Names like Dandapani and Gajamukhi may sound old but have their own meaning that is typical of Indian belief and tradition. Many families have a diety whom they revere and hence the normal custom is to bind this allegiance by naming the new born with variants. Though most of are not aware there are simple meanings in pure Sanskrit names. Owing to traditions and festivals of india it is natural that Dorai is a nick name in the South whereas Damodar is very much Maharashtian.
Names and surnames are easy to relate in the earlier times. Today the trend is simple as a name like Khush or Savita can be from any part of India. Owing to cross culture mingling with the openness in inter caste marriages, the trend is seen to have a baby name that does not relate to any religion. Advait is seen in the east and also Sean belongs to a Hindu family. People look out for beautiful names in Arabic and Persian which is easy to find due to access to books and other print mediums.
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Sharvari, Shalaka, Usha, Hema, Jyoti and Anju seem very traditional Indian names. In the era of sixties the names ending with ‘esh’ were extremely common like Rajesh, Dinesh, Mahesh and Ramesh. It was also common to end the name with Kumar like Raj Kumar, Dilip Kumar and the names were highly influenced with the leading Bollywood actors. Other names were like Asha, Usha, Ashok, Vivek, Aruna, Lalita, Latika, Sulochana, Chandra, Prema, Shanta and Rukmini.
Names of Gods and Goddesses in the Hindu community are still revered by all. The names are like Dharini, Durga, Bhagwati, Laxmi, Saraswathy, Annapurna, Aditi, Hryidayini and Padma vati. Other common traditional names are like Amrita, Manjula, Anita, Sunita, Manisha, Monisha, Monita, Puja, Sweta and Shravani. Anandi or Anand is also very common and traditional along with Santosh, Santoshi which all mean happiness. The same is translated as the modern Khush or Khushi.
Dravidian names are very lengthy and the surnames are also typical. Damodaran Venkataraman Pillai is still short when compared with Venugopalan Sabareesan Nambiar. Jose, Binu, Paapu are common pet names in the Catholic south Indian homes. The catholic south Indian surnames are also unique like Thakolran or Autokaran and the surname is usually the name of the house or villa which is another typicality of the south.
