Indian name

Indian family names are based on a variety of systems and naming conventions, which vary from region to region. Names are also influenced by religion and caste and may come from epics. 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. For example, the concept of a family name did not exist widely in Tamil Nadu.

For many Indians, their birth name is different from their official name; the birth name starts with a letter auspicious on the basis of the person's horoscope (based on the nakshatra or lunar mansion corresponding to the person's birth).

In communities that don't use family names, the third name can be a god's name, or the grandfather's or grandmother's name, depending on the sex of the child. Many children are given two names, sometimes as a part of religious teaching.

North Indian names

Kashmiri names

Kashmiri names often have the following format: given name, middle name (optional), family name. (For example: Jawahar Lal Nehru)

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

Popular Kashmiri family names include: Adalti, Agha, Aima, Ambardar, Atal, Bazaaz, Bhan, Budshah, Bhagati, Bhat, Daftari, Darbari, Dar/Dhar, Durani, Farash, Fotedar, Ganju, Garyali, Gilani, Haak, Hangal, Jalla, Jalali, Kandhari, Kaul/Koul, Khemu, Khan, Khandaar, Kilam, Mattoo, Moza (short for Mozaz), Nadeer, Nadeem, Nakhasi, Nakshband, Nehru, Ogra, Pandit, Parimoo, Pir, Qasba, Qazi, Qasid, Raina, Razdan, Safaya, Sapru, Saproo, Saraaf, Sopori, Sultan, Tikku/Tickoo, Toshkhani, Toorki/Turki, Wazir, Wakil, Wali, Zalpuri, Zarabi, Zutshi.
Most of these family names are common to both Kashmiri Muslims and Kashmiri Pandits (Brahmins).

Punjabi names

Punjabi names often have the following format: given name, middle name (optional), family name. (For example: Jasminder Singh Brar)

The Surname is the most important component of the name, and shows which cast the person belongs to. Common Punjabi surnames include: Grewal , Garewal, Gill, Sekhon, Brar, Sahota, Dhaliwal, Deol, Duggal, Arora, Singla, Garg, Bansal, Sharma, Toor, Sidhu, Sandhu and Many More.

There are a variety of nicknames which can be divided into many categories.

Northeast and East Indian names

Family names in the northeast and east of India are most commonly originally derived from professions in the caste system.

Assamese names

Ahom names follow the format of: given name, middle name, family name. The Ahom community have a naming system that is loosely based on the profession of their ancestors during the reigns of the Ahom kings.

The last name "Saikia" indicates a commander over 100 soldiers ("sa" is 100), and the last name "Hazarika" indicates a commander over 1000 soldiers ("hazar" is 1000). Some other last names are based on the words "bor" ("elder") and "bura" ("older"): Bora, Borbora, Barua, Borbarua, Gohain, Borgohain, Buragohain. Some last names are the same as those in other parts of northern India, such as Das, Sarma, and Chaudhary.

Bengali names

Bengali names have the following format: given name, middle name, family name. In casual conversation, people may omit middle names. Often, the middle name is not the father's name. There are no patronymics.

Sometimes honorifics are used with the family name, or the family name may be dropped completely. Some honorifics are Purkayastha, Chaudhuri, Ray Chaudhuri, Paul, Ganguly, Bose, and Dutta. Some upper-caste names are Mitra,Ghosh,Paul (Bengali),Banerjee,Chatterjee,Mukherjee,Bose, after Brahmin names like Ganguly, Chaudhuri, and Ray Chaudhuri. A Brahmin name is often the name of the clan or gotra, but can be an honorific, such as Chakravarti or Bhattacharya.

Other Bengali names include Bhuinya,chanda, Deb, Deb-nath, Deb-rai, Malakar, Nath, Guha, Guha-Thakurta, Gupto, Dasgupta, Sengupta, Shorma, Sil, Shil, Sheel, Shilsharma,Dash-Shorma, Deb-Shorma, Dash-Munshi, Munshi, Dewanji, Munshiji, Kannungo/Qannungoh, Mahalanobis, Kundu, Kar, Purakayastha/Purkait etc.

Oriya names

Many Oriya family names come from jobs in the caste system:

Some Brahmin family names are: Mishra, Padhy, Padhi, Mohapatra, Dash (as opposed to Das), Kar, Diwedi, Trivedi, Samantaray, Purohit,Sarangi, Nanda, Ratha, Panda, Satapathy, Panigrahi, Tripathy, Muni, Upadhya, Dwivedi, Chaturvedi, and Mavinkurve

Some Khandayat family names are: Bishoyi,Pradhan, Samal, Paikaray, Srichandan, Dalasingharay, Jujharsingh, Gumansingh, Samatasinghar, Sundarray, Jagdev,Jena, Baliarsingh, Harichandan, Mangaraj, Mardaraj, Senapati, Rao, Rout, Swain, Routaray, Pratihari, Chhotaray, Champatiray, Samantaray, Khandayatray/raj, Pattasani, Satrusalya, Danadapatta, Mansingh, Dalei/Dalabehera, Raya guru, Badajena/Jena, Bidyadhara, Mohapatra. Khandayats were the caste of warriors who protected Orissa over thousands of years.

Some Karana family names are: Mohanty, Pattnaik, and Das.

Western Indian names

Family names in western India are most commonly derived from patronyms. However, town of origin and caste is also sometimes the source of family names.

Gujarati and Marathi names

In Gujarat and Maharashtra the most common format for names is: given name, father's name (Middle name), last name. For example, for cricketer Sunil Manohar Gavaskar, "Sunil" is his given name, "Manohar" is his father's name, and "Gavaskar" is his family name.

Traditionally, when a woman marries, she takes her husband's given name as her middle name, in addition to taking his family name. In Maharashtra, people sometimes name a baby boy after one of his grandfathers.

In Gujarat, when friends talk to one another, they may show affection by appending "brother" or "sister" to their names. "bhai", "kumar", and "lal" mean "brother", and "ben" and "bahen" mean "sister." For example, a man named Sunil may be called "Sunilbhai," and a woman named Lata may be called "Lataben." Similarly, in Maharashtra, Sunil may be called "Sunilrao."

Common Gujarati family names include Patel, Soni, Mehta, Jani, Modi, Desai, Parekh, Shah and Chudasama. Common Marathi family names include Kulkarni, Soman, Joshi, Deshpande, Deshmukh, Chaudhary, Kolte, Jadhav, Shinde and Patil. The family name "Bhat" is used for a Maharashtrian Brahmin; an extra "t" is added for the Gujaratis.

In Gujarat, family names ending in the suffix 'vala' or 'walla' may refer to the place where a person resides when written on wedding invitations (concotri), when listing members of the family. Someone who did not live locally, for example, someone from London may have his surname put down as 'Guidowalla' just to describe the fact they reside there; their actual surname might be the normal family name. It also may describe the ancestral village of the family when used as the actual surname. For example, if a family moves from the village of Meh to another place, they may change their family name to "Mehwalla," to indicate that they came from Meh. Or a family who works with wood may use the family name "Lakdawalla," to indicate that they work with wood.

A number of Marathi family names end in "kar:" Kelkar, Gavaskar, Tendulkar, Savarkar, Madgulkar, Mayekar, Agarkar, Pendharkar, Acharekar, Navalkar, Joglekar, Juhekar, Deuskar, Manglokar, Chindarkar, Sarvankar, Mankar,Matondkar, Shegaonkar and Mondkar. The family name may indicate the village where the family came from. For example, the family name "Chindarkar" may mean that the family came from the town of Chindar. Other common names are Bhosle, Rao, Gaekwad, Mohite, Desai, Joshi, etc.

Marathi last names and origins are extremely well documented, possibly going back for hundreds of years. See the main article Maratha clan system.

Konkani names

Konkani people inhabit the states of Goa, Maharashtra, Karnataka and some parts of Kerala. Basically Hindus, some later converted to Catholicism. They are strictly patriarchal, thus the first name is always followed by the fathers names, though it's now only strictly observed by Hindus.

Hindus used titles like Shenai, Kamati, Shett, Parpati, Mahale, Naik, Nayak, Kini, Bhatt or the caste identifying names such as Gaude, Velip, Mulli, Chari etc.

Village names were used by them only after the advent of the Portuguese, when they migrated from their ancestral villages. A suffix kaar or hailing from was attached to the village names, e.g., Khorjuvekar, Chodankar, Raikar, Borkar, Vernekar, Kerkar. This practice is still alive today, and almost all Goans and a few of the Konkanis in other states use their original village names (where their ancestors belonged) before the Inquisition followed by their mass migrations to other places in Goa and other states.

Surnames denoting occupations are also common, e.g.Abhisheki, Teli,Kansar, Vaidya,Tanksali.

Almost all the Konkani Catholics have adopted Portuguese surnames surnames like, Rodriguez, Fernandes, Pereira, Souza. However,a few families from the Gauda and Kunbi community bear their original last names like Gavkaar etc. Similarly, many Catholic families belonging to the Roman Catholic Brahmin (Bamonn) caste use their original Hindu surnames such as Prabhu, Shenoy, Naik, Pai, Shet, Bhat, etc.

South Indian names

For a long time, South Indians had a simple naming system. Historically, everyone was given a single name, which was chosen on the basis of one of three possible ways:

• The name of their village/town, e.g., Singri (singiri), Bangalore, Udyavara, Chitti, Kular, Chavali, Inkollu, Hattiangdi, Janaswamy, Hubli, Kokradi, Mangalore, etc.
• Their family/clan name, e.g., Pavuluru(ri), Pulithevar, Sahonta
• Caste name, e.g., Hegde, Bhat, gowda, Shetty, Rai, Iyer, Reddy, Chowdary, Rao, Ganakan Nair, Kaniyar, Naidu etc.

First names and given names

The naming convention among some South Indian communities (especially the Palghat Iyer community) is one where the first-born male child takes the name of the paternal grandfather; the second male child, the maternal grandfather; the first female child takes the name of the paternal grandmother and the second female child, the maternal grandmother. Naming of subsequently born children do not follow any particular convention and are named after family deities and the like. For example, the first born child to Kavassery Venkatraman Krishnan and Guruvayoor Shankaranarayan Lalitha (where Venkatraman is the child's paternal grandfather) would be named Venkatraman, and the second born male child would be named Shankaranarayanan. If the grandparents are alive when the grandchild is born, then the child is addressed by a given name or "pet name", so that the parents of the child can avoid the irreverance of uttering their parent's name while addressing their children.

Andhra Pradesh

In Andhra Pradesh, family names are most commonly derived from the name of their ancestral hometown or the family profession in the caste system. In this case sometimes the surname is placed before the given name.

While the Brahmin surnames can be listed as Tenali, Lanka, Devarakonda, Bhamidipati, Akula, Duvvuri, Pamarti, Addanki, Upadrashta, Vedula, Vedantam, Chakrala etc.

Some Telugu people have both village name and a caste name as part of their name, for instance Alluri Sita Rama Raju or Sita Rama Raju Alluri. Here Alluri is the surname referring the person's clan/ancestral home town, Sita Rama are the person's first and middle names and Raju is the caste name or sometimes they are called by their caste name alone, like Kumar Chowdary, Naidu, Raju or Reddy. Reddy is the most common last name in Telangana. There is no father's name as middle name in this region. In southern Andhra Pradesh, it is particularly common to use the caste name alongside the family name. Surnames starting with Yendluri, Pavuluru(ri) Chowdarys(Naidus) follow this system of naming.

It is common for Telugu women to adopt their husband's surname as their surname. Vangala (parent's surname) Radhika Reddy might change her name to Vemuri (husband's surname) Radhika Reddy after marriage.

Karnataka

In Karnataka, the naming convention is: given name, father's name (Middle name), last name (can reflect surname, family name, place, occupation etc.).

Manjunatha, Muralidhar, Venkatesha, Raghava, Radha Krishna Murthy, Shyam, Santosh, Raghavendra, Jayappa, Shayle, Mallappa, and Kantharajappa Vishwanath are some common names for men.

For women, names such as Bhagya, Bhagyalakshmi, Lakshmi,Savita, Rajeshwari, Shylaja, Manasa, Meera, Shanthala, Seeta, Uma, Gayathri, and Chaitra are all common names. It is customary for a woman to take on her husband's surname to reflect the symbolic change in moving out of her father's house and becoming part of the husband's family.

In villages and away from the city sometimes initials precede a given name. For example, Kagodu Bairappa Timmappa (village, father, given name). Sometimes only the village name precedes their given name. Some names explicitly mention affiliation to a family, such as Pasharara Kolli (Kolli of Pashara family) or Naigodara Kanni (Kanni of Naigod family). Common Kannada surnames include Murthy(also spelled Moorthi or Moorthy ), Patil, Gowda, Aitthal, Acharya, Holla. Besides many families from northern Karnataka have surnames like Desai(also spelled Desae), Deshpande, Deshmukh, Kulkarni,etc.

Kerala

Kerala was a feudal society up until the mid-20th century, and as such Keralites were strongly divided based on castes, more so than in other parts of South India. So-called upper class held the caste names as a symbol of societal status. Those who were suppressed and those who resisted the caste system (e.g.: A K Gopalan, Kelappan, Mannath Padmanabhan etc.) avoided caste names. (Swami Vivekananda called Kerala a “Mad Asylum” seeing the caste-based atrocities.)

In Kerala, the naming procedures are different in Travancore, Cochin and British Malabar:

In British Malabar the format followed is: Family name, Given name, Caste/title name (if applicable). Therefore Kannott Karunakaran Marar, can be interpreted as Karunakaran of the Marar caste' from the Kannoth family. A minority who held land and power oppressed the majority of the society in the name of caste. While these ones with power and land kept caste names as a status symbol, the majority has avoided caste names since it was considered as a symbol of slavery.

For centuries, the naming system in Kochi and Travancore has had the format: Family/House name (optional), father’s name, given name. E.g.: A K Antony: Arackaparambil (House Name) Kurian Pillai (Father’s Name with a title) Antony (First Name). Today, this age-old practice from the Southern Kerala has been adopted by people in Malabar too.

While Travancore and Kochi Muslims followed the common practice above, among the Malabar Muslims, it was a common practice in naming to mix (or localize) Arabic names (Given names) with Malayalam language ones, like "Putiyavittil Muḥammadutti" or "Fāṭimah Todiyattu" to "Pattumma Todiyattu". But currently complete Arabic names (Given names) are most probably used, in a Given name-Family name or Family name-Given name manner (Putiyavittil Inzamām or Ninā Rāshin Todiyattu). Among Christians in Kerala, it is a common practice to have a second given name (middle name) which is the baptismal name, usually the first name of a grandparent or godparent, like Roshni Mary George and Anoop Antony Philip.

Tamil

There is a widespread usage of a patronym (use of the father's given name as the second name). This means that the given name of one generation becomes the second name of the next. In many cases, the father's name appear as an initial and thus the given name may be presented as a second name. When written in full (like in passport), the initial is expanded as last name. For example a name like "R. Ramesh" or "Ramesh R.", will be written in full as "Ramesh Ramaiah", and refers to "Ramesh son of Ramaiah". If Ramesh then has a son named Ashvin, then his name would be "R. Ashvin" or "Ashvin Ramesh". There is also a general custom for Tamil women to adopt their husband's given name as their second name. Sunitha Gopalan (Sunitha daughter of Gopalan) might change her name to Sunitha Rajiv (Sunitha wife of Rajiv) after marriage. But these customs vary from family to family.

In earlier times, say a century or so back, Tamils also used the name of their ancestral hometown as first name, given name as middle name, and profession as the last name. There are variations in this as well: some Tamil people have both a village name and a caste name as part of their name while some use only one of them.

Some South Indians also use an inverted patronym. For example, Swati Krishna might write her name as Krishna Swati making her patronym the first name and given name the last name. More common among women, the inverted patronym is also adopted by people migrating West who want to be called by their given names without having to explain Indian naming conventions.

Also there might be last names based on the caste titles like - Iyer, Iyengar, Nadar, Gounder, Thevar, Naickker, Udayar, Chettiar, Mudaliar, Pillai, Aachari, etc. This has largely been dropped in the modern world. This is a significant departure from the rest of the country where caste or family names are mostly employed as surnames.

Initials

In Western, English-speaking societies, when there are two people with the same name, for example, Robert Jones and Robert Smith, in an elementary school class, they may be referred to as Robert J. and Robert S. respectively to avoid confusion. But two Ramans in Tamil Nadu have just the one name each. So the names of their fathers are used as initials instead of a surname. Raman, son of Gopal, would be G. Raman, and Raman, son of Dinesh, D. Raman. This led to the initial system, mostly followed in South India. Most schools automatically add the initials upon enrollment.

In some parts of Tamil Nadu, traditional family names have recently been abandoned in favour of a father's/husband's given name as a family name. The use of a father's/husband's given name as a family name is in vogue. These names are also used as initials. School and college records would have the names with initials as given below.

• "S. Janaki" - the family name initial and then the given name.
• "S. Janaki" might also be written as "Janaki Sridar" in legal documents.

Legal documents such as passports will have the last name fully expanded, instead of initials. Other legal documents such as property deeds will have any of these name formats with the mention of father's /grandfather's/husband's given name and/or village/town/city name. Mandating expansion of initials in passport and multinational companies that are influenced by western standards is a big source of confusion in South India. For example, a letter for Raja Gopala Varma, son of Krishna Kumar, who is usually referred as "K. Raja Gopala Varma", might be addressed incorrectly to "Krishna Kumar Raja Gopala Varma".

Men's names are usually prefixed with initials as mentioned before. Some men used to omit the initial, adding the father's given name in the end. However, this isn't a legal name and won't change their name in official records. For example, both P. Chidambaram and Chidambaram Palaniyappan are valid; however the latter form is not legally used. Generally, the initials are omitted, and father's name is suffixed to shorten a name, for example, G. Raja Ravi Varma, son of M. Gopal Krishnan, becomes Raja Gopal.

For women, the system of initials is slightly different. Before marriage, a girl uses her father's initial, but after marriage, she may choose to use her husband's initial. Of late the trend has changed and many women, especially those employed, do not change the initials, but continue with their father's initials. This is mainly for convenience, since school degree and career papers have the woman's father's initials on them. Changing a name legally is a cumbersome procedure, including announcing the proposed change in a newspaper and getting it published in an official gazette. So the modern trend is to add the husband's name at the end, like some Western women who add their husband's name with a hyphen.

People who do not understand the South Indian naming protocol sometimes expand the initials in an incorrect manner. For example, the name P. Chidambaram, tends to be expanded to Palaniyappan Chidambaram, which is incorrect in the sense that it implies that the person's given name is "Palaniyappan", and the family name is "Chidambaram". In fact, the person's only name is "Chidambaram", with an initial of "P". Also if the name is Srishti Venkata Sesha Phaneendra, it may be written as S.V.S.Phaneendra with three initials.Other such famous misrepresentations include the chess grandmaster, V. Anand (wrongly expanded as Vishwanathan Anand); cricketer, L. Sivaramakrishnan (Laxman is his father's name); and the freedom fighter and statesman, C. Rajagopalachari (often cited as Chakravarty Rajagopalachari). On the other hand, north India media refers to Dr. Anbumani Ramadoss (son of Dr. Ramadoss) often simply as Dr Ramadoss, which again is incorrect as Ramadoss is his father's name and not his name.

The involvement of Justice Party (1926 onwards) and the other Dravidian parties in the start of Independent India had contributed much to the confusion. For instance, a person by name Rajaram Iyer used to get advantage in schools, colleges, jobs etc. for being an Iyer. Alternatively, a person may not like to declare his /her caste name to avoid being identified. "Why should a person get advantage or disadvantage just by declaring his / her caste?". This was the primary question raised by the Dravidian ideology. For instance, a Rajaram Mudaliar may not get the same treatment as a Rajaram Nadar in a public office. Moreover, a Rajaram without any surname/castename will be put in confusion. This led to the inclusion of Father's name as initial. In certain vulgar terms, in some parts of Tamil Nadu it used to be referred like this. "We are born to Fathers, and not to Castes".

Some use initials as a form of pride and an option to recognize/credit their father. Some rare people use mother name's initial, when their father is cruel or deserted—just to credit their mother's role in bringing them up. In some parts of Tamil Nadu, the term "person without initial" is often used as an euphemism for bastard.

Surnames or family names

Family names are not common in Tamil Nadu, but most of the rest of India uses a family name. There are also certain people in Karnataka which do not use Family names anymore, however have initials to indicate their fathers name.

1. Invented family names such as that of Rajesh Pilot.
2. The English last name of Anglo-Indians - descendants of British and Indian parents.
3. Portuguese-Goan last names, such as Fernandes.
4. Arabic surnames of Muslims with ancestors embraced Islam and Muslims of mixed Arab and Indian descent.

Many South Indians also use a family name.

Common South Indian surnames/family names are:

Kumar, Rao, Murthy or Moorthi OR Moorthy, Shastri, Acharya,, Prasad, Swamy, Pillai

In Karnataka: Gowda, Nayak, Hegde and many north Karnataka families have the some surnames which are more popular in Maharastra such as Despande, Desmukh, Kulkarni,etc.

Mangalorean:(Tulu, Konkani) Shetty, Rai, Hegde, Bhat, Kamat, Pai, Bhandary, Upadhyay, Poojary, Moily, Alva, Ballal, Chowta, Naik, Kadamba, Hoysala, Maurya, Poonja

North Karnataka: Patil, Desai, Joshi, Kulkarni,Dodamani, Patil <mostly surnames common with its neighbouring state of Maharashtra>

In Andhra: Chowdary, Reddy, Naidu, Raju, Varma, Shastri, Achari, Sharma, Setti

In Kerala: Nair, Menon, Nambiar, Pannikar, Namboodiri, Warrier, Kurian, Cherian, Varghese, Varma, Kutty...

In Tamil Nadu: Iyer, Chettiar, Chetty, Achari, Mudaliar, Subrahmyan, Pillai, Nayar, Sooriyaprakash, Devan, Ilaiya, Rajan, Veluram, Peera, ending in 'swamy/swami', ending in 'rajan', ending in 'pillai', Senthil, Murugan, Vijay, Sondharam, Sudhakar, Muthayan, Chandran, Jaison, starting with 'Jaya/Jeya', Jeyaramachandharan, Peeramaswamyan, Ranganatham, Kumar, Kular, Ikkuzhan, Adath, Murthiyrakkaventharan, Meena, ending with 'enthen/eenthen', ending with 'poosam/poosan'...

Kannada names

Kannada names might include place names, clan/title/caste names, father's names along with person's own given name. The rules generally followed when combinations of the names used; Some times they prefix and suffix as surname and middle name will be given name.

• The place name should always come first.

e.g. Kadidal Manjappa, where Kadidal is place name and Manjappa is person's given name.

• Father's name should always come second.

e.g. Kuppalli Venkatappa Puttappa, where Kuppalli is place name, Venkatappa is father's name and Puttappa is person's given name.

• Initials from father's Name and Place name

e.g. Adnoor Bheemappa Narendra, where Adnoor is place name, Bheemappa is father's name and Narendra is person's given name. Adnoor and Bheemappa can be initialled resulting in the name "A. B. Narendra".

• The clan/title/caste names (generally called surnames) must come last.

e.g. Kundapur Varun Shenoy, Kundapur is place name, Varun is person's given name and Shenoy is the surname. e.g. Satish Ramanath Hegde, Satish is person's given name, Ramanath is father's name and Hegde is the title. e.g. Satish Gowda

• Having two prefix and suffix as the surname and the middle name as given name. For example Doddamane Ramakrishna Hegde.
• Rare cases of ancestral house names can also be found, and they follow the rule for place names.

However, if a person wants to go by only his/her given name, there is a tendency in official circles to forcibly add extra names (generally, the place names). Sometimes the surname depends on the work that person does.

Malayali (Kerala) names

Most Keralites have a family name. Most of the family names are of obscure origin, but many have geographical origins – e.g., Vadakkedath (from the North), Puthenveetil (from the new house), Akkarakaran (from that coast), etc. Traditionally the full names followed one of three patterns:

• Family name followed by Given name followed usually by the caste name or title. This was the common pattern (for men and women) among the upper-caste Hindus, especially of Malabar and Cochin. Examples: Mani Madhava Chakyar (Mani is the family name or tharavad name, Madhava(n) is the given name and Chakyar is the caste name), Vallathol Narayana Menon (Vallathol is the family name or tharavad name, Narayana(n) is the given name and Menon is the caste name), Olappamanna Subramanian Nambudiri, Erambala Krishnan Nayanar, etc. Sometimes the caste name/title was omitted, e.g., Kannoth Karunakaran (where the caste name Marar has been omitted). In the case of women the caste name/title was, traditionally, usually different, for example "Amma" was used for "Nair", "Andarjjanam" was used for "Nampoothiri", "Varyasyar" for "Varyar", "Nangyar" for "Nambiar" "Kunjamma" for "Valiathan/Unnithan/Kartha" etc. (see the Singh/Kaur convention in Punjab), e.g., Nalappat Balamani Amma whose brother was Nalappat Narayana Menon and Savithri Andarjjanam (A renowned author). Quite often the family name will have more than one part to it, e.g., Elankulam Manakkal Sankaran Namboodiripad, Madathil Thekkepaattu Vasudevan Nair, etc. The family name is usually initialled, the given name is sometimes initialled (never when there is no caste name following) and the caste name (if present) is never initialled. This is completely arbitrary. So we have as common forms Vallathol Narayana Menon, C. Achutha Menon, E K Nayanar and P. Bhaskaran (here Bhaskaran is the given name; the caste name, Nair in this case, has been omitted). In the Nair caste, using the maternal family name at the beginning is also common. e.g. Maythil Radhakrishnan, who is better known by his family name Maythil.
• Family name followed by Father's given name followed by Given name. This is common among the rest of the population. For example most traditional Christian names followed this pattern. Usually the Family name and Father name were initialled. In case of (Hindu) women "Amma" was frequently used (as in the previous case). Examples include K M Mani, K G George, V S Achuthanandan, K R Gowri Amma. Many Palakkad Iyers (Kerala Iyers) use an adaptation of this convention by replacing the Family Name with the name of the "gramam" (village). Example: Tirunellai Narayanaiyer Seshan (T N Seshan), where Tirunellai would be the village name, Narayanaiyer is the Father's given name and Seshan is the given name; or Guruvayoor Shankaranarayanan Lalitha abbreviated as G. S. Lalitha.
• Given Name followed by Title. This is common particularly among Syrian Christians in the old central Travancore area, where the king (Maharaja) or the local ruler (Raja or Thampuran) used to assign some titles to select families. Examples include Varghese Vaidyan(Vaidyan), Fr. Geevarghese Panicker (Panicker), Chacko Muthalaly (Muthalaly), Avira Tharakan (Tharakan), Varkey Vallikappen (Vallikappen) etc.
• Given Name followed by Father's name as surname and the Initial taken from Mother's name.

This is a common trend nowadays where both the mother's and father's names are found with the given Name. For example, L. Athira Krishna. Here the Mother's name 'Leela' finds mention in the initial and father's name 'Krishna' is taken as surname.

• Much of these traditional naming patterns have now disappeared. The family names are usually not included nowadays (this can probably be attributed to the decline of the joint families or tharavads). The most common patterns nowadays is to have given names, followed by the father's given name (patronymic, e.g. Sunil Narayanan or Anil Varghese) or caste name (e.g. Anup Nair). It is also not uncommon for the village of origin to be use in lieu of the family name, especially in South Kerala, e.g. Kavalam Narayana Panicker, where Kavalam is a village in Alapuzha district.

Many Christian names such as Varghese (Ghevarghese) is of Aramaic/Syrian origin.

Tamil names

Many people from the southern states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala do not use any formal surnames, though most might have one. This is because traditionally the surnames refer to their caste, and as a way to ensure that their names are caste-neutral, their surnames are completely dropped. Therefore, in practice, people use either the father's name or initial as a substitute for the surname. Initials, when used, can be placed either before or after their given name. For example; G. Venktaesan, Venkatesan G, or Venkatesan Govindarajan, are different ways in which a person with a given name Venkatesan, whose father's given name is Govindarajan can refer to himself.

Malaysian Indian (Tamil) names

Most ethnic Indians (mostly Tamils) in Malaysia trace their ancestral origin to South India. In Malaysia, the general naming format for Indians is X son of Y or X daughter of Y. The term 'son of' is ANAK LELAKI (abbreviated to A/L in ID documents) in the Malay language and the term 'daughter of' is ANAK PEREMPUAN (abbreviated to A/P in ID documents).

For example, Murugan the son of Vellupillai would appear as MURUGAN A/L VELLUPILLAI in Malaysian ID Card (MyKad) in the name field and the Malaysian Passport.

Using the example above, MURUGAN A/L VELLUPILLAI would also arrange his name in such a way that his father's name become his initial and his given name appears to be his Surname/ Last Name: V. MURUGAN. This practice is similar to the name format of the famous South Indian writer R. K. Narayan (R - Place of Origin: RASIPURAM, K - Father's Name: KRISHNASWAMI). Since most Malaysian Indians are today born in Malaysia, usually only the father's name appears as the initials.

However an increasing number of Malaysian Indians are migrating to the West, and they have begun using their father's name as the Last Name to avoid confusion. Therefore, Murugan the son of Vellupillai would simply go as MURUGAN VELLUPILLAI or M. VELLUPILLAI in the West.

Singaporean Indian (Tamil) names

In the British colonial days, male Indian ( mostly Tamils ) names would employ the connective term S/O (son of) and female Indian names D/O (daughter of) respectively, and these terms are still in common use in Singapore.

Telugu names

The family names of Telugu people precede the given name and are mostly abbreviated. For example, the name Kambham Nagarjuna Reddy would be abbreviated as K.N.Reddy. In this name Nagarjuna Reddy is the given name, and Kambham would be the family name (surname).Some of the people who belong to a particular Reddy caste include the caste names in their names, especially Naidu, Chowdary, Shetty, Goud or Mudiraj.For example,Vijay Reddy, Hari Chowdary, Devender Goud. In general, if the name of a person in Western format was Vijay Reddy Kandi (given name, second given name and family name), then the name in Telugu-speaking areas would be written as K. Vijay Reddy. There are same surnames like Lankala to many castes, such as Lankala Veeraiah in Yadav caste, or Lankala Deepak Reddy in Reddy caste.

Sharma, Shastri,and Rao are commonly found family names among Telugu Brahmins,Rao ia also used by non-Brahmins as well.These names are mostly placed at the end of their name; for example, in Karne Prabhakar Sharma,Karne stands for the surname and Sharma indicates the person belongs to Bramhin community.There are various other surnames of different gotras among the Bramhin community.e.g.:Kashyap, Bharadwaj etc.

Family names of Telugu people are supposed to be the name of the village or area their ancestors came from. Sometimes the family name can be the same for people belonging to different castes.For example Nandumuri Taraka Ramarao could be abbreviated as N. T. Rama Rao. Taraka Rama Rao is the given name and probably Nandumuru (a village in Krishna) is the ancestral village of N.T.R.

Sometimes the family name can be same as human body part such as Boddu (umbilicus) or Lingam (male genitalia). However, there is always spiritual meaning associated for those names. In spiritual sense, Boddu means center of origin of universe, Lingam means Lord Shiva.

See also

• Naman

References

• Thurston, Edgar (1906). Ethnographic notes in Southern India. Government Press, Madras. pp. 532–546.
• Kaushik, Devendra Kumar (2000) Cataloguing of Indic Names in AACR-2. Delhi: Originals. ISBN 81-7536-187-5.

External links

• Indian baby names at Curlie
• Indian baby names
• Indian names and their meanings