What are the most common Indian surnames (last names)?

Question

FYI, I'm an American. The first family from India I met had the surname "Gupta." Since then, I've met a lot of Guptas, several Chopras and quite a few Ganeshes.

I've read the Wikipedia entry for Indian names (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_name… so there's no need to cite it or explain to me how surnames are formed, used or not used.

What I'm wondering about is what that article doesn't explain: The prevalence (or lack) of surnames (last names) in India, which are most common, and [if possible] the meanings of the most common surnames, if appropriate.

Thanks in advance! I always pick a best answer, so this is a sure 10 points for the person with the best answer.

Answer 1

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker

Common Northern India Surnames: (Delhi, Haryana, Punjab,etc)
Sharma
Verma
Gupta
Malhotra
Bhatnagar
Saxena
Kapoor, Kapur
Singh
Mehra
Chopra
Sarin
Malik

Common Eastern India surnames: (Bengal, Orrisa, etc.)
Chatterjee
Sen
Bose
Sengupta
Das
Dasgupta
Banerjee
Chattopadhyay
Mukopadhyay
Dutta

Common Southern India surnames: (Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, etc.)
Nair (or Nayar)
Pillai
Rao
Jayaraman
Venkatesan
Balasubramanium
Subramanium
Rangan
Rangarajan

Common Central India (Bihar/ Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, etc)
Singh (Common for North also)
Yadav
Jhadav
Jaiteley
Chauhan
Mistry
Khan

Common Western India surnames: (Maharashtra, Gujarat, etc)
Shah
Mehta
Patel (Gujarati)
Patil (Maharashtrian)
Pawar, Powar
Gavde
Kadam
Tambe
Chavan
D'souza, Lobo, Rodrigues, D'Costa (Goan/ Pondicherry surnames- Former Portugal Colonies in India)

Asker's Rating:

Asker's Comment:

Great answers all around, this one was most complete.

Answer 2

Sood! they also have sub surnmames: Dhiri, Mohindra, Dhanda, Banta, Sud along with numerous others!

Source(s):

Do a yahoo search for Sood History and you will get a website by Dr. Bhushan Sood from Canada good resource!

Answer 3

Yadavs, and in Punjab Sidhu , Sandhu, Grewal, Ahluwalia, Gill, and in Bengal Bennerjee

Answer 4

in the 24 yrs i spent in India,
i almost covered each and every State across the country
except some parts of north east,
and the only surname i found common is "SINGH"

SINGHs are there in Hindu-Sikh-Bauddh-Christian
and found in evey region, from J&K to Rajasthan to Tamil Nadu to Arunachal..

since u asked the most common surname,
singh is the suitable ans for ur question.

Answer 5

Sharma and Verma. In America, U will come across lot of Gujratis most likely PATEL.

Ganesh is usually the surname of south Indians

Answer 6

-Singh
-Sen
-Verma
-Sharma
-Gupta
-Jain
-Dwivedi
-Thomas
-James
-Yadav
-Bajpai
-Dubey
-Sinha
-Negi

Answer 7

Singh is also a popular Indian surname.

Answer 8

Hi!
Here's 2 links I have found that may answer your questions, hopefully.
http://www.geocities.com/lakshman/Desh/n…
and
http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/resource…
Your Welcome!

Source(s):

web search

Answer 9

kapoor, verma, sharma, malhotra, jain, singh, etc. .............the list is 'endless'.

Answer 10

singh,shah,patel,jha,chaturwedi,joshi,ga…

Answer 11

I know these that are all MD who are from India...
Rao.
Sighn.
Oudeh.
Ajey.
Lahiri.
Reddy.
There are more but these are only a few I have the pleasure of knowing....They are great physicians!!!!!

Answer 12

Mostly the Indians have Gupta,Saxena,Chopra,Khan,Bharani , Bajpai, Chadha , Singh , Jain as their surnames but the most common is Jain .

Now I am waiting for my 10 points ,SIR !!!!!

HA ! HA ! HA ! HA !

Answer 13

ram ram