Shakespeare asked what's in a name. If he had been sitting in a taxi outside Chandigarh airport at midnight, he might have had a more urgent answer.
I recently came across a sharp little piece by Jayanti Dutta in a political and economic weekly that stuck with me, as it details a quietly serious century-old naming mix-up among Punjab universities to prove that such errors are usually funny only until they cost someone time, money, or a night's sleep.
Four universities, one very tired search engine
It starts in Lahore in 1882, where a university was founded through public initiative. Since it belonged to the whole region, it was not called Lahore University. It was called Punjab University.
Then Partition happened. The university split in two. The original stayed in Lahore, and a new one was set up on the Indian side. In 1956 the Indian one moved to Chandigarh. To tell the two apart, it took on a different English spelling: Panjab University. Punjab with an "a".
Then things got messier. In 1962, a university in Patiala, about 70 km away, was named Punjabi University, after the language, art and literature it set out to promote. Later, a private university called Chandigarh University came up near Mohali, barely 25 km from Chandigarh. Despite the name, it has no real connection with the city.
So today there is Panjab University in Chandigarh, Chandigarh University in Punjab and Punjabi University in Patiala. If that sentence made you pause, you already understand the problem.
When one letter becomes a logistics problem
The confusion plays out in all kinds of ways. Search engines often mix up the Punjab and Panjab universities, so people end up hunting for a professor's profile on the wrong website. Stories do the rounds of a delegate from Karnataka who landed in Patiala for a conference that was actually being held at Panjab University in Chandigarh. Another visiting professor, headed for Punjabi University, was picked up from the airport and dropped at Panjab University in the dead of night by a taxi driver who did not know better. All because of a difference of two vowels.
Faculty from Panjab University are often introduced at conferences elsewhere as professors from Chandigarh University, which is a completely different institution. Prospective students and their parents get baffled too. Some set out to apply to one and end up at another, and a few people have even alleged that this confusion amounts to student poaching.
It is not just a joke
What I found most interesting is the part that moves past the humour. A university's name is the core of its brand. When the name is not unique, peers who give feedback to ranking agencies may be thinking of the wrong institution. That feedback eventually feeds into national rankings. Panjab University even put a disclaimer on its website clarifying that it has no relation to Chandigarh University.
My takeaway
I work with websites, search and content, so this one hit home. Names are infrastructure. They decide how people find you, how search engines understand you, and whether a taxi driver takes you to the right gate. A name that is easy to confuse is a cost you keep paying.
So the next time you name a site, a brand or a project, check what else already answers to that name, and how many vowels separate you from it.