In Jhumpa Lahiri's novel, The Namesake, Ashoke and Ashima Ganguli emigrate to the United States from India. Not long after they arrive, their first child is born  — a son. According to Bengali tradition, a respected family member is given the naming privilege, but in the case of this immigrant family, the grandmother's letter never arrives. There is a cultural clash from the beginning. In India, the naming of a child is a warm, family-oriented and leisurely affair. In America, bureaucracy demands that baby not be released from hospital without a name on his birth certificate. Luckily, Indian tradition allows for a pet or nickname to be chosen. The parents choose the name Gogol after the Russian writer, Nikolai Gogol.

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