This is one of those rare occasions that my last name is getting the spotlight. My last name, Prashant, is usually found hiding in the shadows of my bold, unconventional first name – Krshna, without the i. For as long as I can remember, my misspelt, misgendered, conspicuous first name has been a topic of conversation – bringing me questions, taunts and compliments in equal measure. As a child, navigating the many intricacies of my loaded first name left me with little room to consider my last, until I moved out of Bangalore.

“So your full name has two first names?” my Singaporean classmate asked when I introduced myself. I was 17 when I realised that having your father’s first name for your last name was something people could be surprised by.

Maybe I was oblivious because I grew up in South India where this is common – but it never dawned on me that I didn’t have an ancestral last name that I shared with my parents. The signs outside the houses in Golden Enclave Apartments would read “The Guptas” or “The Iyers”, but the sign outside mine would read Nirmala Menon – Prashant Sankaran – Krshna Prashant. Mail from bank statements to birthday cards addressed to these names would all arrive at the same doorstep. My mother would joke that the postman could easily mistake us for college roommates.

My parents say they didn’t give my last name much thought. In fact, they hadn’t even discussed it. When the doctor asked my mother what my last name would be for the birth cerificate, she just said “Prashant” like it was the most natural, obvious thing. I have been called Krshna Prashant since. With – two first names – as if it carries two separate people – me, and my father right beside me.

I take comfort in how often we say, hear and write our names. In knowing that for as long as I live, I will have daily reminders that my father is never too far away. And that regardless of where I go, at the very least, I will always have Krshna, Prashant.