Basically, Indian baby names are based on religion and caste. There is a wide variety of languages and religions in India. In fact, most religions have a large following in India such as Muslims, Christians, Sikhs and Hindus.
Many Indians believe in the birth name. Now, birth name is totally different from first or given name. Using the horoscope, they can determine an auspicious number. The number is used to help find the best birth name. The given or given name are the official names. It is the name used to call someone. In a legal and official document, it is mandatory to use the first or first name.
The caste system is popularized through Hinduism. The caste system counts hereditary classes in Hindu society, social stratification and prestige. High caste Indians use village names, occupations, honorifics, title, and clan as their surname. Subcaste surnames are the descriptions or characteristics of the subcaste.
Parts of the surname are the caste or subcaste. For example, Iyer, Iyengar, Gounder, Nair, Naidu, Reddy, Gouda, and Shetty are various caste or subcaste surnames. The caste can tell the occupation. For example, the Gandhis are a caste that sells perfumes. Mohandas Gandhi is from the Gandhi caste. The concept is similar to Gardiner (tends the garden) and Sawyer (cuts wood) in English baby names.
The Sikhs have adapted the Singh. It means lion. Most of the time, the Singh is used as a masculine suffix. For example, Veejay Singh (Golf Master) and Dr. Manmohan Singh (Prime Minister) use the Singh. Singh’s female counterpart is Kaur, which means princess or lioness. However, Singh is not a caste name. In Sikhs, there is no caste.
For one thing, Hindus have castes. The surname castes are usually Jains, Thakurs and Rajputs.
The Kar in the name tells the origin of the baby’s name. For example, Gavaskar (Gavas City), Tendulkar (Tendol City) and Pawaskar (Pawas City) indicate the city of origin.
The Wala in Indian baby names indicates the type of profession or merchant. For example, Screwala has the screw and Cyclewala sells the cycle.
Social ranks in Indian baby names are also a common practice. For example, Talukdar means the landlord, Tehsildar means the revenue administrative officer, and Tarafdar means the land manager.
In the past, the locals of South India only used the given name, which was the name of the village, the surname, or both. On rare occasions, you will see the middle name, last name, or initials. In fact, Telugu locals use the hometown or profession as their first name. However, locals in Tamil Nadu and Kerala use the father’s name as a middle name. For example, Ajith Krisma means Ajith son of Krisma. Suppose Ajith produces a son, the Indian baby’s name is Minesh Ajith. Minesh means song of Ajith. The wife is usually named after her husband. For example, Jilana Krisma is the original name meaning Jilana daughter of Krisma. She married Rajesh. The wife’s name becomes Jilana Rajesh, which means Jilana wife of Rajesh.
The last initials are used for the same baby name. So someone can tell the difference from another name. For example, Ajith Rajesh resembles R. Ajith and Ajith Santhum resembles S. Ajith. Initials always start before the first name. For many Westerners, it is easy to err by expanding the name. For example, S. Ajith can be expanded as Santhum Ajith. That’s wrong, because Santhum becomes the first name.
