can’t chose a unique name or are not educated!!! I’m just pointing out some reasons that I think might be related to the names shift. 

Hello, I have a problem and need some help. My family (chhetri) doesn't recognize their privilege in Nepal. This all started when my mom saw a post on FaceBook and it was honoring these 2 Newari people for being the first doctors in their village and my mom said "well they weren't this happy when a chhetri person became a doctor" (she's from the same village) and i said why does this make you so mad and that baun and chhetris have been oppressing everyone and they only help each other succeed

cont…. And my mom just went off saying “it doesn’t matter all you need is the mind of a doctor” she was basically saying lower class people don’t have the ability to be a doctor. God I was so pissed. It was so hard for me to explain her privilege to her because both of my parents grew up poor and didn’t finish school and no one in their family did either so I couldn’t use school/ money as an example of privilege. Sorry if this is hard I googled this but nothing really came up :/

First of all, good job on actually bringing up the topic with your mom because even talking about privilege with our parents is not an easy task. It can be difficult to see upper cast privilege especially if someone grew up in poverty in Nepal as that is a massive, massive struggle on its own. Can you maybe find some points in their lives when their status as a Chettri in Nepal somehow benefited them? Living in poverty in Nepal regardless of caste is very difficult so I can understand why you family isn’t recognizing their privilege. On top of that for your mom, being a woman in Nepal is another topic entirely. But a lot of times it’s also about connections. For example, there are a lot more Bauns and Chettris that work in companies or government positions, or education sector and even if someone grew up in poverty they have a higher chance of getting out if they’re upper-caste by using these connections through their relatives or family friends etc and getting opportunities through these connections. And on top of that some upper-caste people working in these industries probably have prejudices against people of lower caste, so they wouldn’t hire them and instead would opt for hiring a baun or chettri. And then there is the whole thing with marriage and how you shouldn’t marry outside your class; this further makes the situation worse and adds to people keeping the privilege and wealth within the already privileged and the wealthy. 

Sorry for getting to this answer this late. I have finals coming up so I took a break. Perhaps some of my followers are more knowledgeable about this issue and can share their opinions or experiences. 

I’m also going to attach some scholarly articles that I briefly examined relating to this issue. Do check them out because they are very informative:

• The Caste System: Effects on Poverty in India, Nepal and Sri Lanka , (Section V for Nepal)
  
• Poverty of Dalit Community in Nepal Caused by caste-based Discrimination (An analytical approach on eastern philosophy)
  

My tulo mummy (mom's sister) was told she might not get any more chemo and pain killers after a few weeks....I can't believe this. She might DIE all because India is throwing a fit for not getting what it wanted and the UN isn't doing anything about it.

I’m so sorry to hear that she might not be getting any meds soon. Stay strong! I did hear that Modi’s government lost the election in Bihar (neighboring Indian state where most of the supply comes from) and the parties that won, want the Indian federal government to piss off and I think they plan on ending the blockade. So hopefully this ends soon. It’s always the common people that suffer….it’s so unfair. :(

It’s absolute bullshit that this is happening and I want the Indian government to eat shit. They’ve broken so many trade agreements and it’s a humans rights violation, but the rest of the world is sleeping on it! Everyone was all about “helping Nepal” during the earthquake but now what? How about putting more pressure on the Indian government to not be a regional bully for once in their lives??