Indian name

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages) This article possibly contains original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding inline citations. Statements consisting only of original research should be removed. (May 2011) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (November 2011) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Part of a series on the
Culture of India
Society Indians Folklore History Languages Holidays Religion
Arts and literature Art Architecture Cinema Comics Dance Festivals Literature Poetry Music Painting Sculpture Theatre
Others Cuisine Media Newspapers Radio Television Sports Traditional Video games Fashion Mythology Hindu Vedic Meitei Buddhist Folklore
Symbols Flag State Emblem Anthem Miss India World Heritage Sites Monuments
Organizations Ministry of Culture Ministry of Tourism Tourism Museums Incredible India
India portal
v t e

Indian names are based on a variety of systems and

In some cases, an Indian birth name is different from their official name; the birth name starts with a selected name from the person's horoscope (based on the nakshatra or lunar mansion corresponding to the person's birth).

Many children are given three names, sometimes as a part of religious teaching.

Pronunciation

This section may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. The specific problem is: Confusing and non-standard pronunciation guide. Please help improve this section if you can. (June 2019) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

When written in Latin script, Indian names may use the vowel characters to denote sounds different from conventional American or British English. Although some languages, like Kannada or Tamil, may have different vowel sounds, the ones used in most major Indian languages are represented in this table along with typical English transcriptions.

Furthermore, the letters used in English /t/ and /d/ that are used to represent the retroflex stops /ʈ/ and /ɖ/, are also used to represent dental stops /t̪/ and /d̪/ (as in Tenginkai or Rohit), especially when they occur in the onset of a word. As an example, the Indian name 'Dev' would not have its first consonant pronounced as in the American name 'Dave'. Similarly the name 'Tarun' would not have its first consonant sounded as in 'Tom'.

The letter 'h' is used to represent aspirated consonants. So, in the names 'Khare', 'Ghanshyam', 'Kaccha', 'Jhumki', 'Vitthal', 'Ranchodh', 'Uddhav', 'Phaneesh', and 'Bhanu,' the 'h' means the sound before it should be pronounced with a strong outward breath (see Aspirated consonant for more on this). These names are more likely to be found in places that speak an Indo-Aryan language like Bhojpuri or Gujarati.

Names by culture

Assamese

Assamese names follow the First name – Middle name – Surname or First name – Surname pattern. The Paik system used by various Assamese kingdoms, most notably the Ahom, granted men titles depending on the number of paiks they could command, and these titles are often still used as surnames today. Titles such as Bora (20), Saika (100), Hazarika (1000) imply that their ancestors commanded 20, 100 or 1000 men. The topmost ranks were granted titles such as Phukan, Barua and Rajkhowa. Some titles, such as Phukan, derive from Tai Ahom rather than Assamese. These surnames can be held by people from any community. For instance Binanda Chandra Barua. Binanda is the first name, Chandra the middle name and Barua the last name indicating his ancestors were high in the Paik system.^[2]

There are some community-specific surnames such as Gogoi (Ahom) and Sarma (Brahmin) (ex: Himanta Biswa Sarma). Tribal communities such as Boro, Dimasa and Karbi follow a similar naming scheme, although their surnames are generally clan names.^[2]

Bengali

Bengali names follow First name – Middle name – Surname pattern, as seen with Subhas Chandra Bose.

Bengali Brahmin surnames include Acharya, Banerjee, Bagchi, Bhaduri, Bhattacharjee, Chakraborty, Chatterjee, Ganguly, Goswami, Ghoshal, Lahiri, Maitra, Mukherjee, Sanyal, etc. A Brahmin name is often the name of the clan or gotra, but can be an honorific, such as Chakraborty or Bhattacharya.

Common Baidya surnames are Sengupta, Dasgupta, Duttagupta, Gupta, Das-Sharma, and Sen-Sharma.^{[citation needed]}

Bengali Kayastha surnames include Basu, Bose, Dutta, Ghosh, Choudhury, Guha, Mitra, Singh/Sinha, Pal, De/Dey/Deb/Dev, Palit, Chanda/Chandra, Das, Dam, Kar, Nandi, Nag, Som etc.^[3]

Odia

Odia names follow the First name – Middle name – Surname or First name – Surname pattern.

Odia surnames come from caste based on human occupation. For example, the common surnames Kar, Mohapatra, and Dash (as opposed to Das) are Brahmin surnames. Similarly, Misra/Mishra, Nanda, Rath, Shatapathi, Panda, Panigrahi, and Tripathi are all Brahmin surnames. Mohanty and Patnaik are Karan, others are Das, Samant Singh, Sundaraya, Jagdev, Baliarsingh, Harichandan, Manraj, Mardraj, Senapati, Srichandan, Pratihari, Paikray, Chhotray, Patasani, Parida, Samal, Sahu, Nayak, and Muduli.

Goan

Konkani people inhabiting Goa, and also Konkan regions of Karnataka and Maharashtra, use First name – Middle name – Village name/Surname pattern. Generally, the first name is followed by the father's name, though this is now mostly observed by Hindus, who are traditionally patriarchal.^[4]

Village names were used only after the arrival of the Portuguese, when the people migrated from their ancestral villages. A suffix kar or hailing from was attached to the village name.^[5]

Many of the originally Hindu residents were converted to Catholicism by the Portuguese. Almost all of the Konkani Catholics have Portuguese surnames like Rodrigues, Fernandes, Pereira and D'Souza.

Traditionally names were often borrowed from religion, but in modern times names are borrowed from literature, film, and politicians. Sanskrit tatsama names are also increasing as a source for names to the detriment of tadbhava and deshya names, especially amongst tribal groups. In modern times there has also been the creating of pleasant sounding but meaningless names, as well as the borrowing of foreign names among English educated metropolitans due to India's history with Britain. Mistry states these processes in name changes are due to social factors where members of the lower strata of Gujarati society adopt Sanskrit names in mimicry of higher strata, who must then create new names from native or foreign sources to maintain status. Another factor he states is the declining religiosity of modern generations.^[12]

Northern

This naming custom is prevalent throughout the Hindi Belt, and is also followed also by groups in this region who may not speak a Hindi-related language variety as their first language such as Gonds or Santals. Northern naming customs follow a standard pattern of First name – Middle name – Surname. Many times the middle name will be appended onto the first name, or not exist at all. Sometimes middle name would even be father's first name. The surname is most commonly a caste-related name however, there are some caste-neutral surnames like Kumar. For example: Bhajan Lal Sharma (Bhajan is his first name, Lal is a middle name, and Sharma is a caste surname). Many women, especially in rural areas, take on the surname Devi (meaning Goddess) or Kumari (princess) when they are married (ex. Phoolan Devi, known as Phoolan Mallah before marriage). Muslims in North India use Islamic naming conventions.^[13]

Kannada

North Karnataka follows the First name – Father's first name – Surname order. This system is also found in other parts of Karnataka.^{[citation needed]}

Surnames are drawn from the names of places, food items, dresses, temples, type of people, platforms, cities, professions, and so on.^[14] Surnames are drawn from many other sources.

Katti as a suffix is used for soldiers while Karadis is related to local folk art. Surnames according to trade or what they traditionally farm include Vastrad (piece of cloth), Kubasad (blouse), Menasinkai (chili), Ullagaddi (onion), Limbekai, Ballolli (garlic), Tenginkai (coconut), Byali (pulse), and Akki (rice). Surnames based on house include Doddamani (big house), Hadimani (house next to the road), Kattimani (house with a platform in its front), Bevinmarad (person having a big

In coastal Karnataka, the surnames are different in different regions. Surnames like Hegde and Hebbar belong to the Brahmin community, while other titles like Ballal, Shetty, and Rai are mostly used by the landed Bunt community. Names in coastal Karnataka have both systems Village name–Father's name–Personal name–Surname and Personal name – Father's name – Surname. ^{[citation needed]}

Names in South Karnataka follow Village name – Father's name – Personal name – Surname. Examples:

• H[aradanahalli] D[evegowda] Kumaraswamy: Haradanahalli is his native village, Devegowda is his father's name, and Kumaraswamy is his given name.
• T[umkur] M[ahesh] Pranav: Tumkur is his native town, Mahesh is his father's name, and Pranav is his given name.

For married women, it is Husband's name – First name or the opposite (ex. Sumalatha Ambareesh, where Ambareesh is her husband's name).^[13]

In South Karnataka, caste names are not common except among the higher castes.

Nicknames often replace family names. Hence, some family names like Razdan and Nehru may very well be derived originally from the Kaul family tree.[15]

Malayali

Malayali surname includes Nair, Menon, Pillai, Nambootri, Panikkar, and Kurup. Some

Members of the Menon, Nair, and related communities often use their mother's house name or directly add their caste name.[16] For example, Kannoth Karunakaran, Karunakaran is his given name and Kannoth is his mother's house name. P. K. Vasudevan Nair, Vasudevan is his given name and Nair is his caste surname.^[17] Most of the Malayalis write name as Given name – Father's name – Father's father's name/house name/village name – Surname/caste title. For instance, Shreelakshmi Dhanapalan Sadhu Kunjpilla; where Shreelakshmi is first name, Dhanapalan is middle name/father's name, Sadhu is grandfather's name, and Kujnpilla is surname/caste title. It might also be written as Shreelakshmi Dhanapalan S K.

Earlier times (until the 20th century) Malayali Christians (Nasranis) were bound by only Christian names and usually used the Family/house name – Father's name – Baptismal name naming convention. Nowadays, however, Christians have various naming conventions such as Name – Surname – Father's Name or Name – Father's name or Name – Surname or Name – Father's Name – Grandfather's Name. It can be concluded that Syrian Christian names are Patryonmic. E.g.:

Marathi

Marathi people of Hindu religion follow a partially patronymic naming system. For example, it is customary to associate the father's name with the given name. In the case of married women, the husband's name is associated with the given name. Therefore, the constituents of a Marathi name as given name/first name, father/husband name, family name/surname. For example:

• Mahadev Govind Ranade: Here Mahadev is the given name, Govind is his father's given name and Ranade is the surname.
• Hridayan Chetan Thakur: "Hridayan" is a Sanskrit word that means "of the heart" or "pertaining to the heart." It is derived from the word "hridaya," which literally translates to "heart" or "center." In various contexts, "hridayan" can signify emotions, feelings, or the essence of something. The heart holds significant symbolism in many cultures, representing love, compassion, courage, and the core of one's being.
• Sunil Madhav Jadhav: Here Sunil is the given name, Madhav is his father's name and Jadhav is the surname.
• Jyotsna Mukund Khandekar: Here Jyotsna is the given name, Mukund is the husband's given name, and Khandekar is the surname of the husband^[18]

Personal names

Marathi Hindus choose given names for their children from a variety of sources. They could be characters from

Sikh names often have the following format: First name – Religious name – Family name. The religious name is always Singh for males and Kaur for females. Upon marriage, a Sikh woman will take the family name of the husband. The family name is sometimes used, but sometimes not. For instance Ranjit Singh, where Ranjit was his first name and Singh his last name, was from the Sandhawalia Jat clan, but did not use it as a surname. However many do use caste/clan names, such as Bhagwant Singh Mann, where Bhagwant is the first name, Singh the religious name and Mann the Jat clan to which he belongs.

Sardar for males and Sardarni for females are sometimes prefixed as titles. A lot of Sikh first names can be used by both sexes.^[13]

Tamil

Tamil names usually follow this pattern: Initial (Village name) – Initial (Father's name) – First name – Surname (Example: M.G. Ramachandran, where the M stands for Marudhur, and G stands for Gopalan, the father's name. Another example is R. Karthik, where R stands for Ravichandran, the father's name). There is a widespread usage of a patronym (use of the father's given name as the last name). This means that the first name of one generation becomes the last name of the next. In many cases, the father's given name appears as an initial and when written in full (for example, on a passport),^[30] the initial is expanded as last name. For example, a name like "R. Kumaresh" will be written in full as "or "Kumaresh Ramaiah", and refers to "Kumaresh son of Ramaiah". If Kumaresh then has a son named Vijay, then his name would be "K. Vijay" or "Vijay Kumaresh " as it would be in the West. There is also a general custom for Tamil women, after marriage to adopt their husband's first name as their new initial or new last name instead of their father's. A woman named K. Anitha / Anitha Kumaresh (Anitha daughter of Kumaresh) might change her name after marriage to S. Anitha / Anitha Saravanan (Anitha wife of Saravanan). However, these customs vary from family to family and are normally never carried on over successive generations.

Tamil Nadu, boasting numerous temples and a robust religious legacy, serves as a wellspring of inspiration for many Tamil names. These names often draw from the rich tapestry of Hindu deities, scriptures, and sacred texts. A prime example of this influence can be observed in names like "Arjun" and "Karthik," which resonate with the narratives and virtuous attributes associated with these divine beings.^[31]

Due to the influence of the Dravidian movement, from the 1930s, most Tamils abandoned their surnames, both in India and nations like Singapore, due to the arising consciousness that these surnames were synonymous with their caste identity, leading to social stigma.^[32][33]

More common among women, making the patronym or husband name the last name is a custom adopted by people migrating to the West, who want to be called by their first names without having to explain Indian naming conventions. However, women frequently adopt their father's or husband's name, and take it for successive generations.

The various Tamil caste names include

Telugu people have a different naming style from the rest of India. The family name is a genitive case, hence stands first, which is followed by personal name.^[36] This practice of placing family name first is also seen in Chinese, Japanese and Hungarians.^[36]

Thus "Family name (surname), Given name" format is contrasted from North India where family name typically appears last or other parts of South India where family names are little used. This might cause confusion to varying degree within India and rest of the world.^[37]

Occasionally, caste name is also suffixed at the end. For example, Neelam Sanjiva Reddy, where Neelam is the family name, Sanjiva is the given name, and Reddy is the caste name.

Occasionally, some Telugu names may follow a slightly different convention where two personal names are given along with a family name. In the name, Aakula Anjaneya Prasad, Aakula is the family name and Anjaneya Prasad are the given names.

Muslims however have family names expressed at the end of their names.^[38]

Personal names

Telugu people are often named after Hindu gods or goddesses.^[36]

Family names

Nearly all Telugus possess family names called "Inti peru" (lit. 'House name'), which are the most unique of all the linguistic groups in India.^[39]

Telugu family names are often named after a place. For example, Pasupaleti after Pasupaleru, Kondaveeti after

Telugu family names are often abbreviated and written, e.g., P. V. Narasimha Rao, D. Ramanaidu, etc., unlike western names where given name is abbreviated.[36]

Indexing

According to The Chicago Manual of Style, Indian names are usually indexed by the family name, with the family name separated from the other names by a comma, but indexing may differ according to the local usage and the preferences of the individual.^[40]

Global Indian influence in names

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (November 2019)

See

• Indian honorifics
• Place names in India
• Surnames by country

References