Indian names

Names

In most cases, an Indian name can determine which social class, caste or religion a person belongs to ^[1] . Among Hindus , the names of the gods are often used as the name or its first part ( Krishna , Shiva , Indra for men, Lakshmi and Sita for women, but there are also examples of the opposite, for example, Sitaru is the male name, and Krishnaveni is the female name). It is believed that the child will be under the protection of the deity, whose name is named. By name it is possible to judge which current of Hinduism ( Shaivism , Krishnaism , etc.) belongs to its carrier ^{[2] [3]} . Natives of the lower layers of the population prefer to name children in honor of local deities ^[1] ( Murugan , Ayyapan).

Other names by value are often the names of sacred objects or actions. As the second component of the name, nouns with the meaning of gift, gratitude, and exaltation are used, for example, prasad - "gift", -chran - "foot", -das - "servant" ^[3] . The second component of the name can serve as an identifier for a particular religious movement. So Shaivites sampradayas “Dashans” use the suffixes -giri, -puri, -nath ; the Buddhists of the diamond path are pa , and the siddhi Mahayana is vajra, paratha ^[2] .

In the original, composite Indian names are written together, forming a single whole, but when written in Latin letters can be divided into parts for ease of perception. For example, the personal name of physicist Chandrasekhar Venkat Raman , the original is written together - Venkataraman ( ibid. வெங்கடராமன் ) ^[4] .

Among Christian Indians , European names are found. At the same time, Catholics prefer the names of saints (Mary, Anthony, Peter, John, Xavier), and Protestants use any English names. In the communities of Syro-Malabar Christians , both biblical names (Thomas, Joseph, Abraham, George) and assimilated English (Matthew → Mathai) are accepted ^[2] .

In ancient India, it was believed that pronouncing the name shortens the life of its owner. From here came a tradition by which wives did not address their husbands by name. If there were children in the family named after living relatives, they were called by their abbreviations or nicknames , for example, Choote - the younger, Gooddy - the doll, Pinky - the little finger, Munna - the baby ^[5] .

Surnames

Common Sources of Origin of Indian Surnames: ^[6]

• The name of the gotra ( Kaushik, Tanwar ).
• Caste identifier ( Sharma, Gupta ).
• Occupation ( Patel - the village head, Agnihotri - conducting fire rituals, Kapadia - factory worker).
• Honorary title ( Acharya - spiritual guide, Pandit - teacher, Chaturvedi - knowing the four Vedas).
• Name of the settlement ( Japurkar, Agarwal ).
• Middle name or part of a personal name ( Kumar, Murthy, Prasad )

Before the Europeans came to India, the concept of "surname" did not exist here. Residents of the states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala to this day do not have a surname and use the middle name as the second part ^[7] . The last element of the full name, perceived by the British as a surname and subsequently become it, was an indicator of caste . Most of the Indian surnames, including the most common, came from the names of castes and podcasts ( gotr ). Until now, you can judge by the surname which caste a person belongs to, for example, Chaturvedi, Trivedi, Dryvedi, Shukla, Sharma, Varma are representatives of the brahmanas , and Singh, Arora, Chopra are ksatriyas . In addition, by the name you can understand where its carrier comes from or to what people it belongs. So the native land of the carriers of the surname Chaturvedi is the west of Uttar Pradesh , Sharma is the east of the same state, Upadhya is the east of Uttar Pradesh or the west of Bihar , Ja (Jha) is the north of Bihar ^[3] (and Nepal ).

The Sikhs , who live mainly in the state of Punjab , widely use the “collective surnames” of Singh (for men, the literal translation is “Leo”) and Kaur (for women, the literal translation is “Princess” or “Lioness”) ^{[8] [9 ] ]} . At the same time, Singh remains a common surname among Hindus in the states of Rajasthan , Uttar Pradesh and Bihar ^[3] .

One of the forms of surname formation is the decomposition of a compound name into parts with the transformation of the second into a semblance of a surname (for example, Vrindavandas → Vrindavan Das) ^[3] .

The full name of a resident of the state of Maharashtra is closest in English to the formula . First comes the Personal name , followed by the middle name , which is the name of the father ( middle name ), and the last is the surname, often derived from the name of the village ^[7] . For example, and Ritesh V. Deshmukh use the middle name - the name of their father . Women, entering into marriage, change not only the surname, but also the name of the father in the name of the husband. In some communities, women also change their personal name after marriage ^[10] .

The full names of the inhabitants of Rajasthan , Punjab , Haryana , Uttar Pradesh , Bihar and Madhya Pradesh , including the Sikhs , do not contain the names of the father or mother. In the event of a reduction during recording, all parts of the name preceding the surname or name of the native locality at the end of the name formula become initials ^[7] .

In Uttarakhand, the second component of the name is the caste identifier: Chandra and Datta for the Brahmins , Singh for the Kshatriyas , Lal for the Vaisyas and Ram, or lack of an identifier for the rest.

Among Bengalis there is a practice of taking a double surname, including the names of the father and mother in any order ^[1] . For example, took the surname Sen from the mother of and the surname Sharma from her father Mukul Sharma.

Manipur names

Manipur , located in the north of the country, uses an excellent name system. With the adoption of Hinduism, the Manipuri changed the naming order to "Last Name Personal First Name Identifier of the Gender." Surnames come from the name of the clan ( Salai ), from which their carriers come. When writing in Latin letters, the surname is often reduced to the first letter. The gender identifiers are Singh for men and Devi for women, but in the Bamon clan, the male identifier is Sharma , and in the Roy clan they use the universal suffix Roy . For Manipuri who live outside their home state , the gender identifiers for Sharma, Singh, or Singh often replace their last name. The descendants of the royal family use Rajkumar / Rajkumari (RK) or Maharajkumar / Maharajkumari (MK) to indicate their special social status as a surname or prefix to the name ^[11] .

Currently, in connection with imitation of Western culture, in some cases, it is possible to change the naming order to "Personal First Name Last Name". In the opposite case, a return to the original tradition of naming, the gender identifiers Singh and Devi are rejected and the suffixes Cha and Chanu that come after the surname ^{[11] are used} .

For the peoples of South India , the nominal formula “Last name Patronymic Personal Name Caste” is characteristic, in which instead of the last name a generic name or the name of the native locality (both the person himself and his ancestors) can be used. This sequence of parts of the name is preserved in all South Indian states, however, in certain communities or nationalities some components of the name may be omitted ^[12] .

Malayal names

In Kerala, naming principles vary by region ^[12] .

In now Kozhikode , Palghat , Kannur and Malappuram districts ), the main naming format is: “Last name Personal First Name Caste”. For example, the name can be interpreted as Viswanathan, belonging to the Nambudiri caste, from the Kaitapram family .

Over the centuries, the naming system in Cochin and Travankor has had the format: “Last Name Patronymic Personal Name” or “Family Name Patronymic Personal Name” ^[13] . For example, : Cattasseri is the generic name, Joseph is the name of the father, Yesudas is the personal name. To date, this practice has also been accepted by residents of British Malabar. Also in some parts of Travankor there is a tradition according to which wives or children use the name of the husband or father as a surname.

In the west of the state, among a certain group of families, sons include the patronym ( middle name ) in the full name, and their daughters include the matronym (mother's name) ^[7] . In some areas, instead of a middle name, sons may use the maternal uncle’s name ^{[1] [12]} .

Tamil Names

Tamils usually do not have a last name. The most common format of the Tamil name is “Patronymic Personal Name”, for example Viswanathan Anand ^[14] , but there are many other options, including “Personal Name Patronymic”. Married women replace their middle name with the personal name of the husband ^[1] . In everyday life, all parts of the name except the personal name are reduced to the first syllable in the Tamil letter or to the first letter in the alphabetical letter. Sometimes a part of a personal name is also reduced ^[15] . For example, Sellapan Ramanathan is commonly known as S.R. Nathan.

Common Tamil Name Formats:

• "Patronymic Personal Name" is the most common option.
• “Personal First Name” or “Personal First Name Husband” - mainly found in women.
• “Personal Name S / O Patronymic” or “Personal Name D / O Patronymic” - is used mainly in Singapore in official documents and certificates. S / O means "son" ( Eng. Son of ), D / O - "daughter" ( Eng. Daughter of ).
• “Personal Name A / L Patronymic” or “Personal Name A / P Patronymic” - in official documents in Malaysia . A / L means "son" ( Malay. Anak lelaki ), A / P - "daughter" ( Malay. Anak perempuan ).
• "Patronymic Personal First Name Last Name"
• “Patronymic Personal Name Populated Point” - either a person himself or one of his ancestors could have been born in a settlement
• “Populated Point Name Patronymic Personal Name”
• "Populated Item Personal Name Caste" or "Patronymic Personal Name Caste" - options common in the XIX century.
• “Populated Item Name Grandfather Patronymic Personal Name”
• "Full Pedigree Personal Name." A typical example is Erode Venkata Krishnasamy Sampath Elangovan : Erode ( Erod ) - hometown; Venkata Krishnasamy Sampath - names of great-grandfather, grandfather and father; Elangovan is a personal name).

Telugu names

Telugu does not use a middle name and caste identifier, but put a surname in front of a personal name ^[12] . However, this practice is slowly changing to maintain consistency with people from other cultures, in particular in different work environments. The exclusion of the name of the caste from the full name is also a modern trend, which not everyone follows. Some Telugu use the name of their native village instead of a surname ^[16] . For example, , here Alluri is a surname derived from the name of the place of birth or clan, Sitarama is a personal name, and Raju is a caste.

The most common caste identifiers that make up a personal name: Reddy, Raju, Naidu, Sharma, Shastri . The personal name may include male suffixes, such as Rao, Murthy (they are often separated from the name in Latin letters, while they are written in Telugu together), -u, -lu, -aya , and female suffixes, like - Amma, Devi , etc. Some of the suffixes have become surnames outside the state of Andhra Pradesh , for example, Rao, Reddy, Murthy , etc. ^[17] Teluga surnames most often come from the name of the profession, caste or settlement, from where originally a man himself or his ancestors ^[18] .

The surname or name of the village in front of the personal name may be reduced to the initial. The first part of the name may also be abbreviated. For example, Krishnamurti from the village of Jammalamadaka is known as J.K. Murthy ^[7] .

• Indo-Russian practical transcription

• Dhruv Dev Sharma. Panorama of Indian anthroponomy . - Mittal Publications, 2005 .-- 306 p. - ISBN 978-8183240789 .
• Ernst Eichler. Namenforschung / Name Studies / Les noms propres . - Mouton De Gruyter, 1995 .-- P. 667-678. - 977 p. - ISBN 978-3110114263 .
• Ruth Vanita. Gandhi's Tiger and Sita's Smile: Essays on Gender, Sexuality and Culture . - Yoda Press, 2006 .-- P. 70-77. - 315 p. - ISBN 978-8190227254 .
• Personal name systems among the peoples of the world / M.V. Hooks. - M .: Nauka, 1989 .-- S. 121-127. - 383 p.