Interested in South Indian baby names? Read on for a comprehensive list of South Indian baby names for both boys and girls…
South India comprises of a number of different regions including Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu. The languages spoken by people of this region belong to the Dravidian family of languages and comprise of Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, and Tulu. These languages are distinctly different from the Indo-Aryan languages of the North.
Christians and Muslims of the region share baby names with people from the North and generally their baby names have English and Arabic influences respectively. Hindus derive a lot of their names from Hindu mythology and the stories in the Mahabharata and Ramayana.
South Indian Boy’s Names
Popular Hindu names from the Mahabharata and Ramayana include Aditya meaning “the Lord Sun”, Amitabh meaning “unlimited”, and Hari another name for Krishna who was an avatar of a Hindu deity. Other popular South Indian boy’s names include Jagjeet meaning “winner of the world”, Jaswant meaning “victorious”, Mohan meaning “attractive”, and Raju meaning “king”.
Some common South Indian Muslim boy’s names are Ali meaning “exalted”, Abdur Rahman meaning “servant of the most beneficent Lord”, Farooq meaning “one who can discriminate (between good and bad)”, Habib meaning “beloved”, Jameel meaning “handsome”, and Mohammad meaning “highly praised”. Most of these names are of Arabic origin with a few like Farrukh, Humayun, Jahangir, and Aurangzeb coming from Persian.
South Indian Girl’s Names
Some common South Indian Muslim girl’s names are Aalia meaning “exalted”, Bushra meaning “good tidings”, Fahmida meaning “intelligent”, Falak meaning “heaven” and Fareeda meaning “unique”. The list goes on to include other choices such as Haleemah meaning “patient”, Iman meaning “faith”, Kawkab meaning “star”, Laila meaning “night” and Madeeha meaning “praiseworthy”. Mehnaz which means “the moon’s glory” and Nabeela meaning “noble” are also other popular choices. Nadira, Nahee, Rabia, Saima, Zahida and Uzma are other popular South Indian girl’s names.
Popular South Indian Hindu girl’s names include Aarti meaning “great love of God”, Abhilasha meaning “desire”, Aishwarya meaning “prosperity”, Alisha meaning “protected by God”, Alpana meaning “beautiful” and Ambuja meaning “born of a lotus”.
Furthermore Amrita meaning “full of nectar”, Antara meaning “beauty”, Anuradha meaning “goddess of good luck” and Aradhana meaning “worship” are also popular choices amongst the South Indian Hindu population.
The list goes on to include Babita meaning “little girl”, Bhagyashree meaning “fortunate”, Bhanupriya meaning “beloved of the Sun” and Bharati meaning “goddess of knowledge”. Bhavini which takes on the meaning of “the goddess Parvathi”, and Bhoomika meaning “the Earth” are other popular choices.
Above mentioned are just some of the fine examples of the kind of diversity that you will be able to find in the collection of South Indian baby names. The complete list is too exhaustive to be mentioned in a small write up and consists of a large variety of names originating from varying influences both religious and cultural. The use of the above mentioned names is however not at all restricted to the borders of South India but is popular amongst Hindus and Muslims from all across the world.
