What's in a NAME

My friend (Ajmal Bhopal) has written in his Urdu blog about 'name' and I read some comments but I cant write Urdu, so I am writing my own here for those who may feel interested
Yes, there is no doubt Rasoolullah SAWS did advise to choose good names for your children and it is true some people, usually out of ignorance, will name their children without some meaning and some will go to the extreme of "celebrating' something like one Sikh (I only heard about it, so dont quote me and this is not meant to be a joke or any demeaning statement about Sikhs either) named his son "Ike Singh" because child was born on the day of Ike's visit to Delhi.
However one thing about names in the West and especially US is that almost invariably the name is "shortened" (Like you see about General Eisenhour, shortened to Ike). So if Zakaria is changed to Zack and Maqsud is changed to Mack, it is not surprising.
Does that mean that we should start 'keeping American names" instead of our usual Muslim names?
I dont agree with that. I think we should continue following our Prophet's teaching, but not get'disappointed' on hearing its short version. I remember Moeen Akhter (the celebrated commediene of pakistan) saying something of that kind in a satirical fashion and I did not disagree with the satire (not in Pakistan). Here in USA name- shortening is "cultural norm" with high degree of approval (such expression is indicative of love rather than disrespect--like in England somebody tells you "you can call me by first name" which means he considers you a close friend)
My friend here tells me of his PhD degree which when he obtained his teacher told him that' now you can call me Bill' (not the true name), but being a Pakistani and well grounded in "eastern" tradition of respect for the teacher) my friend could not muster enough strength to say those words. When he repeated the "Doctor so and so" third time, the teacher got almost annoyed and demanded from my friend to call him Bill. An Englishman on the other hand would have continued to "enjoy the respect", indefinitely. (That is the cultural thing also)
Having lived in USA for so long now I feel that shortening the name does not necessarily mean "bigarrna". So you can now label me "Americanized"
I have much more to talk about the name because my own name is kind of 'rare' (very uncommon even in Pakistan) I do like my name a lot and salute my father who chose it.
It is only in the last few years of my life (and strangely, only in USA) that I have met two Wahaj-s, Of course one is "Siraj Wahaj" which is a 'double-barrel' name and not quite like my single barrrel. I could go on about my name but I still have not seen any "Wahajud-Din".
I must stop here because I have had so much more experience about my name during the last X number of years, that this blog will become an essay,( a sachchi kahani and lumbee).