The Namesake characters

Also known as Gogol, Nikhil

Appears from the start

The American-born son of Ashima and Ashoke Ganguli. A delayed letter from India leaves his parents without the name his great-grandmother chose, so they temporarily call him Gogol, departing from the Bengali custom of keeping a pet name separate from a formal one.

Appears from the start

Gogol's mother, who leaves Calcutta after an arranged marriage and begins married life near Boston. Pregnant with her first child, she feels isolated and homesick without her relatives nearby, and the American hospital makes even childbirth feel foreign to her.

Appears from the start

Gogol's father, an engineering student when he marries Ashima and brings her to Massachusetts. Quiet, studious, and more willing than his wife to embrace life abroad, he chooses Gogol's temporary name because the Russian writer has private importance to him.

First appears in chapter 3

Gogol's younger sister, born after the Gangulis have settled more securely in the Boston suburbs. She receives both her formal and everyday name from her parents and grows up sharing Gogol's experience of an American childhood within a Bengali family.

First appears in chapter 5

A fellow Yale student whom Gogol meets during a train journey. Their relationship gives him an early experience of adult intimacy away from his family and the identity attached to his childhood name.

First appears in chapter 6

A sophisticated young woman Gogol meets in New York while working as an architect. She is confident, affectionate, and closely connected to her parents, whose relaxed and affluent household offers Gogol a way of life markedly different from his own family's.

First appears in chapter 6

Maxine's father, who lives with his wife Lydia in an elegant New York home. Cultivated and welcoming, he includes Gogol easily in the family's meals, conversations, and summer routines.

First appears in chapter 6

Maxine's mother and Gerald's wife. Her warm, informal relationship with her adult daughter and the comfort of their household fascinate Gogol, who becomes a frequent guest.

First appears in chapter 8

The daughter of Bengali family friends, known to Gogol since childhood but reintroduced to him as an adult. She has studied in Paris, works in academia, and initially shares with Gogol a sense of how family expectations and American independence can pull in different directions.

First appears in chapter 10

An unremarkable man from Moushumi's past whom she unexpectedly encounters again. Their earlier acquaintance belongs to a private part of her life that predates her renewed relationship with Gogol.