Anura Gurugé: Name & Background

My last name is pronounced "guru ... gay". Guru-Gay. That is what that accent acute on the last 'e' is all about. My grandfather, who was a postman, came up with this English spelling somewhere in the very early 1900s. Not sure how he came up with that spelling but that is how it has been spelled way before my time.

In Sinhalese, which is its language of origin, it means "from the house of the teacher" -- where 'guru' means teacher and 'gay' means house. This is rather appropriate. My father devoted much of his life to education and my mother was a teacher. I also try and teach. So I like my name.

'Anura', in Sinhalese (with its origins, however, being Sanskrit), means a 'guiding light'. I can live with that.

Thus, 'Anura Guruge' means a: 'guiding light from the house of the teacher'.

The question is whether I have lived up to that?

I have never subscribed to 'Anglicizing' my name and referring to myself as 'Andy' -- though I know that it sure would have helped my career. But I like my name the way it is. It is me.

The Sri Lankan [née Ceylon] flag with its rampant lion (though Ceylon has never had lions).

I was born in Ceylon, a Sinhalese, in 1953.

I left Ceylon in 1967 and after a year in Buffalo, NY and another in Paris (France) ended up in the U.K. where I lived till 1985.

I became a British Citizen in 1983. Britain is still home for me though I haven't lived there in 20 years.

My mother, from early on, called me 'Anu'. So I accept that abbreviation. That is what most people now call me. Quite late in life I learned that 'Anu' is quite a special name! I was initially led to believe that it was the name of the Babylonian sun god. That amused me. I am a devoted sun worshipper (as testified by my permanent tan) and tried to get out of going to chapel when I was in school at Mill Hill (London -- which by the way was also where Dennis Thatcher went, though a few years before my time) by claiming to be a sun worshipper. Alas, that did not work.

'Anu' it transpires was the god of the sky and the father and ruler of all gods!

Methinks that that is pretty cool, not that I subscribe in any way to the Babylonian gods. But it is nice to know that your 'nickname' has some substance and legacy to it.

Given this genesis it is funny that most people think that Anu is a female name. I guess that is because in India it has been used in that context. As I assure people who get confused by this, I am certainly not a female. Sorry.

Talking of such things there is also a strain of amphibians [i.e. frogs] called 'Anura'. I, alak, can't take credit for that because I am not that partial to frogs. So that is all I can really tell you about my name and my origins. Thank you.

You can contact me at: anu@guruge.com or 603-455-0901 [New Hampshire, U.S.A.]

Name & Background

Old Ceylon Pictures