Kate Sharma: What's in a Name
*contains spoilers for season two of Bridgerton*
In a show as sweeping and romantic as Bridgerton is, it might be hard for some to single out one moment that stands above the rest as the most romantic. But for me personally, it was an absolute no brainer.
The moment comes near the end of the final episode in the second season, where Viscount Anthony Bridgerton heads to a secluded corner of the gardens in search of Kate Sharma, the woman he loves, to tell her exactly how he feels for her, and to ask her once again to marry him. Kate reciprocates his feelings though adds with a laugh that not a day will go by where Anthony won’t “vex” her, a joke back to their earlier animosity.
And then it happens. Anthony looks at her, a smile both on his face and in his eyes, and simply asks: “Is that a promise, Kathani Sharma?”
That moment, that look, that line, is - to me - the single most romantic thing the show has ever done. Allow me to explain.
I’ve never had the easiest time with my name.
Growing up in Canada, where most of the people I interacted with were primarily English speaking, my name always posed a problem. Despite literally being pronounced the way it’s spelled (are-zou), it always posed a problem.
Meeting new people always meant repeating my name more than once, and even then it was a toss-up whether or not they’d mangle it anyway (Marzin, Azoo, and Leslie come to mind). Having substitute teachers in elementary school meant just calling out “present” when they paused too long during attendance, rather than trying to teach a grown-up how to say my name properly.
And then of course, there came the questions as I got older. Did I have another name I could be called by? What was my “Canadian” name? I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t tempting to anglicize my name when I was a teenager, if only there were an easy way to do it. I wished for a middle name. I wished my parents had named me something “easier”. I would sometimes wonder what would happen if I just legally changed it when I turned eighteen.
Cut to me getting older, and my foolish, romantic heart wondered what would happen if ever I were to have a potential “meet-cute” with someone. Our eyes meet. Hearts race. We introduce ourselves, him giving me his name and me…slowly sounding mine out, only for him to mangle it and for the moment to pass into nothingness. Silly? Maybe. But a lifetime of hearing my name utterly destroyed by others (Azuza, Mazoo, Arjee) meant it certainly wasn’t a baseless thought.
Names hold power. We can change them all we want to suit the comfort of others (I have lost count of how many times I told the Starbucks barista my name was ‘Alison’), and that story is unfortunately all too common for those of us whose names do not suit the primary language of the place we call home.
Which brings me back to Kate Sharma.
Objectively, I understand what happened here. The character in the novel, The Viscount Who Loved Me, was named Katherine Sheffield, which naturally got shortened to Kate. In casting Simone Ashley, and in changing the characters background to Indian, changing her name to Kate Sharma made perfect sense to me, particularly when we find out early in the season that she was born in England. Of course her parents would give her an English name.
It’s only at the last minute that the audience learns “Kate” is an anglicized nickname for her full name, Kathani.
I myself am Iranian, not Indian. I cannot speak to how common a first name Kathani is, or to its meaning for a character like Kate. All I can speak to is what it meant to me.
Because the only person in the series to ever speak this name is Anthony, the man who loves her. After a whole season of Kate anticipating the needs of everyone around her, and trying to understand every facet of everyone else at the expense of herself, here comes someone who now understands every facet of her. Who embraces the part of her deemed unpalatable to the rest of society because it isn’t easy and convenient, and who does so with so much love in his eyes it was all I could do not to cry.
He sees her - every part of her - for who she is and loves the parts of herself she has deemed an inconvenience. Anthony is not interested in how Kate will suit others, he is merely interested in how they will suit each other. This goes beyond her name, of course, as there are many things about Kate that do not fit a narrow definition of what society deems acceptable. But in using her full name without her knowing, Anthony is showing her - and the audience by extension - that none of that matters, and that he truly does love everything she is. He tells her, in those few simple words, that although she will (he hopes) be marrying into the English aristocracy, that he intends to still love and honour her heritage, and every part of her that makes her who she is.
I have over the years come to accept and even love so many things about myself, my first name included. I can’t imagine any other name suiting me quite as well as my own does. Which is why, to me, there is nothing in this world quite as achingly romantic as a partner who might one day take the time to learn how to say it properly without trying to change it, or mangle it repeatedly because he isn’t listening. Someone for whom everything that makes me who I am is of equal importance and deserving of attention.
For all the things I wish Bridgerton had done differently in the second season, this small moment representing a true understanding between two characters is not one of them. They got this part of them exactly right, with six simple words that knocked my world right off its axis.
