Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Indian Baby Names

Basically, the Indian baby names are based on religion and caste. There are wide variety of language and religion in India. As a matter of fact, most religion has a huge following in India like Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, and Hindus.

Many Indians believes in birth name. Now, the birth name is totally different from the given or first name. Using horoscope, they can determine an auspicious number. The number is use to help find the best birth name. The given or first name is the official names. It is the name that is use to call someone. In a legal and official document, it is mandatory to use the given or first name.

The caste system is made popular thru Hinduism. The caste system tells the hereditary classes in Hindu society, social stratification, and prestige. The Indians from upper caste uses the village names, occupations, honorifics, title, and clan as the last name. The sub caste last names are the descriptions or characteristics of the sub caste.

Parts of the last name are the caste or sub caste. For example, Iyer, Iyengar, Gounder, Nair, Naidu, Reddy, Gouda, and Shetty are several last names with caste or sub caste. The caste can tell the occupation. For example, the Gandhi is a caste which sells perfumes. Mohandas Gandhi is from the caste of Gandhi. The concept is similar to Gardiner (takes care of the garden), and Sawyer (saws wood) in English baby names.

The Sikhs has adapted the Singh. It means lion. Most of the time, the Singh is use as a suffix for male. For example, Veejay Singh (golf master) and Dr Manmohan Singh (Prime Minister) uses the Singh. The female counterpart of Singh is Kaur which means princess or lioness. However, Singh is not a caste name. In Sikhs, there is no caste.

On the hand, the Hindus have caste. The castes on the last name are often Jain, Thakurs, and Rajputs.

The Kar on the name tells the origin of the baby name. For example, Gavaskar (town of Gavas), Tendulkar (town of Tendol), and Pawaskar (town of Pawas) tells the town of origin.

The Wala on the Indian baby names tells the type of profession or merchant. For example, Screwala holds the screw, and Cyclewala sells the cycle.

The social ranks on the Indian baby names are common practice as well. For example, Talukdar means the landholder, Tehsildar means the revenue administrative officer, and Tarafdar means the land manager.

In the past, the locals of South India use only first name which is village name, family name, or both. Rarely, you will see middle name, family name, or initials. In fact, the Telugu locals use the hometown or profession as the first name. However, the Tamil Nadu and Kerala locals use the first name of the father as the second name. For example, Ajith Krisma means Ajith son of Krisma. Suppose Ajith produce a son, the Indian baby name is Minesh Ajith. It means Minesh song of Ajith. The wife usually gets the name of the husband. For example, Jilana Krisma is the original name which means Jilana daughter of Krisma. She married Rajesh. The name of wife becomes Jilana Rajesh which means Jilana wife of Rajesh.

The initials on the last name are use for the same baby name. So, someone can tell the difference from another name. For example, Ajith Rajesh looks like R. Ajith, and Ajith Santhum looks like S. Ajith. The initials always start before the first name. For many westerners, they easily makes mistake on expanding the name. For example, S. Ajith may expand as Santhum Ajith. That is wrong, because Santhum becomes the first name.


About the author

Dennis Estrada is a webmaster of unique baby names, baby names meaning, and french baby names where you can find the stories, origin, and meaning of names and babies.

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Ancient Greek Baby Names

The Greek baby names reflect the values and culture of the society on the time of origin. The names relate to their language, religion, and political life. The Greek civilization is one of the oldest civilizations. So, they have long history and rich culture. Their history spans as far as 13th century BC. Their names appeared in ancient tombstone, vases, papyri, inscriptions, coins, gems, manuscripts, seals, and stamps.

In the past, their main purpose to name is to identify. The name validates your language, religion, ethnic origin, civic subdivision, and political life. Their name may include the given name, parents name, ethnic origin, and civic subdivision.

During the 13th century BC, their names are only one given name. This is absolutely true for female or male baby names. The given name is enough to identify themselves. Perhaps, the population is so less at the time. For example, Socrates, Alexander, Thais, and Homer are example of given names. Traditionally, the first born are given the name of the paternal grandfather. And for the second born, they are given the name of the paternal grandmother.

Then, the use of parents name comes into play. The parents name tells the family where you belong. The parents name improves the ability to legitimately identify a person. For example, Socrates son of Homer, or Alexander son of Adelphos legitimately identifies the person and family.

As they started to move from one place to another, the Greeks saw the need to tell the origin. A city may be divided into organization. In the name, the Greeks will include the organization. For example, Alexander son of Adelphos, Athens or Socrates son of Homer, of the deme Athens tells the family and organization of origin of an individual.

The name could be simple or compound. The simple names are made of a noun or adjective. For example, Cressida, Ophira, and Titian are baby names meaning gold. Another example, Zoilo, Zosima, Zosimo, and Zotico are baby names meaning lively.

The compound baby names are combination of nouns or adjectives. For example, Niko-Lysandra means victorious liberator. Another example, Nicodermus means victory of the people. It is a combination of Nicole and demes. Nicole means victory, while demes mean organization or people.

The religion, politics, and military have major influence in their names. For example, Angela, Angelo, Ares, Basha, Christopher, and Deo are names with religious influence. Another example, Kalonice, Nicholas, Nicole are military influenced baby names meaning victory.

After the death of Christ, the Romans started to rise in power. Roman Empire brought Christianity. Hence, the Christian names started to evolve on the Greek names. For example, John, Anna, and Maria started to show on their names. After the 4th century AD, the Christian names have greatly influenced the Greek names such as Eusebios, Eustathios, Euphemios, Eulogios, Eulampios and Kyrillos. About this time, the use of parent name and ethnic origin were largely dropped.

After the downfall of the Roman Empire, the biblical names further embolden on their names. There was a widespread use of surnames. The surnames tell the family of origin. However, the names retain the antiquity. The ancient baby names still exist in the society today. For example, Aristoteles, Sokrates, Xenophon, Demosthenes, and Miltiades are ancient baby names.


About the author

Dennis Estrada is a webmaster of unique baby names, Personalized Baby Name Gifts, and Feng Shui Baby Names where you can find the stories, origin, and meaning of names and babies.

Monday, March 05, 2007

Hispanic Baby Names

From the Hispanic baby names, you can tell the meaning, origin, history, and culture of ancient times of Spain. With the knowledge of the history of the baby names, you can trace the family tree and ancestors. Knowing the family tree and ancestors, you get the clue on the history and culture of Spain.

The term Hispanic is from Latin Hispanicus which means from Hispania Iberian Peninsula of Spain. Now, the Hispanic pertains to a person from Latin America or Spanish from United States of America.

Originally, the Hispanic baby names originate the Latin dialect of the three northern part of Spain. The dialect spread to the Kingdom of Castille. Later, the dialect became the official language of Spain called Spanish. Eventually, the Spanish language spread to Americas around five centuries ago.

The Spanish is a romantic language. Spoken in many countries by millions, the language is the most romantic language. It is also one of the six official language on United Nations, second most spoken language of United States, and fifth most spoken language of the world.

At the beginning, they are only given one name which is the first name. The first name is to identify or distinguish from person to another. The population grew steadily. They come up of baby name that tells the physical, parent name, occupation, place, military, religion, and nationality characteristics.

The name can physically describe the person. For example, thin, fat, big, fair complexion, white complexion, or dark complexion tells the characteristics the person. Simply add the word after the first name. For example, Roberto Gordo (Roberto the fat), Roberto Delgado (Roberto the thin), Roberto Grande (Roberto the big), Roberto Rubio (Roberto the blonde), Roberto Moreno (Roberto the fair complexion), Roberto Blanco (Robert the white complexion), and Roberto Negron (Roberto the dark complexion) physically describe the characteristics of Roberto.

The name can also tell the name of the parent like Roberto Son of Alvaro. However, the Spaniards developed a short version by adding ez, az, is, or oz at the end. For example, Roberto Rodriguez means Roberto son of Rodrigo, Roberto Alvarez means Roberto son of Alvaro, Roberto Mendez means Roberto son of Mendo, and Roberto Gonzalez means Roberto son of Gonzalo.

The name can also tell the occupation of the person like Panadero (baker), Cocinero (chef), Torrero (bull fighter), Atalaya (guard tower), and Escudero (squire). For example, Roberto Panadero means Roberto the baker, and Roberto Cocinero means Roberto the chef.

The origin of baby name is also a popular practice. The word de means "from", while the word del or del las means "from the". For example, Roberto de Lugo means Roberto who lives from the town of Lugo, Roberto Del Monte means Roberto who is from the mountain, and Roberto de las Castillo means Roberto who is from the Castle.

In ancient times, the military has major role on the history and culture of Spain. Naturally, there are many Hispanic or Spanish baby names that came from the military. For example, Rico means strong ruler, Garcia means brave in battle, Sargento means sergeant, and Teniente means lieutenant.

The Roman Catholic has great influence over Spain. In fact, Spain brought the religion to many countries. So, there are many names with Roman Catholic origin. For example, Rosario means rosary, Santos means saints, and Salvador means savior.

Lastly, the name can tell the nationality of the person. For example, Catalano is from Catalan, Franco is from France, and Aleman is from Germany.

In Hispanic culture, the wife gets to keep her maiden name. In this case, the word de implies "wife of". For example, Maria de Gonzalez Alvarez means Maria Gonzalez is wife of Alvarez. Another Hispanic culture, a person is usually given two surnames (name of father and mother). Sometimes, the two surname is separated by "y" which means "and". For example, Maria Gonzalez y Alvarez means daughter of Gonzalez and Alvarez. Finally, the name can also tell the character like Alvaro (truth speaker), Felicidad (happiness), and Alberto (bright).

About the Author

Dennis Estrada is a webmaster of unique baby names, biblical meaning of names, and female baby names website where you can find the stories, origin, and meaning of names and babies.