The tl;dr for people who aren’t really bothered:

  • Ant is short for Ananth, shorter for Ananthajit.

  • I’ve used Ant more than Ananth for the past 4 years so just call me Ant, I guess. Nothing wrong with the latter, I like Ant more. It’s also a lot harder to get wrong.

  • Yes, it’s pronounced like the insect in English (American, British, Indian, take your pick. It’s all the same for this word). Not like “Aunt” in British English.

  • Don’t ever call me by my full first name. Feels weird.

  • Don’t ever call me by my last name. That’s my Dad.

Names

Over the past 4+ years, I’ve been asked the following questions quite a few times:

  • Is Ant the name your parents gave you?
  • Is it short for something? More specifically, is it short for Anthony?
  • What’s your full name? How do I pronounce it?
  • And more…

I feel like having one reference for how my name works and (why there are so many) would be helpful.

Name One: Ananthajit

My name (by law) is Ananthajit Srikanth. If you can read Sanskrit, that’s written,

अनन्तजित् श्रीकान्त्

If you can read IPA, that’s

ənəntədʒɪt sɾiːkaːnt

If you check the IPA chart for Sanskrit or Tamil, you’ll realize that that’s probably not 100% accurate. Then again, was IPA designed with Indian languages in mind? 1 That being said, these are the sounds that best matched ipachart.com.

One might argue that the last name doesn’t match how some states would pronounce it (i.e. ʃɾiː). I’m not sure why this is the case. That being said, it sounds different enough that I’m particular about pronouncing it as specified by the person whose name contains the “Sri/Shri”. Growing up, it’s always been the former so I assume that I have no reason to change that.

and if you can read IAST, that’s

Anantajit Srīkānth

Not much changed in that last one.

My first name can be found in Verse 33 of the Vishnu Sahasrnāmam, which is where the name originates. In case you’re curious, it literally translates to “He who has infinite victories” 2.

My parents only really call me this when I don’t respond to them at home, sort of like that joke where a kid’s knows they’re in big trouble when their mother calls them by their full name.

That being said, don’t call me this. It’s just weird and kinda over-the-top. Pronounce it once, I’m impressed. But preferably keep it to that one time.

Another reason I don’t go by this name is how easy it for people to mispronounce. Growing up, I’ve been called:

  • Ananth-jeet.
  • Anan-jee
  • and some others I’ve mentioned below that I think warrant their own section

I’ve also been called by my last name. For the love of god do not ever call me “Srikanth” or Mr. Srikanth. Due to how patronymics work in our family, Srikanth is my father’s first name 3. It feels incredibly weird being called by my father’s name so please don’t call me that.

Name Two: Ananth

When I lived in India, this is what my parents called me. This is what my friends called me on a day to day basis. Then why not stick with it?

You see, Ananth is similar to a much more common name. Ānand. The emphasis is on that first Ā. It sounds similar but it means something completely different. Ānand means happiness. I’ve also had my name misspelt as Anath (which can be read to mean orphan. Yeah. I don’t like that).

Much like with Kamala Harris’ name (as it would be pronounced in the U.S.) 4, I’ve often seen people emphasize the wrong letter. For the rest of this pronunciation guide, I’m going to focus on the more Indian pronunciations of the name, not on code-switched equivalents.

Schwas

The schwa [ə] represents an “uh” sound, e.g.

  • English: The u in “bun”. 5
  • French: The u in “un” or “lundi”

More often than not I’ve had my name pronounced ɐnaːnt (uh-naanth) which I totally get. It’s ok. But I couldn’t go around correcting every person and professor I met about the correct pronunciation of my name, could I?

There’s two “uh” sounds in the name, and neither really has greater emphasis. It’s pretty flat.

And this is why:

Name Three: Ant

Sometimes, my mom would jokingly call me “an ant” as a play on my name, and I kinda liked Ant (pronounced ænt), so I decided to use it. A name so simple nobody could mispronounce it.

Ant is convenient. Nowadays, I introduce myself saying:

“Hi! I’m Ant, like the insect”.

That being said, some people try too hard and think that it’s pronounced like “Aunt” (in the British way). No. It’s literally the insect. Don’t overcomplicate it.

Other Names

I’ll very quickly go through other names or names I’ve been called but don’t like:

  • Anantha-Raman-Jit: Why did you add that in the middle? This is why I will never trust a Tae-Kwon-Do Instructor 6.
  • Anan: You don’t get to decide where to split up my name. I would like to preserve its semantics thank you very much.
  • Victor: Ok this one was funny since one of my professors in undergrad called me this out of nowhere. From a meaning standpoint, this is probably a good translation and I kinda like it. If you call me Victor I guess that’s fine but I might not respond to you because it doesn’t register in my head.

I really don’t know how to end this. I’ve seen how much of a smile it can put on a person’s face if you pronounce their name correctly. Try it.

Attributions: I’d like to thank my good friends and editors Sameer Dash and Aly Cerruti for improving my drafts.

  1. That was rhetorical. ⏎
  2. you might have noticed that it's part of a larger word. I recommend looking at Sandhi rules if you would like to know why. ⏎
  3. Similarly his last name is his father's first name, and so on. ⏎
  4. I don't know the IPA particularly well, but once you've read the whole /ə/ vs /ʌ/ thing, I think I'd transcribe her name as follows: - kəməlaː for the Tamil pronunciation - ˈkɑːmələ, if Wikipedia is to be believed on IPA transcriptions. ⏎
  5. Technically, that's a /ʌ/ (wedge) but if I'm being totally honest the difference isn't as audible if you're trying to pronounce my name. From what I understand, wedges are "full" or stressed vowels, but there isn't really any stress in my name. You could stress the "nan" in "Ananth" and it'd be fine, I guess. I don't discern the difference. To know more about the schwa/wedge split, read this. ⏎
  6. The context is that I had an instructor as a kid who thought it was kinda funny to make a play on words on my name and he taught Tae-Kwon-Do. Let me make it clear that I have nothing against Tae-Kwon-Do instructors in general, just that one guy. ⏎