It has been suggested that Indian name be merged into this article or section. (Discuss)

For more background on this topic, see family name.

Indian family names are derived from several sources: Image File history File links Please see the file description page for further information. ... Indian names are based on a variety of systems and the naming conventions vary with location and era. ... A family name, or surname, is the part of a persons name that indicates to what family he or she belongs. ... A family name, or surname, is the part of a persons name that indicates to what family he or she belongs. ...

• Caste or subcaste name: These are analogous to western family names like Smith and Barber to the extent that they represent occupation. Example: Reddy (Hindu Telugu Landowner caste). However, Indians usually marry within the caste, and often within the subcaste.

• Exogamous division within caste: These are usually on the basis of deity worshipped. Example: Tamma (within Reddy caste). This is widely followed by the Telugu people.

• Religion:
  • Sikhs as a community have adopted Singh(meaning Lion) as a suffix to their names and that is often used just as any other last name would be. The surname Singh predates the Sikh faith. Sikh Women use Kaur(meaning Princess) as their last names. (The name "Singh" predates the Sikh faith and is still a common one for upper caste Kshatriyas—both as "Singh" or the suffix "-sinh" as part of their given or family names. It is the same word that is in the name of Singapore, the country.)
  • Jains often use the last name Jain. As for "Singh", this is also a surname also used by other Hindus especially upper caste Thakurs (Kshatriyas) or Rajputs.

South Indian Naming System. A caste system is a rigid system of social stratification, which divides members of a society into different castes. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... A Hindu is an adherent of Hinduism, the predominant religious, philosophical and cultural system of India (Bharat). ... Telugu belongs to the family of Dravidian languages and is the official language of the state of Andhra Pradesh, India. ... Exogamy is the custom of marrying outside a specified group of people to which one belongs. ... Telugu belongs to the family of Dravidian languages and is the official language of the state of Andhra Pradesh, India. ... A Sikh man wearing a turban A Sikh is a follower of Sikhism, a religious faith originating in the Punjab. ... The hand with a wheel on the palm symbolizes the Jain Vow of Ahinsa, meaning non-injury and nonviolence. ... A Hindu is an adherent of Hinduism, the predominant religious, philosophical and cultural system of India (Bharat). ... A Rajput (from Sanskrit rāja-putra, son of a king) is a member of a prominent caste who live throughout northern and central India, primarily in the northwestern state of Rajasthan. ...

In south indian we have following naming system

1. Let us assume your name is Mahesh and your father name is Shankar So you will have "S.Mahesh", recently "Mahesh S." The main reason is after marks card were computerised. They decided to put the Initial after name so S.MAHESH will be MAHESH S.
2. Let us assume .you want to keep our place of origin is Warangal. He will Now get initial W.S.Mahesh or Mahesh W.S.
3. Sometimes they want to add their caste/community name hence his name will be W.S.Mahesh Reddy.

This is Basic Format W.S. Mahesh Reddy. Assume does not want to keep his city of origin Warangal. And he has Family title like Rao-Bahadur than he may have name R.S. Mahesh Reddy Assume he had nick name babu and wants to avoid caste name he takes his name is R.S.Mahesh Babu. Following may be format.

• S.Mahesh
• W.S.Mahesh
• W.S.Mahesh Reddy
• R.S.Mahesh Reddy
• R.S.Mahesh Babu

In older days in south indian they used to have suffix for all names like APPA , AYYA/AIAH , ANNA, APPAN, MURTHY, PRASAD... They are just suffix with out any significance, like jawahar-LAL. Shankar would have called Shankarappa, shankariah, shankaranna,shankar murthy , shankar prasad

• Placename: Many South Indians, especially Tamils, use the name of their place of origin as the family name. In this case the surname is placed before the given name. Some have both a village name and a caste name as part of their name, for instance Madurai Mani Iyer. Here, Madurai is a town and Iyer is a caste. In Maharashtra many family names are derived by attaching a "kar" to their place of origin. e.g. people whose last name is Gavaskar trace back their origin to the town of Gavas, The Tendulkars trace their origins to Tendol, Pawaskar to Pawas, and so on.

• Learning and Academics: Some Hindu families have names that reflect the academic achievements of their forefathers. e.g., Sastri - one who has studied the Sastras, Dwivedi - one who has studied two vedas, Trivedi - three vedas, Chaturvedi - four vedas, Pathak, etc.

• Profession: Some families in India tend to rename themselves on the basis of the profession. This is common in the north where people have surnames ending with "wala" meaning someone who engages in a particular activity. Names like "Screwala" when the person might have sold screws or "cyclewala" (cycle seller) are quite common. Infact the "wala" is quite a common term that it is often used for any product seller be it a computer or a plane.

• If you go deep into Surnames there is also a link between certain surnames though virtually totally different. For example: Awasthi, Shukla & Vajpayee appear way different, but in reality they are distant cousins under Hindu Brahmins with Upmanyu Gotra.Similarly surnames ending with "--ni" e.g. Kishnani,Chhugani,Shivani,Shahani,Raichandani etc belong to the people of Sindhi community. This community is mainly consists of business community.

Many Indians have no family names. This too is common among Tamils. The pressure of conformity (especially strong for overseas Indians) often forces them to acquire surnames, either by inventing one, or splitting their given name, or adopting their patronyms as family names. In North India, many times the first name is split to generate a last name, like, "Arunkumar" is split into "Arun Kumar". In geography and cartography, a toponym is a place name, a geographical name, a proper name of locality, region, or some other part of Earths surface or its natural or artificial feature. ... Tamil girls in Tiruvannamalai. ... Madurai (மதுரை in Tamil) is situated on the banks of Vaigai River in Tamil Nadu, a southern Indian state. ... Iyer is the name given to a community of Brahmins (members of the priestly class / caste) of India whose members profess the advaita philosophy propounded by sri Shankaracharya and whose ancestors have had strong ties with the Tamil region,for many centuries. ... Maharashtra (महाराष्ट्र) is Indias third largest state in terms of area and second largest in terms of population after Uttar Pradesh. ... Sastry or Sastri is the Telugu variant of the more famous Brahmin last name: Shastri. ... Shastra is a Sanskrit word used to denote education/knowledge in a general sense. ... The Vedas are part of the Hindu Shruti; these religious scriptures form part of the core of the Brahminical and Vedic traditions within Hinduism and are the inspirational, metaphysical and mythological foundation for later Vedanta, Yoga, Tantra and even Bhakti forms of Hinduism. ... Indian family name (northern states) reflecting the academic achievements of their forefathers. ... Awasthi is a surname / family name of a particular sub-caste of Brahmins of India. ... Shukla is Sanskrit for white, also bright phase of lunar fortnight, as opposed to Krishna, or dark phase. ... Vajpayee is a surname equivalent to Awasthi and Shukla especially prominent among North Indian Brahmins. ... A Hindu is an adherent of Hinduism, the predominant religious, philosophical and cultural system of India (Bharat). ... A Brahmin is a member of the Hindu priestly caste. ... A Gotra - literally, Cowpen or Cowshed in archaic rigvedic Sanskrit indicates lineage in the Hindu Brahmin community. ... Tamil girls in Tiruvannamalai. ... A non-resident Indian (NRI) is an Indian citizen who has migrated to another country. ... A given name specifies and differentiates between members of a group of individuals, especially a family, all of whose members usually share the same family name. ... A patronymic is a personal name based on the name of ones father. ...

Indian naming system

The naming system in India changes depending on which region you live in. The naming convention in southern India is very different from the that of northern india. It also depends on one's religion and one's caste, which makes it almost impossible for non-natives to understand it.

Typically a Hindu name will have a "given" first name like Vineet, a middle name which is usually the father's name for eg. Gopal and a last name or the family name like Kulkarni. A southern Indian on the other hand will use only the first name along with his caste/village prefixed.

Some Telugus have the system of family name or last name, given name or first name and caste name. Example: Nara Chandrababu Naidu. Nara is the family name, Chandrababu is the given name and Naidu is cast name. The formal way of addressing would be Mr. Naidu (not Mr. Nara). Middle name (Naidu) performs the equivalent function of North American last name. A clan is identified by its family name i.e Nara. So all three names or parts of the name have their function in this case.

In many Indian families, birth name and school record name (the name known to outside of the family, especially classmates and schoolmates) will differ. Sometimes the birth name will be used only inside the family. In modern families, a child is named only one name -- both as birth name and school record name. In many schools, the records are kept in the LastName-FirstName-MiddleName format.

Some children are named with 3 names: first name, middle name and last name. First name is usually unique; middle name is also sometimes unique; the last name is usually the family name or grand father/mother's (depending upon the sex of the child) first name or a God's name.

Many children are named with 2 names: first name and last name. First name is often unique and last name is usually the family name. Naming with 4 names is usually uncommon.As is naming with single unique names, which is quite unheard off.

In West Bengal, especially amongst Hindus, it is common to have a first and last name as well as a Daak naam, or nick name, which is not listed in official documents. West Bengal (পশ্চিম বঙ্গ, Pościm Bôngo) is a state in the eastern region of India. ... A Hindu is an adherent of Hinduism, the predominant religious, philosophical and cultural system of India (Bharat). ...

In most parts of north india, including Maharashtra, the naming system is very similar to the first-middle-last format followed in western world. e.g. "Sunil Manohar Gavaskar", here "Sunil" is the (first) name of the person. "Manohar" is the father's name, which is often abbriviated as an initial, and "Gavaskar" is the last or family name. Traditionally, women take up the husband's name as their middle name and also adopt the husband's family name. In Maharashtra sometimes the newborn boy is named the same as his grandfather. The Indo-Gangetic Plain is a rich, fertile and ancient land encompassing most of northern and eastern India, the most populous parts of Pakistan, and virtually all of Bangladesh. ... Maharashtra (महाराष्ट्र) is Indias third largest state in terms of area and second largest in terms of population after Uttar Pradesh. ...

Initial system

This is mostly followed in South India. Adding an initial before the name is somewhat a social must. e.g., P. Chidambaram. In most schools, when a child joins, they automatically add the initials. The Initial is taken from the first letter of the first name of father's name. For example, in the name P. Chidambaram, P is taken from his father's first name Palaniyappan. In certain societies, a person without an initial (bastard) is looked down upon. An Initial is also a must to mention in government records. A missing initial in certificates, bank transactions etc. is sometimes considered illegal and may cause inconvenience. P. Chidambaram is the finance minister of India in the Congress-led UPA government (2004-2009). ... P. Chidambaram is the finance minister of India in the Congress-led UPA government (2004-2009). ...

Family names are closely tied to the castes system followed in India. Caste is a kind of racial/ethnic concept used in India to separate poor and rich. Recently in some parts of India, traditional family names are abandoned and instead they use father's/husband's first name as family name. The Usage of father's/husband's first name as family name, eliminates ones caste identity.

These family 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" is also written as "Janaki Sridar" in legal documents.

Legal documents such as Passport will have the last name fully expanded, instead of initials. Other legal documents such as property deeds will have any of these name format with the mention of father’s /grandfather’s/husband’s name and/or village/town/city name.

Men

Men's names are usually prefixed with initials as mentioned before. But, however few men used to omit the initial but will add the father's name in the end. This won't, however, be a legal name and men won't change their naming system in official records such as government, schools, etc. For example, both P. Chidambaram and Chidambaram Palaniyappan are valid; however the latter form is not legally used. Omitting initial and suffixing father's first name is usually used to shorten the long names: P. Chidambaram is the finance minister of India in the Congress-led UPA government (2004-2009). ...

Father name: M. Gopal Krishnan

Name: G. Raja Ravi Varma

Shortened name: Raja Gopal ("Ravi Varma" is omitted)

Women

For women, the system of initials is slightly different. Before marriage, a girl uses her father's initial, but after marriage, she uses her husband's initial. For example:

Father's name: M. Gopal Krishnan

Husband's name: K. Manohar Murthy

Name: Sudha Kalyani

Before marriage: G. Sudha Kalyani or Sudha Gopal (in shortened form)

After marriage: M. Sudha Kalyani or Sudha Manohar (in shortend form)

*Names in italics refer common usage system among women.

Foreigner's misinterpretations

Foreigners, especially American magazines tended to expand Indian 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 first name is "Palaniyappan," and the last name or the family name, "Chidambaram." As shown above, this is wrong, since the person's only name is "Chidambaram," with an initial of "P." Other such famous misrepresentations include the chess grandmaster, V. Anand (wrongly expanded as Vishwanathan Anand) and the freedom fighter and statesman, C. Rajagopalachari ( often cited as Charkaravarty Rajagopalachari). P. Chidambaram is the finance minister of India in the Congress-led UPA government (2004-2009). ... A chess table is a table with a chessboard painted or engraved on it. ... Grandmaster and/or Grand Master could mean: In chess, an International Grandmaster. ... Viswanathan Anand (born December 11, 1969) is an Indian chess grandmaster. ... Rajaji Chakravarthi Rajagopalachari (சக்ரவர்தி ராஜகோபாலாச்சாரி) (December 1878 - December 25, 1972), known as or Rajaji or C.R., was an Indian lawyer, writer, statesman and a Hindu spiritualist. ...

Another thing to be kept in mind is that nick names or shortened names are only used by close friends and elder relatives.

See also:

• List of Indian family names

Family names can be unique or come in large numbers. ...

External link

• Discussion on Indian last names
• List of Indian Surnames