244 hand-checked Indian baby names, each with a meaning traced to its language of origin. Filter by gender, tradition, starting letter or your child's rashi.

Questions parents ask about naming a baby

How do I find a name that suits my baby’s rashi?

Use the rashi filter above. Pick the moon sign your family has been given and the list narrows to names beginning with the syllables traditionally used for it. Mesha, for instance, takes Chu, Che, Cho, La, Li, Lu, Le, Lo and A. You can stack it with gender and tradition if you already know roughly what you are looking for.

We do not know the rashi yet. Can we still use this?

Yes. Leave the rashi filter alone and search by meaning, by tradition, or by the letter you like. If you want the rashi itself worked out, the NavParent app calculates it from your baby's date and time of birth rather than asking you for it, because the rashi is the thing the pandit tells you, not something most parents already know.

Does the date alone decide the rashi?

Not quite, and this is worth knowing before you rely on any calculator. The moon moves through a whole sign in a bit over two days, so on a good number of days it changes sign partway through. That is why the time of birth matters. Where your family's pandit has already worked out the rashi, that is the one to go with.

Rashi or nakshatra, which decides the first letter?

Both traditions exist and families differ. Nakshatra is the finer one, since each nakshatra splits into four parts and each part carries its own syllable. Plenty of households, particularly in the north, go by rashi instead, which is the mapping this finder uses. Neither is more correct than the other, and your family will usually already have a habit.

Do we have to follow the rashi letter at all?

No. Many families name a baby with no reference to it, and there is nothing wrong with that. The filter is here for parents who want it, which is why it is switched off unless you turn it on. A name people at home actually enjoy saying will outlast the rule either way.

When does the namkaran ceremony usually happen?

Most families do it on the 11th or 12th day after the birth, though it varies by community and plenty of people hold it later. The birth certificate does not force your hand here. Births can be registered without a name and the name added afterwards, so you are allowed to take your time.

Which traditions are covered?

The list has Hindu, Muslim, Sikh and Christian names, with origins including Sanskrit, Arabic, Punjabi, Hebrew, Persian, Tamil, Bengali and Greek. There are 244 names in total and every one has a meaning and its own page, so you can read about a name properly instead of scrolling past it in a list of four thousand.

Are the meanings reliable?

They are a hand-checked list rather than a scrape, which is why it is 244 names and not tens of thousands. Meanings for Indian names do vary between regions and families, so if a name matters to you it is still worth asking an elder what it means where you are from.