Sikh Nomenclature
(Background of the Sikh names)
Every nation and religion has its own system of choosing names for their children. Usually, the names are chosen in reference to the religious principles, culture, history or qualities (usually of beauty, bravery, generosity, grandeur etc.). There is no denying fact that majority of the people don’t live their lives according to the teachings of their religions, but still, most of the people, choose the names for their children from their religious culture. It is strange that the Hindus have, now, stopped naming their children after religious culture. (They choose modern and new names for their children).
In some religions, one part of the name of each and every person a religious obligation. For example, in Islam, every name comprises of minimum two words, and sometimes three. If the name of a Muslim is: Syed Rehan Ahmed, it is a combination of three words. Here, Syed is caste, Rehan is the real name and Ahmed is one of the hundred names of the Almighty. Every Muslim name must include one of the hundred names of the Almighty. Some Muslims don’t use their caste along with their name. Hence, Syed Rehan Ahmed can be written simply as Rehan Ahmed. Some Muslim use caste at the end: e.g. Rehan Ahmed Syed.
Among the Sikhs too, it is obligatory to use Singh (meaning emperor) for males and Kaur for females (Kaur means prince, every Sikh female is considered equal to males, hence every female is a ‘prince’ and not ‘princess’). Those who don’t use Singh or Kaur cannot claim to be Sikhs.
Among the Muslim women there is a different custom too. The Muslim women usually change their names after their marriage. Their new name is chosen to boast some grandeur or special significance. For example, a lady whose name in her childhood was “Raeesa Bano”, after her marriage, became “Naazash Amber” (which literally means “proud sky”). Most of the names given to the Muslim brides are usually exaggeration of something or some concept e.g. Blue Sky, Kohinoor, Light of the World, Sun, Moon, Diamonds etc. or after the names of queens and sometimes film stars also.
Eritrea, which gained freedom sometimes ago, has a tradition of choosing names from optimism, heights, progress, loftiness etc. Most of their names mean great, high, long, fast, free, bravo, marvellous, special, prosperous etc. In Scandinavia (Norway, Sweden, Denmark) most of the people are pagan (or atheist). Though their State religion is Christianity but one can’t find many religious names among the Scandinavians. Their names, mostly, are from nature, panorama or climate e.g. mountain, hill, river, sea, stone, brick, valley, top, stream, flower, plain etc. The Jewish people still love to choose religious and national names.
Among the Hindus, there had been a tradition to choose names from Hindu mythology. Ram, Krishna, Mohan, Kanhaiya, Karan, Arjun, Sita Ram, Radha Shyam, Murli Dhar, Balram, Bhim etc. for men and Sita, Radha, Rukmani, Urmila, Urvashi, Shakuntala etc. for women had been very popular for centuries. But since 1980s, an altogether different trend has begun. Now Hindus choose their names from nature, progress, films, qualities, flowers and even from foreign names. Among the so-called low caste Hindus (Sikhism does not believe in low or high caste concept), particularly among the Chamars, there is a tradition of choosing Sikh names for females (with Kaur suffix). It creates misunderstanding about the identity of religion of these females.
Among Sikhs, there are several patterns of choosing names. The first tradition is that of the names of the Gurus and their families. Only a few of these names are chosen and that even by a small section of the Sikhs. The Sikhs usually avoid it because they don’t like to equalise themselves to Guru Sahib. Guru family names, chosen by Guru Sahib for their children, are as follows: Sri Chand, Lakhmi Das, Datu, Dasu, Mohan, Mohari, Arjan, Mahadev, Pirthi Chand, Hargobind, Gurditta, Atal Rai, Ani Rai, Suraj Mall, Tegh Bahadur, Harkishan, Ram Rai, Gobind Das, Ajit, Jujhar, Zorawar, Fateh (male names) and Anokhi, Amro, Bhani, Viro, Rup Kaur (female names). Bhai Gurdas has given about a hundred names of the prominent Sikhs of the period of the first six Gurs. The Sikhs don’t choose names from among these names because their parents had chosen the names of these people much before they joined Sikhism.
The present Sikh nomenclature has its background in the names of the Sikhs of the period after 1698-99, i.e. since the time of the first ceremony of Khanday-di-Pahul. The prominent names of the period are : Ajit Singh, Jujhar Singh, Zorawar Singh, Fateh Singh, Hatthi Singh, Mani Singh, Banda Singh, Bachitar Singh, Udey Singh, Chitar Singh, Anik Singh, Ajab Singh, Ajaib Singh, Gurbakhsh Singh, Desa Singh, Taru Singh, Baz Singh, Binod Singh, Ajaypal Singh, Tara Singh, Jassa Singh, Kapur Singh, Mahitab Singh, Sukkha Singh, Bota Singh, Garja Singh, Dip Singh, Ratan Singh, Rai Singh, Nand Singh, Gurdial Singh, Jiwan Singh, Sham Singh, Karam Singh, Dial Singh, Chand Singh, Bagh Singh, Hari Singh, Sadda Singh, Dharam Singh, Bachan Singh, Bir Singh, Aghar Singh, Gulab Singh, Dasaundha Singh, Darbara Singh, Gharbara Singh, Sanmukh Singh, Amolak Singh, Baghar Singh, Mohar Singh, Bir Singh, Doola Singh, Baghel Singh, Amar Singh, Sahib Singh, Kesra Singh, Baisa Singh, Anup Singh, Sarup Singh, Charhat Singh, Daya Singh, Jawahar Singh, Nigahia Singh, Ranjit Singh, Jodh Singh etc. These are the names of the martyrs of Guru period or the names of the leaders of the Sikh army in the eighteenth century.
During and after the Misl period (1748-1850), the Sikhs preferred to choose martial or religious names. Some names, however, were selected from beauty, grandeur and nature too. Some prominent names of this period are:
Kharak Singh, Sher Singh, Ranjodh Singh, Bir Singh, Tegha Singh, Fauja Singh, Sant Singh, Teja Singh, Nidhan Singh, Gurmukh Singh etc.
During Hindu Arya Samaj movement, some Sikh families chose Hindu names also but these were not many. Most prominent among them were: Bhagat Singh, Sawarn Singh, Kishan Singh, Ishwar Singh, Narain Singh, Lachhman Singh, Prehlad Singh, Inder Singh, Shiv Singh, Radha Singh, Hanuman Singh etc. but with the beginning of the Singh Sabha movement the Sikhs re-started choosing religious and martial names for their children. During this period the following names were very popular: Bahadur Singh, Kartar Singh, Teja Singh, Hazur Singh, Hukam Singh, Dan Singh, Amar Singh, Sahib Singh, Gurmukh Singh, Gajjan Singh, Gurbakhsh Singh, Harchand Singh, Harbans Singh, Kehar Singh, Jodh Singh, Sarmukh Singh, Fauja Singh, Rai Singh, Sher Singh, Moola Singh, Sardool Singh, Gurbachan Singh, Harnam Singh, Gian Singh, Karam Singh, Tara Singh etc. This pattern continued for about half a century.
By 1822, there was no Sikh who chose a name with ‘Inder’ as conjunction (i.e. second half of the given name). Inder is the name of a mythical Hindu god (literally: god as well as king). Nabha ruling family was the first to choose Inder as a conjunction of the name of a child. Before 1822, Nabha had been ruled by Tirlok Singh, Gurdit Singh, Hamir Singh and Jaswant Singh. Jaswant Singh became ruler in 1783 at the age of 8 years. At the age of 47, on 4 September 1822, a son was born to him. He named his son as Davinder Singh [Dev (god) + Inder (god)= god of kings or god of gods, because Inder means god as well as king). Jaswant Singh had chosen this name on the advice of his Brahmin minister.
About one year after the birth of Davinder Singh, Karam Singh, the ruler of Patiala, too, became father of a son, on 26 November 1823. He, too, named his son as Narinder with a conjunction Inder [Nar=king + Inder =king/god]
Though the conjunction ‘Inder’ was first chosen by Nabha ruler but it became a permanent part of the names of the Patiala family after 1823. Narinder Singh named his son Mahendra Singh who named his son Rajendra Singh. Rajendra Singh named his son Bhupendra Singh. The tradition was followed to Amarinder Singh and his successors. The Patiala family not only made Inder as permanent conjunction, but, they altered its pronunciation from Punjabi to Hindi. Davinder became Davendra, Rajinder became Rajendra, Bhupinder became Bhupendra and Yadavinder became Yadavendra. Amarinder, however, is a Punjabi pronunciation.
Though these two ruling families, under the influence of their Brahmin advisors, chose names of their children from Hindu mythology but the Sikhs did not follow them. The Akali Movement (1920-25) was so influential that most of the Sikhs remained free from the Brahminic influence. It was only after 1947 that a large number of Sikhs came under Brahminic influence and some others due to ignorance or out of fashion began using Inder as conjuction of the first (given) names of their children. Soon it became an “epidemic”. The following
are most used names with the suffix Inder: Amarinder, Avinder, Barjinder, Balwinder, Baljinder, Birinder, Birdavinder, Bhupinder, Bhalinder, Chhinder, Davinder, Deepinder, Dalwinder, Daljinder, Gajinder, Gurinder, Gurvinder, Guninder, Harjinder, Harinder, Harwinder, Harnarinder, Harminder, Harmohinder, Inder, Ishwinder, Jatinder, Joginder, Kulwinder, Lachhinder, Mohinder, Maninder, Manjinder, Narinder, Naginder, Nirpinder, Opinder, Parminder, Rajinder, Raminder, Ravinder, Rajwinder, Surinder, Satwinder, Salinder, Satinder, Sawinder, Talwinder, Tejinder, Upinder, Varinder, Yadavinder etc.
In spite of ‘epidemic’ of Inder, the devoted Sikh parents still choose Panthic names for their children. The following are among the most-favoured names from Sikh Scripture, Sikh culture and Sikh history: Avtar, Amar, Amrit, Ajit, Balwant, Changa, Channan, Deep, Daya, Dit, Darshan, Fateh, Gurcharan, Gurdial, Gursagar, Gian, Gurdit, Gurmukh, Gurmit, Gurnam, Harnam, Hari, Harbans, Harcharan, Harjit, Jagjit, Jagjiwan, Jiwan, Jassa, Jang, Jagtar, Jujhar, Kapur, Kanwal, Kamal, Kamaljit, Kirpal, Kartar, Kultar, Kuldip, Labh, Lakkhi, Lal, Manjit, Mohan, Pavitar, Partap, Piar, Punjab, Prabsharan, Prabhdial, Sukhdev, Santokh, Sarup, Sahib, Sardar/Sirdar, Satnam, Sewa, Zorawar etc.
The Sikhs had been selecting some names from Bikrami calendar too. We can find Maghar, Visakha, Chet, Basant, Sawan, Jetha, Harha etc. Ranjit Singh, after his victories, gave the names of the conquered towns to his children e.g. Kashmira Singh, Multana Singh and Pishaura Singh etc. A few persons have chosen Lahora Singh and Ajmer Singh too.
From Hindu culture, the most popular names were: Gopal, Narayan, Prithipal, Jaswant, Satbir, Shiv, Tarlochan, Dhanna etc. Similarly, some names of Islamic culture too have been chosen by some Sikhs. From among Muslim names the most popular are: Iqbal, Umrao, Gujjar, Jahangir, Khuda Singh etc.
The reason of choosing un-Sikh names by Sikh parents is their ignorance about the tradition and the meaning of the names. There is no doubt that mob-mentality and fashion too have played their role. After 1984, again, there was another movement among the Sikhs regarding the selection of the names. Several parents chose Jarnail, Amrik, Subeg, Talwinder, Sukkha, Sukhdev, Manbir Singh and the names of other militants and martyrs for their children.
Among Sikhs, there are two methods for naming a child. Some days after the birth of the child ((it can be even the same day), the child is taken to Gurdwara (or at home, in the presence of Guru Granth Sahib) and a hymn from Guru Granth Sahib is read. This hymn is called Vaak. The name of the child is chosen beginning with the first letter or any other letter of the first word of the hymn. According to another tradition the name is chosen by parents (and not from the letters of a word from a hymn) and an Ardaas (prayer) is made before Guru Granth Sahib. Both ceremonies are popular among the Sikhs. This Ardaas is regarded as Guru’s approval for the name.
Some Sikh’s choose very fine names for their children but during their daily routine they address them with different names, which, they think, are nicknames. Most of these names are given by the western people to their cats and dogs. Such pet names include: Lucky, Tony, Bittu, Billu, Titu, Kukku, Mintu, Sonu, Toni, Bubbly, Kaku, Dipu, Harry, Sunny, Honey, Bunty, Shunty etc. These people do not know that by giving animal nicknames they are insulting their children on one hand and refusing to accept the names given to (or chosen by) them in the presence of Guru Granth Sahib on the other hand. Instead of using animal pet-names, it is better to choose short names for the children e.g. Paal Singh, Laal Singh, Baal Singh, Maan Singh, Mit Singh, Rai Singh, Raja Singh, Jeet Singh, Sher Singh, Jas Singh, Banda Singh, Mahan Singh, Mani Singh, Tara Singh, Sahib Singh, Bir Singh, Vir Singh, Preet Singh, Dip Singh etc.
(Dr Harjinder Singh Dilgeer)