> Very little is known of Mr. Balwani, including why he is called “Sunny.”

This might be because Saturday in Hindi and other Indian languages is “sunny-var”, and the day of the week you are born on is a common nickname, in conjunction with “sunny” being an easy to pronounce and common English word.

I am Indian and I've never heard the "day of the week as nickname" thing. Nicknames are generally shortened first names or (in hindu cases) based on some astrological calculations that are too detailed to explain here.

> ... or (in hindu cases) based on some astrological calculations that are too detailed to explain here.

I feel cheated. I got my nickname because my baby sister couldn't pronounce my name correctly.

This is absolutely incorrect. Saturday is called "Shani"-var (pronounced shunny) after the name for the Hindu god of justice [1]. Hindus also map his presence to the planet Saturn. Either way, no relation to the name Sunny at all. Source: several Indian friends of ages 18-50.

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shani

More commonly Shani is the harbinger of bad luck & retribution, which is why you’ll rarely see any Indian origin person named Shani. In a Hindu mythology Shani is the elder brother of Yama, the lord of death & justice.

Sometime people named Sunil, such as the cricketer Sunil Gavaskar, use Sunny as a nickname.

Thanks for the follow-up!

Hmm, I guess I was wrong? I only have the 1 datapoint of the Indian friend named Sunny who told me this.

Hey, maybe it factored into the decision to name them, although it's unlikely.

From what I understand, the reasons for picking nicknames are quite random. As another commenter mentioned, people named Sunil or Sanjeev go by Sunny sometimes, although other times it is just picked out of the blue, like with Bollywood actor Sunny Deol, whose real name is Ajay. His brother Vijay uses the screen name Bobby, by the way. Random.

"Sunny" is a common nickname in India but it has nothing to do with the day you were born on.

Oh, maybe I interpreted wrong. I do know that was the explanation given to me from a friend I have nicknamed Sunny.

The one thing I remember distinctly about Balwani (although I can't remember where from) was him boasting about the 100k LOC he wrote while at Microsoft. Like it was supposed to be a badge of honour or indicator of intellectual prowess.

Late 2000s early 10s it was common to boast about having shipped 100 kloc to the point some companies asked about it in interviews

And you d expect they d ask a random Indian in the street just it case, as you seem to say, this would be so trivial people dont feel the need to explain it.

It's usually against the style of news orgs like the NYT to guess at things like that, or go from general knowledge that may or may not apply.

Yes, I was just posting in a “fun fact” way. I have no idea if that is the real reason, and I doubt it is worth investigating .

Well I admit I also never understood the sunny nickname and I liked your explanation. Ofc I didnt counter check either hehe

Interesting, and is his birthday Sunday, June 13, 1965?

I have no idea if it is true in this specific case, just from what I know of Indian acquaintances who also go by Sunny. Very well could be he picked his own Englishized nickname to be Sunny because he was born on a Sunday, or any other reason.