Whats in a name?

Conversation between me and my Father-in-law today went this ways.
FIL: Do you know Sanskrit?
Me: Well, not really. Never studied in school. Knowledge of Sanskrit ends with some mantras/shlokas I might have learnt as a child with no attempt to know the meaning or whatever.
FIL: Do not feel offended but I was going through this (On the exterior, it was a torn and tattered sheet of paper of which I did not make an attempt to inspect contents) and happened to notice that your name RT means misery, pain.
Me: (visibly startled).. Whoa! I have always believed RT means worship, light... blah blah.. Even in Hindi, it means blah blah.. (Struggling to impress him with the limited knowledge of the meaning of my name and whatever positive aspect I could derive out of it)
FIL: That is the meaning in Tamil. In Sanskrit it means pain. So I have decided that from now onwards, I am not going to call you RT but XYZ (some basic type name I wouldn’t consider naming even my daughter's uncle's brother-in-law's grandchild)
Me: *Rolling my eyes* Gah..!
(MIL came into the scene to add to FIL's support)
MIL: In Maharashtra, women after marriage are given new names and are addressed that for the rest of their lives. And who knows, with the new name, your elusive abroad trip will materialize and good luck will come your way.
Me: *cringe* Yikes! (scooted out of the scene without turning back)

Initially, as anyone would have expected, I was kind of outraged by the whole negative analysis on my name, which my parents have fondly christened me with.
[Digression: The story goes back in time about 30 years, when dad was a bachelor who came to Bombay in search of a job with dreams and aspirations of making it big in the city of dreams as it is aptly called. He used to share his apartment with 2-3 other bachelors who worked with him and who still, continue to be his very close friends. Typical bachelor talks about life, career, promotion, marriage, children in that chronological order resulted in a heated and animated discussion on the name of their first-born. By stroke of telepathy or chemistry or whatever you'd call it, all the four were instantly in love with the name RT. All signed a verbal pact that if they had a daughter, they would all name her RT. And to everyone's intrigue, 3 out of 4 had named their first-born daughter as RT. And the fourth had a son. End-Digression]

Anyway, after the whole momentary thought process of resentment went past, a string of thoughts formed in my mind about the whole concept of name and the associated numerological innuendos and the astrologers etc who formed the 'middlemen'. I am not particularly religious or believe in such stuff and admittedly, look at all this with utmost skepticism and sarcasm. At the same time, I do not go around discerning and criticizing people who follow all of this. I guess, in reality, I am just a minority. It is rather fashionable these days to have a spiritual guru and gloat about the said guru and his 'teachings' in gatherings. Mrs. Kokilaben Ambani, Ms. (K)Ekta Kapoor notwithstanding.

I have digressed again. So as I was saying, I was just wondering about the credibility of idea of changing one's name to bring good luck. How does it matter to my guiding stars and guardian angels whether my name is RT or XYZ. Probably XYZ means murder, terror or some such outrageous word in some other language. What’s there in a name anyway? How does it help me get a promotion? How does it help in contributing to nation's GDP? How does it help provide good education to my Bai's child who's dropped out of school to take care of her younger siblings? Does the name change to XYZ give me some magical powers by which, with a swoosh of a wand; I'll visit exotic countries, become rich and famous without lifting my little finger? Where are the people who preached perseverance and hard work pays and lauded the dude who came up with "God helps those who help themselves"?

And I wonder wistfully. What Faith does to people!