While Kareena earlier said that she loves the name and its meaning, Saif, in an interview with Delhi Times, revealed that he wants to change Taimur Ali Khan’s name.
The Rangoon actor felt pressurised after his son was trolled for his unique name to such an extent that he ended up writing a letter to change it. “I thought for a second about changing his name. For a couple of weeks. And Kareena was a little against it.
She said, ‘People respect you for your opinion and you can’t’… So I said, yeah, but it’s not about people. I don’t want him to get unpopular. And I still might, maybe when he’s one or two, I might change his name in a while, it’s still sinking in, what to do,” said Saif.
Saif had the support of his PR machinery but he himself felt disgusted with the decision later, “Someone in my PR agreed with me, and we drafted a small letter.
And when I read it, it was so pathetic, that I cancelled the idea. Because it was really like, uhh, ‘I’m sorry’, and ‘I didn’t want to offend’ and ‘I’m an idiot’ (laughs), and you know, I’ve given in to pressure. It just sounded awful. However you write it, it just wasn’t sounding right. It was like I didn’t realise where I live or what I’m doing. So I did think about it. I thought about it, but it was for the wrong reason.”
“Yes, even today. My daughter told me, why don’t you say that you have not named him after Timur Lang, say that’s Timur and this is Taimur. I said it still sounds similar. She says just say they have same roots.
The name is nice and it sounds good and it means something nice but it is not named after that guy. Well, yes, the name is the same, but the name also predates the person called Timur Lang,” said Saif.
Interestingly Saif also mentioned that how superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s name too has a historic connection to Timur but he is still loved by people worldwide. Saif said, “Incidentally, Timur Lang’s son was Shah Rukh, who is the guy who supposedly said we should actually plunder India. A lot of fighting was done by his sons, but nobody has a problem with the name Shah Rukh (laughs).”
