In The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri, Gogol’s name is clearly an important element. I’ve traced the events where it’s most central and found an evolution of his name.
His name is given to him by his father, Ashoke. “With a slight quiver of recognition, as if he’d known it all along, the perfect pet name for his son occurs to Ashoke. He remembers the page crumpled tightly in his fingers...but for the first time he thinks of that moment not with terror, but with gratitude. ‘Hello Gogol,’” (28). The train crash where Ashoke almost lost his life is the event that he is referencing in this quote. Nikolai Gogol is author of the book that Ashoke clutched the pages of in his last lucid moments before revival. He names his son this because of a mental rebirth of the memory, turning it into something that puts his current life into perspective instead of just a dark event where he almost died. So although Gogol’s name doesn’t mean anything as a name itself, it’s a symbol of personal growth and spiritual enlightenment.
When Gogol was little, he didn’t mind his name. “It doesn’t bother him that his name is never an option on key chains or metal pins or refrigerator magnets...After a year of two, the students no longer tease and say ‘Giggle’ or ‘Gargle,’” (66,67). This period in time could be perceived as a “coming to terms” with his name, but in reality, it’s an indifference. It isn’t a direct burden to Gogol, but he isn’t particularly pleased with it either. As a little boy, there weren’t many things of importance that Gogol could have had a serious opinion on. The role of children through the eyes of an adult is to go with the flow of what the parents present to the child. The ambivalence regarding his name soon grows to dislike then to hatred.
Gogol exhibits the hatred he feels towards his own name in various instances during his teenage and young adult life. “He hates having to live with it...day after day, second after second,” “Gogol sounds ludicrous to his ears, lacking dignity or gravity,” (76). The depth of his hatred for his name shows his issues with identity. His rejection of his name, although not Bengali, is a rejection of his Bengali culture and family. His father gave him his name, and it was based on something undeniably sacred to his father, and yet he hates it because it sounds funny in the mouth of an American.
In high school, his name becomes a grand source of humiliation. His English teacher for his junior year is the first person in the book to recognize his name. The teacher proceeds to give the whole class a crude, harsh account of Nikolai Gogol’s life, including how he was paranoid, sickly, and rumored to have died a virgin (88-91). Gogol expresses his embarrassment and discomfort with the information, “each time the name is uttered, he quietly winces,” (91). Even more than the unfortunate information about whom he was named after, this lecture becomes a lasting memory of social and personal agony. The painful memory of this embarrassment coupled with the hated he developed work to create the basis for Gogol’s effective rejection of his name.
Gogol’s contempt for his name lead him to change it. He first changes him name unofficially in order to have a girl he meets, Kim, focus on him instead of his “weird” name. He creates an alter ego with his new name. After kissing Kim, Gogol admits that “it hadn’t been Gogol who kissed Kim...That Gogol had nothing to do with it,” (96). By socially adopting his middle name as his first, Gogol’s creating a new version of himself. His new name was thought to allow Gogol to approach women. His name change boosts the self esteem that he longed for when he was younger. Then, Gogol continues on to legally change his name in a courthouse in Boston. When asked by the judge the reason for his name change, he chooses to share, “‘I hate the name Gogol,’ he says. ‘I’ve always hated it,” (102).
He continues to dislike his name, until he finds a name that he hated even more than his own. When the name hatred surpasses his own, it was a personal conflict with the person whose name defines. His wife reveals that she was having an affair with a man named Dimitri, and Gogol reflected, “And for the first time in his life, another man’s name upset Gogol more than his own, (283). So the evolution of Gogol’s name goes from a wonderful and meaningful name to a hated utterance that is legally denounced, to a final passing of the abhorrent burden to another man’s name.
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