Names by country
Indian names for characters
Popular Indian first names by birth decade, common and regional surnames, pronunciation, and the naming rules writers trip over.
How Indian names work
Naming varies enormously by region, language and community, and surnames can signal caste or community, so choose them deliberately. Many families pick a first syllable based on the child's birth star.
Middle names. Middle names depend on region. Many North Indians have none; in Maharashtra and Gujarat the middle name is always the father's first name.
First names by birth decade
Names drift in and out of fashion. Pick from the decade your character was born, not the year your story is set.
Born before 1950
Girls
- Kamala KUH-muh-lah
- Savitri SAH-vit-ree
- Shanti SHAHN-tee
- Lakshmi LUKSH-mee
- Saraswati suh-RUS-vuh-tee
- Parvati PAR-vuh-tee
- Sita SEE-tah
- Kamla
Boys
- Ram
- Mohan
- Krishna
- Shankar
- Gopal
- Prakash
- Narayan
- Om
Born 1950–64
Girls
- Sunita soo-NEE-tah
- Usha OO-shah
- Asha AH-shah
- Geeta GEE-tah
- Meena MEE-nah
- Rekha RAY-khah
- Anita uh-NEE-tah
- Kavita kuh-VEE-tah
Boys
- Rajesh RAH-jaysh
- Suresh SOO-raysh
- Ramesh RAH-maysh
- Ashok ah-SHOKE
- Vijay VEE-jay
- Anil ah-NEEL
- Sunil soo-NEEL
- Rakesh RAH-kaysh
Born 1965–79
Girls
- Pooja POO-jah
- Sangeeta sun-GEE-tah
- Seema SEE-mah
- Rashmi RUSH-mee
- Archana ar-CHUH-nah
- Preeti PREE-tee
- Shilpa SHIL-pah
- Swati SWAH-tee
Boys
- Sanjay SUN-jay
- Rajesh
- Amit uh-MEET
- Sandeep sun-DEEP
- Manoj mah-NOJ
- Ajay uh-JAY
- Vinod vee-NODE
- Rahul RAH-hool
Born 1980–94
Girls
- Priya PREE-yah
- Pooja
- Neha NAY-hah
- Shweta SHWAY-tah
- Sneha SNAY-hah
- Divya DIV-yah
- Ritu RI-too
- Nidhi NID-hee
Boys
- Rahul
- Amit
- Rohit ROH-hit
- Vikas vee-KAHS
- Ankit UN-kit
- Nitin
- Saurabh SOW-rubh
- Gaurav GOW-ruv
Born 1995–2009
Girls
- Ananya uh-NUN-yah
- Shreya SHRAY-ah
- Riya REE-yah
- Isha EE-shah
- Tanvi TUN-vee
- Khushi KHOO-shee
- Simran SIM-run
- Sakshi SAHK-shee
Boys
- Aditya ah-DIT-yah
- Aryan AHR-yun
- Rohan ROH-hun
- Arjun AR-joon
- Karan KUH-run
- Yash YUSH
- Harsh
- Akash ah-KAHSH
Born 2010 onward
Girls
- Aadhya AHD-yah
- Saanvi SAHN-vee
- Ananya
- Diya DEE-yah
- Myra MY-rah
- Kiara kee-AH-rah
- Anika UH-ni-kah
- Pari PUH-ree
Boys
- Aarav AH-ruv
- Vihaan vee-HAHN
- Vivaan vee-VAHN
- Reyansh RAY-ansh
- Ayaan ah-YAHN
- Arjun
- Advik ud-VIK
- Kabir kuh-BEER
Common Indian surnames
- Sharma SHAR-mah
- Verma VAIR-mah
- Gupta GOOP-tah
- Singh
- Kumar koo-MAR
- Agarwal UG-gur-wahl
- Mishra MISH-rah
- Pandey PAHN-day
- Yadav YAH-dav
- Tiwari ti-WAH-ree
- Jain JANE
- Srivastava shree-VAHS-tuh-vah
- Chauhan CHOW-hahn
- Saxena suk-SAY-nah
- Shukla SHOOK-lah
- Dubey DOO-bay
- Bansal BUN-sul
- Goel GOH-el
- Tripathi tri-PAH-thee
- Chaturvedi chuh-toor-VAY-dee
Regional names
Where a character comes from inside India changes their surname, and sometimes their first name.
Punjab (Sikh and Punjabi Hindu)
Sikh men take Singh (lion) and women Kaur (princess). Many families also use a clan surname such as Gill or Sandhu.
Surnames: Gill, Sandhu, Sidhu, Dhillon, Grewal, Brar, Bajwa, Randhawa, Sekhon, Cheema
Girls: Simran, Harpreet, Manpreet, Jaspreet, Navneet, Gurleen, Amandeep, Kuldeep
Boys: Gurpreet, Harpreet, Manpreet, Jaspreet, Amandeep, Navdeep, Harjit, Kuldeep
Maharashtra (Mumbai, Pune)
Marathi naming runs given name, father's (or husband's) first name, then surname.
Surnames: Patil, Kulkarni, Deshpande, Joshi, Jadhav, Pawar, Shinde, Gaikwad, Bhosale, Deshmukh
Girls: Snehal, Pradnya, Madhuri, Shruti, Rutuja, Sayali, Ashwini, Manasi
Boys: Sachin, Amol, Nilesh, Prasad, Mangesh, Tushar, Omkar, Swapnil
Gujarat (Ahmedabad, Surat)
Gujarati naming runs given name, father's first name, surname.
Surnames: Patel, Shah, Desai, Mehta, Parikh, Trivedi, Joshi, Bhatt, Pandya, Thakkar
Girls: Hetal, Krupa, Nidhi, Bhavna, Falguni, Jinal, Dhara, Komal
Boys: Hitesh, Jignesh, Paresh, Mehul, Ketan, Nirav, Chirag, Dhaval
West Bengal (Kolkata)
Bengalis usually have a formal name and a pet name (daak naam) used at home: a Rituparna might be Tuktuki to her family.
Surnames: Banerjee, Chatterjee, Mukherjee, Ghosh, Bose, Das, Sen, Dutta, Roy, Chakraborty
Girls: Rituparna, Mousumi, Paromita, Ishita, Moumita, Sohini, Debjani, Sudeshna
Boys: Arijit, Sourav, Debashish, Abhijit, Partha, Subhajit, Anirban, Sayan
Tamil Nadu (Chennai, Madurai)
Tamil naming puts the father's initial first. Caste surnames were widely dropped in the 20th century.
Girls: Lakshmi, Priya, Divya, Kavya, Meenakshi, Revathi, Deepa, Anitha
Boys: Karthik, Senthil, Murugan, Saravanan, Arun, Vignesh, Prabhu, Balaji
Kerala
Kerala has large Hindu, Christian and Muslim communities. Syrian Christian families often use a biblical name as the surname (Kurian, Varghese, Mathew).
Surnames: Nair, Menon, Pillai, Kurup, Varghese, Kurian, Thomas, Mathew, Joseph, Chacko
Girls: Anju, Sreeja, Lekha, Divya, Bindu, Remya, Aswathy, Sruthi
Boys: Anoop, Sajeev, Rajeev, Biju, Shibu, Jinu, Arjun, Vishnu
Urdu-speaking Muslim communities (Lucknow, Hyderabad)
Arabic- and Persian-origin names; the surname often reflects a family's claimed lineage (Siddiqui, Qureshi) or an old title (Khan, Mirza).
Surnames: Khan, Siddiqui, Qureshi, Ansari, Shaikh, Hussain, Ahmed, Rizvi, Naqvi, Mirza
Girls: Ayesha, Fatima, Sana, Nazia, Farah, Shabana, Zainab, Rukhsar
Boys: Mohammed, Imran, Faisal, Asif, Salman, Irfan, Arif, Zaid
Questions
What are common Indian surnames?
Some of the most common Indian surnames are Sharma, Verma, Gupta, Singh, Kumar, Agarwal. Regional surnames differ, so check the regional lists before choosing one for a character from a particular area.
How do Indian names work?
Naming varies enormously by region, language and community, and surnames can signal caste or community, so choose them deliberately. Many families pick a first syllable based on the child's birth star. Middle names depend on region. Many North Indians have none; in Maharashtra and Gujarat the middle name is always the father's first name.
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