Is your surname Sinha or Singha?
In colonial India, surnames were simplified and standardised to make them palatable to Western ears. Our family surname ‘Singha’ was changed to Sinha- along with people from all over Northern India with whom we share little culturally 1/4

But in the UK, I found people couldn't pronounce Sinha. Sinha doesn’t mean anything but Singha means ‘lion’/ having a lion-like quality. Popular in Asian culture-Singhalese in Sri Lanka, Singapore (correct spelling Singha-pur- country of the Lions) and even a beer, Singha 2/4

All my certificates in English were under Sinha, so I thought long and hard about changing it back to the original. Then Bombay became Mumbai, Poona became Pune and Calcutta became Kolkata. Yet I was still holding on to my colonial surname. 3/4

In 2016, even though my book Autotelic Architect was in production, I decided to change my surname back to the original. That is why pre-2016 my books are under the surname Sinha and the later ones to Singha. 4/4

And here is another anecdote- When I started out as a young architect in the 1990’s, I was told by a friend that I would get ahead in architecture if I changed my name to Sue Jordan (Sue taken from Su-mita and Jordan from my married surname). 1/1

In 1993, the woman handing out my certificate in Business management remarked, ‘Your name is so difficult to pronounce’. I said, ‘My name is written phonetically, so you can try. But your name is more difficult to pronounce.’ Her name was Anne- she wasn’t happy! 1/2