Meaning of “Prasham”

I was named Prasham the day I was born – contrary to what mostly happens in Hindu families where they name a child on the 11th day of his/her birth. A neighbor of ours at the time, whom we call ‘Anu Didi,’ named me so. Her logic was pretty simple; she took the first syllables from my elder sister’s name (Pragya), father’s name (Shyam), and mother’s name (Manju). In this way, I became Prasham.

I was unaware of my name’s meaning until I was ~14. For that reason, I disliked it as well. To me, it sounded very feminine as I had always (and still do) admired names such as: Dalabhanjan, Chandraprakash, Shatrumardan, Rudrapratap, and so on as they sound very intimidating, hefty, and macho.

Whenever someone asked me about the meaning of my name, for a very long period of my life, I had no answers to give them. So, I just had to say “I don’t know.” Or “This word doesn’t exist anywhere else.” I can’t remember how many times I’ve blamed Anu Didi for giving me a name that was empty on the outside, yet felt heavy to have. Some relatives also disdained my name by calling it a foreign-culture-influenced name. A few of them even confronted my mother about it right in front of me when I was still a child. Despite experiencing those incidents, I myself have never liked parents giving their children imported names from the English novels and stories (for e.g., Richmond, James, Jessica) – and I still don’t. So, no hard feelings towards them.

However, when I Googled “प्रशम” – the search engine took me to Wiktionary (विकिशब्दकोश). When I opened the webpage, I discovered that the word was composed as: प्र + शम = प्रशम [Src: sa.wiktionary.org/wiki/प्रशम] Where:

• प्र = A prefix (उपसर्ग) which means: intense, complete; special; and forward/upward. [Src: प्रज्ञा नेपाली बृहत् शब्दकोश]
• शम = A state of mental peace; to cultivate inner peace; self-control over senses/impulses; a feeling of peacefulness; to forgive; to neutralize chaos. [Src: प्रज्ञा नेपाली बृहत् शब्दकोश]

When I personally analyzed how the prefix Pra- is used in various terms in the Amarkosh and Nepali Shabdakosh, I got to the conclusion that in case of my name, it best means “complete” or “intense”. Therefore, the closest meaning of my name could possibly be – an intense feeling of stable peacefulness through restrained senses. It can also be interpreted as to completely neutralize something. I hope to own its meaning too.

I’ve searched the entire internet yet found no other Prasham. Now, I feel quite glad that I have this unique name and I love it – now, I wish I could even patent it. All thanks to Anu Didi and my family who decided to keep it.