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India Naming Customs: Difference between revisions
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== Surnames == | == Surnames == | ||
In India, surnames are placed as last names or before first names, which often denote: village of origin, caste, clan, office of authority their ancestors held, or trades of their ancestors. | In India, surnames are placed as last names or before first names, which often denote: '''village of origin, caste, clan, office of authority their ancestors held, or trades of their ancestors'''. | ||
The largest variety of surnames is found in the states of Maharashtra and Goa, which numbers more than the rest of India together. Here surnames are placed last, the order being: the given name, followed by the father's name, followed by the family name. The majority of surnames are derived from the place where the family lived, with the 'ker' (Marathi) or 'Kar'(Konkani) suffix, for example, Mumbaiker, Puneker, Aurangabadker or Tendulkar, Parrikar, Mangeshkar, Mahendrakar. Another common variety found in Maharashtra and Goa are the ones ending in 'e'. These are usually more archaic than the 'Kar's and usually denote medieval clans or professions like Rane, Salunkhe, Gupte, Bhonsle, Ranadive, Rahane, Hazare, Apte, Satpute, Shinde, Sathe, Londhe, Salve, Kale, Gore, Godbole, etc. | The largest variety of surnames is found in the states of '''Maharashtra and Goa''', which numbers more than the rest of India together. Here surnames are placed last, the order being: the given name, followed by the father's name, followed by the family name. The majority of surnames are derived from the place where the family lived, with the 'ker' (Marathi) or 'Kar'(Konkani) suffix, for example, Mumbaiker, Puneker, Aurangabadker or Tendulkar, Parrikar, Mangeshkar, Mahendrakar. Another common variety found in Maharashtra and Goa are the ones ending in 'e'. These are usually more archaic than the 'Kar's and usually denote medieval clans or professions like Rane, Salunkhe, Gupte, Bhonsle, Ranadive, Rahane, Hazare, Apte, Satpute, Shinde, Sathe, Londhe, Salve, Kale, Gore, Godbole, etc. | ||
In Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, surnames usually denote family names. It is easy to track family history and the caste they belonged to using a surname. | In '''Andhra Pradesh and Telangana''', surnames usually denote family names. It is easy to track family history and the caste they belonged to using a surname. | ||
In Odisha and West | In '''Odisha and West Bengal''', surnames denote the caste they belong. There are also several local surnames like Das, Patnaik, Mohanty, Jena etc. | ||
In Kerala ,surnames denote the cast they belong. There are also several local surnames like nair, menon , panikkar etc. | In '''Kerala, '''surnames denote the cast they belong. There are also several local surnames like nair, menon , panikkar etc. | ||
It is a common in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and some other parts of South India that the spouse adopts her husband's first name instead of his family or surname name after marriage.[10] | It is a common in '''Kerala, Tamil Nadu''', and some other parts of South India that the spouse adopts her husband's first name instead of his family or surname name after marriage.[10] | ||
India is a country with numerous distinct cultural and linguistic groups. Thus, Indian surnames, where formalized, fall into seven general types. | India is a country with numerous distinct cultural and linguistic groups. Thus, Indian surnames, where formalized, fall into seven general types. | ||
===Origins=== | |||
Surnames are based on: | Surnames are based on: | ||
*'''Patronymics and ancestry''', whereby the father's name or an ancestor's given name is used in its original form or in a derived form (e.g. Baranwal or Barnwal or Burnwal derived from the ancestor Ahibaran). | |||
*'''Occupations''' (Chamar, Patel or Patil, meaning Village Headman, Gandhi, Kamath, Kulkarni, who used to maintain the accounts and records and collect taxes, Kapadia, Nadkarni, Patwardhan, Patwari, Shenoy, etc.) and priestly distinctions (Bhat, Bhattar, Sastry, Trivedi, Shukla, Chaturvedi, Twivedi, Purohit, Mukhopadhyay); Business people: Shetty, Rai, Hegde is commonly used in kshatriya castes of the Karnataka coastal belt. In addition, many Parsi, Bohra and Gujarati families have used English trade names as last names since the 18th and 19th centuries (Contractor, Engineer, Builder). | |||
*'''Caste or clan names''' (Pillai, Gounder, Goud, Gowda, Boyar, Parmar, Sindhi, Vaish, Reddy, Meena , Nair, Nadar and Naidu) are not surnames but suffixes to first names to indicate their clan or caste. | |||
*'''Place names or names derived from places of ancestral origin''' (Aluru, Marwari, Gavaskar, Gaonkar, Mangeshkar, Kapoor, Wamankar, Kokradi, Karnad, Sandhu, Medukonduru, Rachapalli). | |||
*'''The father's first name''' is used as a surname in certain Southern states, such as Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Spouses and children take on the first name of the father as their last name or 'surname'. | |||
Muslim surnames generally follow the same rules used in Pakistan. Khan is among the most popular surnames, often signifying Afghan/Central Asian descent. | |||
*'''Bestowed titles or other honorifics''': titles bestowed by kings, rajas, nawabs and other nobles before the British Raj (Wali, Rai, Rao, Thakur, Gain/Gayen, Panicker, Vallikappen, Moocken, etc.) and those bestowed by the British (Rai, Bahadur). | |||
The convention is to write the first name followed by middle names and surname. It is common to use the father's first name as the middle name or last name even though it is not universal. In some Indian states like Maharashtra, official documents list the family name first, followed by a comma and the given names. | The convention is to write the first name followed by middle names and surname. It is common to use the father's first name as the middle name or last name even though it is not universal. In some Indian states like Maharashtra, official documents list the family name first, followed by a comma and the given names. | ||