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Indian names are based on a variety of systems and naming conventions, which vary from region to region. In Indian cultures, names hold profound significance and play a crucial role in an individual's life. The importance of names is deeply rooted in the country's diverse and ancient cultural heritage. Names are also influenced by religion and caste and may come from epics. In Hindu culture, names are often chosen based on astrological and numerological principles. It is believed that a person's name can influence their destiny, and selecting the right name is essential for a prosperous and harmonious life. Astrologers may be consulted to ensure a name aligns with the individual's birth chart. India's population speaks a wide variety of languages and nearly every major religion in the world has a following in India. This variety makes for subtle, often confusing, differences in names and naming styles. Due to Greater India, several names across South Asia and Southeast Asia are influenced by or adapted from Indian names or words.
In some cases, an Indian birth name is different from their official name; the birth name starts with a selected name from the Hindu astrology (based on the nakshatra or lunar mansion corresponding to the person's birth).
Many children are given three names, sometimes as a part of a religious teaching.
Research suggests that many Indians have officially adopted caste-neutral last names to mitigate historical inequalities. Some of India’s most famous celebrities have changed their names. For example, Amitabh Bachchan was originally named Inquilab Srivastava, Akshay Kumar was named Rajiv Hari Om Bhatia, and Dilip Kumar was originally named Muhammad Yusuf Khan. In many parts of India, the practice of name “doubling” is now wide-spread, i.e. a citizen adopts a “caste-neutral” last name for school, work and official settings, but retains a traditional name for personal interaction or to access certain state schemes.
| + !IPA | ə/ɔ | aː | ɪ | iː | ʊ | uː | eː | ɛː/əɪ/ɔi | o | ɔː/əʊ/ou |
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', 'Siddharth', '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, Gujarati, Punjabi language, or Bundeli language
There are some community-specific surnames such as Gogoi (Ahom people) and Sharma (Assamese Brahmin) (ex: Himanta Biswa Sarma). Tribal communities such as Boro, Dimasa people and Karbi people follow a similar naming scheme, although their surnames are generally clan names.
Bengali Brahmin surnames include Acharjee, Banerjee, Bagchi, Bhaduri, Bhattacharjee, Chakraborty, Chatterjee, Ganguly, Goswami, Ghosal, Lahiri, Maitra, Mukherjee, Sanyal, Kanjilal, Bhattashali, Putatundu 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, Debgupta, Sen, Gupta, Das Sharma, and Sen Sharma.
Bengali Kayastha surnames include Basu, Dutta, Ghosh, Chowdhury, Roy Chowdhury, Ray, Guha, Mitra, Sinha, Pal, De/Dey/Deb/Dev, Palit, Chanda/Chandra, Das, Rakshit, Sen, Dam, Dhar, Mallik, Kar, Nandi, Nag, Som, etc.
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, Mishra, Nanda, Rath, Satpathy, Panda, Panigrahi, and Tripathi are all Brahmin surnames.
Mohanty, Das, Chowdhury, Ray, Kanungo, Mangaraj, Bohidar, Bakshi, Patnaik, Samantray, Routray, Mahasenapati, Srikarana, Chhotray and Das Mohapatra are Karan surnames. Others are Samant, Singhar, Sundaraya, Jagdev, Baliarsingh, Harichandan, Mardraj, Srichandan, Pratihari, Paikray, Patasani, Parida, Samal, Sahu, Nayak, and Muduli.
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.
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. Catholic families belonging to the Roman Catholic Brahmin (Bamonn) caste use Lusophone versions of Hindu surnames like Prabhu, Bhat, etc.
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 creation of Euphony but meaningless names, as well as the borrowing of foreign names among English language-educated metropolitans due to British Raj. 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.
North Karnataka follows the First name – Father's first name – Surname order. This system is also found in other parts of Karnataka.
Surnames are drawn from the names of places, food items, dresses, temples, type of people, platforms, cities, professions, and so on. 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 neem tree near his house), and Hunasimarad (person having a big tamarind tree near his house). A carpenter will have Badigar as a surname, while Mirjankar, Belagavi, Hublikar, and Jamkhandi are surnames drawn from places. Angadi (shop), Amavasya (new moon day), Kage (crow), Bandi (bullock cart), Kuri (sheep), Kudari (horse), Toppige (cap), Beegadkai (key), Pyati (market), Hanagi (comb), and Rotti (bread) are some other surnames.
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.
Names in South Karnataka follow Village name – Father's name – Personal name – Surname. Examples:
For married women, it is Husband's name – First name or the opposite (ex. Sumalatha, where Ambareesh is her husband's name).
In South Karnataka, caste names are not common except among the higher castes. Kannada Brahmins have surnames like Rao, Murthy, Poojari, and Bhat. The title Gowda was a title given to any village headman, irrespective of caste, and was written as an appendage to the person's name. For example Siddaramaiah's father belonged to the Kuruba community but was called Siddarame Gowda. Nowadays it is mostly used as a Vokkaliga surname. Most people in South Karnataka, regardless of caste, do not use caste surnames.
Nicknames often replace family names. Hence, some family names like Razdan and Nehru may very well be derived originally from the Kaul family tree.' Toward Freedom: An Autobiography of JawaharLal Nehru', the first prime minister of India. Chapter III - Descent from Kashmir, p. 16.
Nehru Says:
We were Kashmiris. Over two hundred years ago, early in the eighteenth century, our ancestor came down from that mountain valley to seek fame and fortune in the rich plains below. Those were the days of the decline of the Moghal Empire.
Raj Kaul was the name of that ancestor of ours, and he had gained eminence as a Sanskrit and Persian scholar. He attracted the notice of the Emperor and, probably at his instance, the family migrated to Delhi, the imperial capital, about the year 1716. A jagir with a house situated on the banks of a canal had been granted to Raj Kaul, and, from the fact of this residence, "Nehru" (from nahar, a canal) came to be attached to his name. Kaul had been the family name; in later years, this dropped out and we became simply Nehrus.
Members of the Menon, Nair, and related communities often use their mother's house name or directly add their caste name. 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. Most of the Malayalis write name as Given name – Father's name – Grandfather'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.: Arackaparambil Kurien Antony, better known as A. K. Antony, here the politician's name is Antony while his father's name is Kurien, while his family name is Arackaparambil. During the 20th century some names were created by joining two or more syllables. For example, Abey (AB), Aji (AG), Bibi (BB), Biji (BG), Siby (CB) and so on. Today, several Syrian Christians name their children with popular Indian names like Deepak, Rahul, Neethu, Asha etc. But by the 21st century more biblical names began to reappear. Thus names like, Isaac, Joshua, David, Saul, Ezekiel, Timothy, appeared on the scene.
Families of the historical Maratha chiefs use their clan name as their surname. Some of these are Jadhav, Bhosale, Chavan, Shinde, Shirke, More, Nimbalkar, Pawar, and Ghatge. Members of the numerically largest Maratha-Kunbi cultivator class among Marathi people have also adopted some of the Maratha clan names, whether to indicate allegiance to the Maratha chief they served, or as an attempt at upward mobility.
In rural areas of Punjab, wives generally do not refer to their husbands by their actual first name, preferring instead to use vocative rather than interrogative intonative language. Methods of this including calling their husband as the father of one of their children, such as "the father of Ram", or by using expressions, such as bolde náī 'don't or suNde o 'do. Some rural wives only call their husbands with the ji honorific. Another naming trend in rural Punjab is naming children "unflattering names with negative overtones" due to a prevailing superstition.
Many Sikhs append the name of their sub-caste (known as a got in Punjabi and gotra in Hindi) as their surname. (1989). 9788170010470, South Asia Books. ISBN 9788170010470 A got is an exogamous grouping within a particular caste (known as a zat in Punjabi and jati in Hindi). A zat is an endogamous caste grouping, which contains gots under it. Some Sikhs are against the usage of got names as surnames because they think it promotes the Caste and the discrimination that comes from it, which is against Sikh doctrines. Sikhs tend to marry someone belonging to a different got as themself whilst belonging to the same zat. Since the second-half of the 20th century, some Sikhs from socially and economically-disadvantaged castes have adopted the gotra names of privileged castes as their surnames in an attempt to hide their original caste-background and seek upward social mobility.
Sardar for males and Sardarni for females are sometimes prefixed as titles. A lot of Sikh first names can be used by both sexes.
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.
One of the factors is 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. This is just one of the reasons.M. V. Krishnaswamy (2025). 9788185692326, International School of Dravidian Linguistics. . ISBN 9788185692326
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 Paraiyar, Vishwakarma, Aachari, Konar, Idaiyar, Reddiar, Udayar, Yadav, Iyengar, Iyer, Pillai, Mudaliar, Thevar, Nadar, Chettiar, Gounder, Naicker, Vanniyar etc. The naming is therefore done in the fashion: Sunitha Ram Kumar Iyer. And hence they are known to only use initials besides their name except for when caste names are given more preference by certain families rather than the family name itself.Sakkottai Krishnaswami Aiyangar (2025). 9788120609990, Asian Educational Services. ISBN 9788120609990
This " Family name (surname), Given name" format differs from that used in North India, where the family name typically appears last. This practice also contrasts with that of other parts of South India, where family names are little used. These differences can sometimes cause confusion within India and rest of the world.
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.
Telugu Muslims, however, typically have family names expressed at the end of their names.
Telugu family names are often named after places. For example, Pasupaleti after Pasupaleru, Kondaveeti after Kondaveedu Fort, Kandukuri after Kandukur, etc. Unlike western names, in which the family name is more well known than the personal name, among the Telugu given names are how people are most widely known.
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.
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