| We are a multi-ethnic family
blending different cultures, traditions and languages - allowing
us to enjoy some of the wonderful diversity in our world today.
About Our Family Name:
The
Khambatti family gets its name from the island of
Khambat
(formerly Cambay) that lies off the coast of southern Gujarat (a
state in Western India). Some people think Khambat was the
location of a 9,500 year old urban civilization. Read
about the debate on
Frontline and on
Wikipedia.
|
Interesting Fact!! |
We
almost would have been the Bharucha family (meaning
"from Bharuch"), except that when my paternal
grandparents came to Mumbai (formerly Bombay) from
Khambat, people began calling them Khambatti. Until the
early 1900's people's last names were still being
changed to indicate the place where they came from or
their profession, e.g. Tanvir Karachiwala for
Tanvir the person from Karachi, or Pankaj Bandookwala
for Pankaj the person who sells guns (Bandook). |
There are other families that
share the same name, sometimes with a different spelling (e.g.
Khambati, Khambaty, Khambatta, etc.). This is due to the way in
which people got their last names until the early part of last
century, i.e. based on the region you came from.
Related Families:
We are not necessarily related to
anyone with the same last name - it just means that some
generations ago, our forefathers came from the same place, i.e.
Khambat (or people thought they did)
The Khambatti family is closely
related to these other families: Anderson, Abbas Ali, Bakhala, Bankhead, Barbhaiwala, Cementwala, Dhansura, Dhorajiwala, Godhrawala,
Goriawala, Hussain, Khedapa, Mulla, Poonawala, Taylor, Zaveri
You can imagine that family
reunions (usually at weddings) are a blast!
The Khambatti Family Tree:
Facts and Figures:
|
Population |
over 75 people! (counting
related families) |
|
Languages |
English (primary), other
languages spoken with varying degrees of fluency include
Arabic, Bengali, French, German, Gujarati, Hindi,
Marathi and Urdu |
|
Regions |
16 cities and 6 countries |
|
Occupation |
Various occupations in
Medicine & Health, Law, Finance, Art & Design, Academia,
Engineering & Technology, and Commerce |
|
