Iyer names
I am fascinated by how our names are getting shorter, more difficult to pronounce and unique and unheard of before. The more exotic, the more difficult to pronounce, you have got a winner! lol!
Until our parent's generation and to a large extent in my generation, this was not the norm. With our children's generation, we are taking names a lot more seriously, a lot lot more seriously! I decided to jot down the names I know because before long these names will be extinct!
My grandfather is Sri T.R. Parameshwara Iyer (Trikkur RamaIyer for the initails). My father's generation pretty much went the same way, though they dropped the Iyer and names became T.P.Sreeraman, T.P. Gopalakrishnan etc. (T for Trikkur and P for Thatha's name).
And the names were the names of dieties:
Rama: Sreeraman, Rajaraman, Anantharaman, Pattabhiraman, Kalyanaraman, Kodandaraman, Sundararaman, Subharaman, Sethuraman, Seetharaman, Balaraman, Jayaraman, Ramachandran, Ramabhadran, Ramanathan, Venkataraman, Sankaraman, Parasuraman, Raghavan, Venkataraghavan, Vijayaraghavan, Raghuraman, Sankararaman, Sivaraman, Parasuraman, Ramaswamy, Janakiraman, Ganapathyraman, Ramajayam, Ramamurthy etc
Krishna: Ramakrishnan, Sivaramakrishnan, Balakrishnan, Gopalakrishnan, Venkatakrishnan, Kalyanakrishnan, Krishnamurthy, Radhakrishnan
Other Vishnu names: Narayanan, Guruvayoorappan, Devanarayanan, Ramanarayanan, Ranganathan, Rajagopalan, Narayana Swamy, Sreenivasan, Kannan
Siva names: Sankaran, Sankaranarayanan, Parameshwaran, Mahadevan, Vishwanathan, Sambasivan, Sadasivan, Chandramouli, Chandrasekaran, Vaidyanathan, Neelakantan, Kailasanathan,Chidambaran, Natarajan, Pasupathi, Somanathan
Other dieties: Ganesan, Balasubramanian,Sastha Iyer, Skandan, Manikantan, Meenakshi Sundaresan, Swaminathan, Sangameswaran, Dasarathan, Padmanabhan, Hariharan, Ramanan, Santanam, Kunjalam, Ratnam
Names were suffixed with Sastrigal, Iyer, Sarma, Ganapadigal, Bhagavathar(teaches carnatic music), Deekshitar(has performed a Yaga) and Vadhyaar.
The next generation men's name brought in the 'sh' generation and began dropping the 'an' suffix and the names of the village from their names, so we had names like:
Suresh, Ramesh, Rajesh, Mahesh, Dinesh, Satish, Venkatesh, Harish, Jagadeesh, Sundraresh etc.
Vijay(an), Anand, Sekar, Kishore, Srikanth, Sreedhar, Karthik, Ravi, Vinod, Vivek, Vikram, Krishnan, Prasad, Mohan, Sundar(am), Sriram, Sairam, Raghu, Murali, Balaji, Sidharath, Srinath, Srikanth, Santosh, Sandeep, Aravind, Kumar, Rajeev, Anoop, Arun, Hari, Soorya, Sunil, Sidharth, Raghu, Arjun, Koushik, Siva, Krishna, Abhishek
And pet names like Mani, Kannan, Unni, Ratnam, Ramani, Papa, Pichamani etc
My grandmother's generation has their names suffixed with Ammal and were again popular diety names:
Bharati, Thailambal, Lakshmy Ammal, Venkatalakshmi, Ranganayaki, Mahalakshmi, Alamelu, Anandavalli, Visalakshi(Visalam), Bhagavathy, Sivakami, Kamakshi, Meenakshi, Gomati, Kamalambal, Sundari, Rajarajeshwari, Rajalakshmi, Vijayalakshmi, Ananthalakshmi, Seethalakshmi, Rajalakshmi, Annapoorni, Thangam, Valli, Lalitha, Jayam, Karapagam, Mangalam, Parvathy, Bhagyalakshmi(Bhagyam), Dhanalakshmi(Dhanam), Sankari, Mokshalakshmi (Moksham),Maragadavalli, Maduramambal(Maduram), Aanandam, Santha, Yagnyalakshmy, Rajamani, Balamani, Seethamma...
The next generation dropped the Ammal and popular names were:
Saraswati, Saroja, Parvathy, Rukmini, Leela, Vasantha, Vasanthi, Sharada, Susheela, Ponnu kunjalam, Meena, Vanabala, Shyamala, Nalini, Rama, Prema, Priya, Usha, Mythily, Vaidehi, Janaki, Chitra, Geetha, Pushpa, Sharada, Vasantha, Kamala, Rajasree, Indrani, Indra, Jaya, Radhai, Lata, Sudha, Padma, Chitra, Shoba, Meera, Usha, Shanti, Bhavani, Bhuvaneshwari, Anuradha, Kamala, Kalpana, Aruna, Jalaja, Hema, Kalyani, Vimala, Girija, Srimathi, Gowri, Mohana, Krishnaveni, Matangi, Savitri, Ranjani, Durga, Sakuntala, Revati, Sunanda etc
Then came Jayasree, Soumya, Gayatri, Uttara, Yagnesi,Vidya, Priya, Sita, Uma, Raji, Lakshmi, Ramya, Thangam, Poornima, Lavanya, Sumitra, Anuradha, Kavitha, Radhika, Aruna, Aparna, Harini, Anjana, Roopa, Kritika, Pooja, Indu, Mala, Kala, Shweta, Kritika, Vanaja, Divya, Jyothi, Deepa, Veena, Maya, Anupama, Savita, Sukanya, Sangeetha, Vardhini, Aswaja, Pushkala, Smita, Sunita, Aiswarya.
Generally names of rivers, Rishis, ragas, gothrams, nakshatrams etc were not used but Cauveri, Godavari, Ganga and Sarayu, Kalyani were not unheard of and recently Bharadwaj, Harith, Anusha, Kritika.
We are now in the generation of Arushi, Aanchal, Hari Vatsan, Nidhi, Sruthi, Smrithi, Ishaan, Vihaan, Ninaad, Gautam, Aditya, Dhruva, Nikhil, Niranjan, Navaneeth, Kuashik, Ashwath, Vighnesh, Jayan, Janya, Mihir, Ananya, Varshini, Manasa, Manasvini, Anirudh, Subaga, Abhirami, Gautam, Sambavi, Hamsika, Harith, Advaith, Kanishk, Anusha, Aditi, Sahana, Trayi, Neel, Madhuvanti, Anusha, Saketh, Sampat, Kaivalya (s)!.
Until our parent's generation and to a large extent in my generation, this was not the norm. With our children's generation, we are taking names a lot more seriously, a lot lot more seriously! I decided to jot down the names I know because before long these names will be extinct!
My grandfather is Sri T.R. Parameshwara Iyer (Trikkur RamaIyer for the initails). My father's generation pretty much went the same way, though they dropped the Iyer and names became T.P.Sreeraman, T.P. Gopalakrishnan etc. (T for Trikkur and P for Thatha's name).
And the names were the names of dieties:
Rama: Sreeraman, Rajaraman, Anantharaman, Pattabhiraman, Kalyanaraman, Kodandaraman, Sundararaman, Subharaman, Sethuraman, Seetharaman, Balaraman, Jayaraman, Ramachandran, Ramabhadran, Ramanathan, Venkataraman, Sankaraman, Parasuraman, Raghavan, Venkataraghavan, Vijayaraghavan, Raghuraman, Sankararaman, Sivaraman, Parasuraman, Ramaswamy, Janakiraman, Ganapathyraman, Ramajayam, Ramamurthy etc
Krishna: Ramakrishnan, Sivaramakrishnan, Balakrishnan, Gopalakrishnan, Venkatakrishnan, Kalyanakrishnan, Krishnamurthy, Radhakrishnan
Other Vishnu names: Narayanan, Guruvayoorappan, Devanarayanan, Ramanarayanan, Ranganathan, Rajagopalan, Narayana Swamy, Sreenivasan, Kannan
Siva names: Sankaran, Sankaranarayanan, Parameshwaran, Mahadevan, Vishwanathan, Sambasivan, Sadasivan, Chandramouli, Chandrasekaran, Vaidyanathan, Neelakantan, Kailasanathan,Chidambaran, Natarajan, Pasupathi, Somanathan
Other dieties: Ganesan, Balasubramanian,Sastha Iyer, Skandan, Manikantan, Meenakshi Sundaresan, Swaminathan, Sangameswaran, Dasarathan, Padmanabhan, Hariharan, Ramanan, Santanam, Kunjalam, Ratnam
Names were suffixed with Sastrigal, Iyer, Sarma, Ganapadigal, Bhagavathar(teaches carnatic music), Deekshitar(has performed a Yaga) and Vadhyaar.
The next generation men's name brought in the 'sh' generation and began dropping the 'an' suffix and the names of the village from their names, so we had names like:
Suresh, Ramesh, Rajesh, Mahesh, Dinesh, Satish, Venkatesh, Harish, Jagadeesh, Sundraresh etc.
Vijay(an), Anand, Sekar, Kishore, Srikanth, Sreedhar, Karthik, Ravi, Vinod, Vivek, Vikram, Krishnan, Prasad, Mohan, Sundar(am), Sriram, Sairam, Raghu, Murali, Balaji, Sidharath, Srinath, Srikanth, Santosh, Sandeep, Aravind, Kumar, Rajeev, Anoop, Arun, Hari, Soorya, Sunil, Sidharth, Raghu, Arjun, Koushik, Siva, Krishna, Abhishek
And pet names like Mani, Kannan, Unni, Ratnam, Ramani, Papa, Pichamani etc
My grandmother's generation has their names suffixed with Ammal and were again popular diety names:
Bharati, Thailambal, Lakshmy Ammal, Venkatalakshmi, Ranganayaki, Mahalakshmi, Alamelu, Anandavalli, Visalakshi(Visalam), Bhagavathy, Sivakami, Kamakshi, Meenakshi, Gomati, Kamalambal, Sundari, Rajarajeshwari, Rajalakshmi, Vijayalakshmi, Ananthalakshmi, Seethalakshmi, Rajalakshmi, Annapoorni, Thangam, Valli, Lalitha, Jayam, Karapagam, Mangalam, Parvathy, Bhagyalakshmi(Bhagyam), Dhanalakshmi(Dhanam), Sankari, Mokshalakshmi (Moksham),Maragadavalli, Maduramambal(Maduram), Aanandam, Santha, Yagnyalakshmy, Rajamani, Balamani, Seethamma...
The next generation dropped the Ammal and popular names were:
Saraswati, Saroja, Parvathy, Rukmini, Leela, Vasantha, Vasanthi, Sharada, Susheela, Ponnu kunjalam, Meena, Vanabala, Shyamala, Nalini, Rama, Prema, Priya, Usha, Mythily, Vaidehi, Janaki, Chitra, Geetha, Pushpa, Sharada, Vasantha, Kamala, Rajasree, Indrani, Indra, Jaya, Radhai, Lata, Sudha, Padma, Chitra, Shoba, Meera, Usha, Shanti, Bhavani, Bhuvaneshwari, Anuradha, Kamala, Kalpana, Aruna, Jalaja, Hema, Kalyani, Vimala, Girija, Srimathi, Gowri, Mohana, Krishnaveni, Matangi, Savitri, Ranjani, Durga, Sakuntala, Revati, Sunanda etc
Then came Jayasree, Soumya, Gayatri, Uttara, Yagnesi,Vidya, Priya, Sita, Uma, Raji, Lakshmi, Ramya, Thangam, Poornima, Lavanya, Sumitra, Anuradha, Kavitha, Radhika, Aruna, Aparna, Harini, Anjana, Roopa, Kritika, Pooja, Indu, Mala, Kala, Shweta, Kritika, Vanaja, Divya, Jyothi, Deepa, Veena, Maya, Anupama, Savita, Sukanya, Sangeetha, Vardhini, Aswaja, Pushkala, Smita, Sunita, Aiswarya.
Generally names of rivers, Rishis, ragas, gothrams, nakshatrams etc were not used but Cauveri, Godavari, Ganga and Sarayu, Kalyani were not unheard of and recently Bharadwaj, Harith, Anusha, Kritika.
We are now in the generation of Arushi, Aanchal, Hari Vatsan, Nidhi, Sruthi, Smrithi, Ishaan, Vihaan, Ninaad, Gautam, Aditya, Dhruva, Nikhil, Niranjan, Navaneeth, Kuashik, Ashwath, Vighnesh, Jayan, Janya, Mihir, Ananya, Varshini, Manasa, Manasvini, Anirudh, Subaga, Abhirami, Gautam, Sambavi, Hamsika, Harith, Advaith, Kanishk, Anusha, Aditi, Sahana, Trayi, Neel, Madhuvanti, Anusha, Saketh, Sampat, Kaivalya (s)!.