Ok Guys. I am trying to figure out the most common Indian Last Names:

Here is my limited list:

Singh
Patel
Reddy
Rao
Chowdhary


This is all I think. Anyone care to expand?

u forgot khan

Kumar ?

Kumar isn't really a "Real" last name. I remember hearing that back in the 70's, a lot of lower caste people who came to Canada would change their last name to Kumar in order to mask their caste standing......

Kumar is more common of a middle name, which is used for people who don't have a middle name.

I was going to say the same thing, but I wasn't familiar with the caste part. My belief was that since a lot of Indian regions didn't have "last names" kumar was created or used most often as a last name.

There are some lower caste people that change their names to Singh as well? At least that's what I heard-Singh is one of the common names to change their last name too.


I think Srivastava and Shankar are common last names too.

It depends on which Indians we're talking about:

Among Gujaratis, Patel is the most common name.
For Muslims, Khan is easily the most common last name.
For Punjabis and Sikhs, Singh is the most common.
For Hindus, it's Kumar if you include it as a "real" last name. If not, then probably Rao, Rai, Chowdhary or Shankar.

Maybe we could do a Google search and see which one is more popular...

Patel
Singh
Chopra
Reddy
Prashad
Persaud
Khan
Shetty
etc etc...

May i ask how about Vaishnav?
Is it common?

Kapoor is common also.

Yeah, a lot of lower caste people change their last name to Singh also. Mostly ones who were transplanted to areas like Fiji and Guyana.....I noticed a lot of people coming from that area had the last name "Singh" even though they weren't originally from Rajasthan or Punjab and weren't Sikh either....

No one answers me?

I asked about Vaishnav. Is it a common last name?

I think Singh is more common amongst Sikhs than it is amongst Punjabis. Hindus in Punjab don't use Singh, only the Sardars do. Same with the name Kaur. Only Sikh women use that, Hindu women in Punjab don't use that.

I always thought that Vaishnav was a title given to somebody that worshipped Vashno Devi? Or am I drawing a false conclusion?

Either way, It might be common, but I've never heard it before.

^^ Is Vaishnav linked with Vishnu?

Is it called "last name?"

Is last name caste name?

I have no idea, just simply want to know because my best friend gets that name, but i don't want to ask him about this.

I haven't heard of Vaishnav being linked with Vishnu before.

Your last name usually tells your caste standing, although this isn't always possible especially when people have non-Indian names and when theyt change their last name.

With the Rajput community, Singh is very common, as well as Chauhan. It was actually my last name, before my mom got married to my step-dad.

But, in America, you could say it's more common among Sikhs. Because, I think the Sikh Punjabi population is bigger than the Rajput population in the West, especially in Canada?




So true, which is weird how some of my female Singh friends get asked if they're sardarni.





I hate it when aunties and uncles (the first generation Indians) do that by looking at your last name. Why can't they just simply ask you instead? Last names can even be more deceiving, when the dad and the mom are of different ethnicities/caste.

Yeah, I've heard that Singh is common in Rajasthan also. The famous singer Jagjit Singh is from Ganganagar in Rajasthan.

Sikhs do have quite a large population in Canada (Especially Vancouver BC), and also in the western protion of the United States. Even though most of them have their own last names, they usually tack on Singh at the end for one reason or another.

My cousin married a girl from Guyana, and she had the last name Singh (since Guyanese Indians lost their castes when they were brought over they took up generic names). My entire family kept asking him why he married a sardarni (even though she's Hindu)

Were your parents and other relatives raised in India? I thought it was well known in India that Singh is a Hindu last name too.


If your family was raised in the West, then it would make sense for them to think she's a Sardarni.

My family is from all over. From my mother's side, we've had family members in U.S.A since 1959. They are pretty much westernized now and don't know anything about Indian culture (which is sad).

From my father's side all the realtives are in India, so they know their stuff.

Is Sandhu common, too. I have this half Indian classmate and his surname is Sandhu.

Didga mention Chopra, Dutta and Bhatt there are fairly common names I hear too

I think Sandhu is a Jatt last name........

shah
mehta
patil
gupta
bhatt

that's all i can think of right now

I've only seen Jains with the last name Shah. Isn't Patil a Maharati or Rajasthani thing? I think there are a lot of Patels that weren't originally Patels.

shah is also a common gujurati name, i guess a lot of them are jains...and yeah, i think patil is either marathi or maharashtrian. as for the patel thing, i'm really not sure.

I thought Shah was a common Iranian or Pakastani name.

"shah is also a common gujurati name, i guess a lot of them are jains...and yeah, i think patil is either marathi or maharashtrian. as for the patel thing, i'm really not sure."

Yeah I'm just basing the Jain/Shah thing off my own experiance. My cousin-in-law's last name is Shah and he's Jain. Some other Jains I know also have the last name Shah, a lot of Jains also happen to be Gujarati. I'm not sure about the Iranian/Paki thing, I haven't met too many of them.

Yeah, shah is common in Iran also.

Tendulkar
Dravid
Sehwag
Ganguly
Laxman

I can't remember, just guys in the indian team

I know a Pak-Punjabi Muslim lady with the last name Shah, but I think she said she had some Iranian bloodlines too.

The word "Shah" is the Persian word for king, so it's used by Muslims. I didn't know it was also used by Jains. Shah probably originates from the Indo-Iranian language in that case.

Shah's my title name by the way, so I guess that makes me a king.

I checked on that, and he is actually a Sikh and not Rajput. He just happened to live in Rajasthan.

Remember that a lot of Rajputs migrated to NorthCentral/Central India, so Singh isn't only common in Rajasthan.

Oh ok. I was watching Zee Tv and that's where I heard that he was born in Ganganagar.


Thanks for the info.

Yeah, Indians migrate a lot....so it can be confusing!

My mom was saying that a person's first name can be sometimes be indicative if they're Sikh or Rajput? She said that names like Jagjit, Kamaldeep, Gurpreet, etc are usually used by Sikhs....Someone with a name like Rajashree Singh, Jayashree Singh, Shakuntala Singh, Arjun Singh are most likely to be Rajput.

FFS enough of this Rajput crap, god Indians are so friggin ethnocentric...



GUJU PRIDE!1!!

Gill
Brar
chakram

Gill
Brar
chakram
aurora

Since my ex was half-Guju, I will partake in your Guju pride fiesta.

Yes, we will forget about everyone else.

Oooh...I totally forgot...Did you know that some Gujus are Rajputs?..

If you're confused, I'm talking about Gujus with Rajasthani ancestors that migrated to Gujarat hundreds of years ago.

Kaur
Sidhu

sista plz, those rajasthanis can never be part of the tribe called guju!

I think the most common name is Patel or Singh/Kaur. For the record Singhs are not lower caste ppl. So dont that the lower caste ppl was the ones to change their name to Singh. Singh/Kaur is given to all Sikhs some use it as a middle name some use it as a last name. So thats like saying that Sikhs are poor. Punjab is the richest state in India and 54% of Punjab is Sikh.

woowoowoo big red fire truck. Who gives a $hit about who's wealthy. Your post reeks of socioeconomic bigotry.

You totally misunderstood what I said, and Singh isn't only a Sikh Punjabi last-name.

Singh was originally a Hindu Rajput name, which is a "high-caste" in India. Since "Singh" is known to be a popular high-caste Hindu name, lower-caste Hindus will use this last name to CONCEAL their lower-caste identity. When people see a lower-caste Hindu with the last name "Singh," they will assume that this person is a Rajput and not a Sudra. Get it now?

I hope you know that the reason why Sikhs have the last name "Singh" is because Guru Nanak borrowed it from the Rajputs. He had some good reasons to do it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singh






If you don't believe me, there are Hindu Singhs in the entertainment industry/politics....For instance, take the model Rajeev Singh, and the former PM's VP Singh, Chandra Shekhar Singh, Dhyan Singh (cricket player), etc.

60% of people including me in my city are Mehta, Plz dont forget them , Lotts people here in haryana and punjab/delhi too, migrated in 1947 from western panjab(now in pakistan), use mehta as their surname.