Indian family name

Indian family names are derived from several sources:

Related Topics:
India - Family name

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• 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.
• 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. Others include Pathak, Acharya, Upadhyaya, Pandit, etc.
• Profession: Some families in India tend to rename themselves on the basis of their 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. In fact, "wala" is quite a common term that it is often used for any product seller be it a computer or a plane. The -wala suffix is commonly seen among the Parsis of Bombay.
• If you go deep into surnames there is also a link between certain surnames that appear totally different. For example: Awasthi, Shukla & Vajpayee appear way different, but in reality they are distant cousins under Hindu Brahmins with Upamanyu Gotra.Similarly surnames ending with "--ni" e.g. Kishnani,Chhugani,Shivani,Shahani,Raichandani etc belong to people of theSindhi community. This community is mainly a 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, the first name is often split to generate a last name, like, "Arunkumar" is split into "Arun Kumar".

Related Topics:
Tamils - Overseas Indian - Given name - Patronym

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Indian family name: Indian naming system ►