Indian Names That Are Also Surnames: Ram, Kumar & More

4.48 crore people in iMeUsWe's heritage database of 1.47 billion records carry Kumar as a surname. Another 16.6 lakh carry it as a first name.

You probably guessed Kumar would be on this list. Most people do. Nearly every Indian family has a Kumar on one side of the name or the other, and many have both. What you probably didn't guess is the word that ranks second when we measure how evenly Indians use a word both ways. It isn't a Sanskrit honorific or a deity's name. It's Shaik.

We went looking for Indian names that are also surnames, words that rank high as both a given name and a family name. We found 28 that clear the bar comfortably. Some are exactly what you'd expect and some are not.

Why Do Indians Use the Same Word as Both Name and Surname?

Western naming keeps the two boxes separate: John is a first name, Smith is a family name, and they rarely swap. Indian naming never worked that way. A word can end up in the surname field for at least four different reasons.

• Compound names split in two. Durga Prasad, Om Prakash and Vijaya Lakshmi were each one name. A form with two boxes turned the second half into a "surname."
• Honorifics that stuck. Kumar (prince, youth), Raj and Rani were once titles or suffixes. Over generations, they became family names.
• Fathers' names used as surnames. In much of South India, the father's given name serves as the child's surname, so any popular first name eventually shows up as a family name too.
• Pure coincidence. Some words are a community name and a personal name at the same time, with unrelated origins.

Every word on our list falls into at least one of these groups. A few fall into two.

The Top 10 True Dual-Use Names, Ranked by Combined Frequency

To rank them, we added each word's surname rank to its name rank. A low combined score means the word sits near the top of both lists. When we ran this against our database, the top ten came out like this:

Kumar has by far the most people, 4.64 crore across both uses, yet it only ranks fourth. It is overwhelmingly a surname: 96 of every 100 Kumars in our records carry it as a family name. That imbalance costs it points.

Ram wins because it is the only word that sits in the top 10 of both lists. It is India's most common first name, with 96.6 lakh people, and its 10th most common surname, with 69.4 lakh.

The Ones Everyone Saw Coming

Let's get the obvious ones out of the way quickly, because you already know their story.

Kumar, Prasad, Narayan, Mohan, Gopal and Krishna are mostly the second halves of compound names. Anil Kumar, Rajendra Prasad, Surya Narayan, Madan Mohan, Ram Gopal and Hari Krishna each started life as one name. A school register, then a ration card, then a passport split it into two. In many families the second half became permanent. Some families, especially in Bihar, reportedly also adopted Kumar in place of a caste surname, and that probably adds to its lead.

Prasad shows how far this can go. Across iMeUsWe's genealogy records, 41.96 lakh people carry Prasad as a surname. Only 4.13 lakh carry it as a first name, a ratio of about ten to one. As a standalone first name, Prasad has almost disappeared. It survives as the tail of a compound.

The Ones That Surprised Us Most

Shaik also spelt as Sheikh, is the most evenly split word on the list. 39.96 lakh people carry it as a surname and 31.36 lakh as a first name, a 56:44 split. No other word in our data is this balanced. Our best reading is that the “Shaik” spelling is concentrated in Telugu-speaking states, where the family name traditionally comes before the given name. Shaik Abdul Rahman and Shaik Mohammed are Shaik first, but a form expecting “first name, last name” can put Shaik in either box. The word hasn’t changed roles. The paperwork has. It is also the only Muslim name in our top 28, which makes its #2 ranking stand out even more.

Lakshmi has 13.95 lakh surname-holders. That makes it India’s #67 surname, and it belongs to a word that is also the country’s #2 first name. We expected a goddess’s name to stay firmly in the given-name box. Instead, the compound pattern shows up again: Vijaya Lakshmi, Bhagya Lakshmi, Dhana Lakshmi. These are commonly written as two words in the South, and in the records the second word often slides into the surname field.

Meena is two unrelated words that happen to share a spelling. Meena the first name (#30) is the gentle, familiar girl’s name. Meena the surname (#131) mostly belongs to the Meena community of Rajasthan, which has an entirely separate origin. The same five letters mean two completely different things.

Raju works the same way. As a first name (#37, with 23 lakh people), it is the affectionate short form of Raj or Rajendra and the name of half of India’s cinema heroes. As a surname (#151), it is also the family name of the Raju community of coastal Andhra Pradesh.

Saroj was the one we least expected. It is a name given to both boys and girls (#79, 15.2 lakh people). It is also a surname used by several communities in eastern Uttar Pradesh (#284, 2.87 lakh people).

Then there is Prakash, which quietly outdoes its near-namesake. Prasad and Prakash sound similar, and both commonly finish compound names. Yet Prasad is 91% surname, while Prakash is split almost evenly: 45% surname, 55% first name. Om Prakash and Jaya Prakash kept Prakash alive as a family name, while plain Prakash kept going strong as a first name. Out of 28 words, it is one of only three that stay close to an even split.

The Fathers Who Became Surnames

This group is the newest pattern on the list and, to us, the most revealing.

Suresh, Ramesh, Santosh, Ashok, Vinod, Ravi, Ganesh and Subhash are not honorifics or compound tails. They are simply first names, and many were common among Indians born in the 1960s and 70s. Yet every one of them now appears as a surname for somewhere between 71,000 and 3.5 lakh people.

The likely reason is the practice, widespread in South India, of using the father’s given name as the child’s surname. Once a Suresh has children, Suresh becomes a surname. Every popular first name therefore produces a surname one generation later.

Vinod shows this pattern most clearly. The iMeUsWe ancestry database has 20.36 lakh Vinods as first names and just 71,667 as surnames. That 28:1 ratio is the most lopsided on the list. Santosh (19:1) and Ashok (16:1) are close behind. These words have only just begun crossing into the surname box. If the pattern holds, their surname counts should keep rising as that generation’s children and grandchildren grow up.

Kumar and Vinod sit at opposite ends of the list. Kumar finished its crossing long ago. Vinod has only just started.

All 28 Words at a Glance

L = lakh people. Ranked by combined score (surname rank + name rank).

Frequently Asked Questions About Indian Names That Are Also Surnames

1. Is Ram a name or a surname?

It is both, and it is the most balanced major example in India. Ram is the #1 first name in iMeUsWe's records, with 96.6 lakh people, and the #10 surname, with 69.4 lakh. It often becomes a surname when compound names like Sita Ram or Raja Ram are split in two.

2. Why is Kumar used as a surname?

Kumar is usually the second half of a compound first name, such as Anil Kumar or Raj Kumar, that became a family name over time. Some families also adopted it in place of a caste surname. That is why 96% of the Kumars in our records carry it as a surname rather than a first name.

3. Why do South Indians have first names as surnames?

In many South Indian families, the father's given name serves as the child's surname. So popular first names like Suresh, Ramesh and Ganesh keep turning into surnames one generation later.

4. Is Meena a surname or a first name?

Both, with unrelated origins. As a first name, Meena is a popular girl's name (#30 in our records). As a surname (#131), it largely belongs to the Meena community of Rajasthan.

5. Which Indian name is used equally as a first name and a surname?

In our data it is Shaik, split 56% surname and 44% first name, followed by Prakash (45/55) and Ram (42/58). No other word among the top 28 comes this close to an even split.

Where Does Your Name/Surname Sit?

If your surname is also somebody's first name, or the other way round, our records show exactly how often it crosses over and in which direction. Check your own name's dual ranking at imeuswe.in/surname/, or see how many people share it as a first name, starting with Ram's name history.