How the name 'Uttaratani' was chose for Uttarayani, the organization

 It was early 1993. 

JP Mamgain helped in arranging a small meeting at Taj Mansingh hotel in Delhi. In the small meeting room in the hotel basement, some 10 Uttarakhandi officers from the central government met to discuss how to take the group forward.

Till now, and for many years after this, the meetings of this group were held in a semi-formal format: a small agenda would be placed before the group, a discussion would take place, followed by a contributory lunch.

Manoj Pandey had taken upon himself to fix dates for next meetings, draw an agenda in consultation with a few other Uttarakhandis in Shastri Bhawan and North Block, often anchor the meeting, and publish informal minutes in the form of a newsletter.

A group was active in organizing the meetings and doing preliminary discussions on pressing topics. This included HC Jayal, HG Upreti, MR Thapliyal, Shashi Bhushan Uniyal and Manoj Pandey. Others who took equal interest in the initial years include TC Pant, JP Mamgain, US Pant, LS Negi, PL Arya (Dr) and SP Kala. (Some names might be missing; those who attended the meeting may kindly like to inform about them.)

Back to the meeting at Hotel Taj Mansingh and the naming of the group. 

As usual Manoj Pandey had come with an agenda, which had been evolved in consultation with HC Jayal, Shashi Bhushan and HG Upreti, and this time it included giving a proper name to the group. 

The proposal included Uttarayan, Uttara, The Hill People, and some other names in Hindi and English. 

During discussion, it was suggested that since the group is an organization (sanstha), it should have a feminine name. So, Uttarayan became Uttarayani. It was perhaps SP Kala and JP Mamgain, who proposed that this name should be taken as approved, and should be in use from that day itself. 

While designing a logo for Uttarayani newsletter, the Shastri Bhawan group came up with the idea of two hills, representing Kumaon and Garhwal, and the sun rising in the middle of the two. It was also a popular representation of the rising sun, taught in drawing classes in schools. In the linked blog post, you can see how the logo appeared on Uttarayani's newsletters: Uttarayani newsletter I