Carnatic-related baby names

Gowrimanohari · Post by **Gowrimanohari** » 11 May 2015, 05:30

I'm surprised I couldn't find anything in the archives on this. Would have thought it would be a popular question.

Can you suggest Carnatic-related baby names for a girl? e.g. Rasika, Sahana, Ragini, etc.

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 11 May 2015, 05:57

Good topic Gowrimanohari. Good choice of the forum id appropo for this topic.

When I saw the title, before even i read your post, the first thought that came to me was Sahana. She is the daughter of a part time CM teacher I knew quite a while back. Sahana is probably 30 years old now.

Ranjani of course.
Gayathri on the other hand is not a raga name traditionally but we fixed that in this forum by creating a raga named Gayathri.

Amritha works as a short for Amrithavarshini
Varshini will be a good name too, though I do not know one.

Your forum id itself yields two, though manohari might come across as a karnAtakamAna name

Gowri (janya of mAyamALava gowLa, S R1 M1 P N3 S , S N3 D1 P M1 G3 R1 S )
Manohari (janya of kharaharapriyA, S G2 R2 G2 M1 P D2 S, S D2 P M1 G2 R2 S )

harimau · Post by **harimau** » 11 May 2015, 05:58

Too many girls with the name Pallavi already exist.

I have seen Keerthana and Kruthi.

Samantha is the name of a raga. Has the added advantage that it is the name of the witch in the TV series Bewitched and who can deny that women can be witches if they want to be!

But whatever name you want to give a daughter, granddaughter, niece, etc. please don't choose the name Arpita.

No girl should be stuck with a name like A Royal Pain In The A**, no matter how much she deserves it!

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 11 May 2015, 06:09

harimau, Arpita is an excellent name, there are quite a few girls with that name. Your acronym expansion is clever and humorous alright but it is not nice in this context. Your mind works in odd ways

I think that beautiful name means an offering, entrusted, dependent on etc. and it looks like it shares its root with 'arpaNam' which we are all familiar with.

In any case, fortunately we do not need to debate that here since that is not a raga name.

Samantha is a great choice, bewitching or otherwise

Ponbhairavi · Post by **Ponbhairavi** » 11 May 2015, 06:10

Mohana, is quite common
Charukesi. Is my favorite so is Bhairavi
Lalitha,

R.narayan.rao · Post by **R.narayan.rao** » 11 May 2015, 06:57

kamalamanohari Sindhuubhairavi kOkilapriya

Sreeni Rajarao · Post by **Sreeni Rajarao** » 11 May 2015, 07:09

Sangeeta itself is a common name!

Veena, Sreeranjini, Kedar are some more that come to my mind immediately!

harimau · Post by **harimau** » 11 May 2015, 07:40

I have seen boys named Advait.

To remember Thyagaraja's famous song in Reethigowlai, we can consider Dwight for boys.

Has the additional merit that it is easily pronounced by Westerners.

harimau · Post by **harimau** » 11 May 2015, 07:46

vasanthakokilam wrote: Your forum id itself yields two, though manohari might come across as a karnAtakamAna name
Gowri (janya of mAyamALava gowLa, S R1 M1 P N3 S , S N3 D1 P M1 G3 R1 S )
Manohari (janya of kharaharapriyA, S G2 R2 G2 M1 P D2 S, S D2 P M1 G2 R2 S )

As does yours: Vasantha and Kokila.

harimau · Post by **harimau** » 11 May 2015, 08:01

Kalyani, of course.

Bhavani.

Kanaka from Kanakangi.

Rathna from Rathnangi.

Bhanumathi (4th Melakartha). Don't consider Vanaspathi, the alternate name; that could lead to the nickname Dalda.

harimau · Post by **harimau** » 11 May 2015, 08:57

For babies born on March 21, the Persian New Year (Nowroz), Navroj.

If you want to name child after one of the 5 types of land according to Tamil literature, Kurinji, which is also the name of a flower.

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 11 May 2015, 09:07

Harimau, noted.. 'as does yours' includes the 'karnAtakamAna' part as well!

Dwight is great. Samantha is still the one to beat in that genre..your mind does work in different ways, in a good way this time Ha.. ha..

Dalda, definitely. Among nick (not Nick to be sure) names, that is not a bad one, considering some of the nick names like 'thatha', 'eli', 'maesthri' etc

(maesthri because he was pretty good at the foundry classes, he will get those edges just right. That indeed stuck, he is still maesthri for us)

vgovindan · Post by **vgovindan** » 11 May 2015, 09:53

Whatever name you give, please do not name as 'Arti'

PUNARVASU · Post by **PUNARVASU** » 11 May 2015, 12:00

Hemavathy!

Nick H · Post by **Nick H** » 11 May 2015, 13:13

Is there really a raga called Samantha? Is there one called Gladys?

first suggestion might have been Sruti/Shruti? Sushruti?

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 11 May 2015, 13:17

>Is there really a raga called Samantha?

Yes, at the transliteration level when we do not notate the short 'a' vs long 'a'. The raga name is sAmanta (nAganandini janya, S R2 G3 M1 P D3 N3 S S N3 D3 N3 D3 P M1 G3 R2 S )

It will take a harimau to work in Gladys but I doubt even he can

PUNARVASU · Post by **PUNARVASU** » 11 May 2015, 13:25

The kriti of Shri Muthuswamy Deekshitar in sAmanthA rAgam, praNtArthi harAya namastE.

harimau · Post by **harimau** » 11 May 2015, 13:38

Ponbhairavi wrote:Mohana, is quite common
Charukesi. Is my favorite so is Bhairavi
Lalitha,

Just like you got Vasantha's fraternal twin Lalitha, you can get Vaasanthi from Mohana.

Charumathi/Saramathi.

And can you have Bhairavi without Malavi? As an organiser, you should know they go together!

harimau · Post by **harimau** » 11 May 2015, 14:12

Kalavathi.

But one has to be careful. Kalaavathi could well become Kaalaavathi!

Sucharithra.

Shyamalangi.

Dhavalangi.

Jyothi.

ganeshkant · Post by **ganeshkant** » 11 May 2015, 14:13

A percussionist who mostly accompanies udayAloor has this name "vakulAbharaNam".we also have singing duo sivaranjani & naLinakAnti.have also heard names like roopavati,divyamaNi,saraswathi,kalAvati,vEgavAhini,sindhu,yamunA,etc.

harimau · Post by **harimau** » 11 May 2015, 14:20

The recently deceased Pt. Venkatesh Ghodkindi has a grandson named Shadaj (Shadja).

I have heard of a couple of Rishabh's, though they might have been named for their birth sign (Taurus).

ganeshkant · Post by **ganeshkant** » 11 May 2015, 14:29

bindhu,mAlini.soolini,mEghA,...let me think....

Rsachi · Post by **Rsachi** » 11 May 2015, 16:27

The following are lyrical and sometimes directly related to CM:
AlApinI
BhAvikA
ChUrNikA
DhImI
EktArA
Farma-ishi
GAvatI
HamsinI
IndukalA
Jaivanti
KalpanA
LAsyA
MAdhurI
NaLinI
OuDavI
PurNimA
QualitI
RamitA
SAriNI
TArA
UttarA
VipanchI
Wahwah
Xioami
YAnA
ZoomipA

If meanings aren't obvious think it through!

Ponbhairavi · Post by **Ponbhairavi** » 11 May 2015, 16:50

Shanmukhapriya,Revathy. Brindhavani....
Mangalam is oldish (karnAtakamAna peyar ) and may suit for your last girl child (exception a la T M K )

Sundara Rajan · Post by **Sundara Rajan** » 11 May 2015, 20:23

How about
Kumuda or Kumudini for Kumuakriya
nAgam for nAganandhini or nAgagAndhAri
sankari for sankarAbharaNam
rAmapriya
Arabhi
kEdAram
durga
rEvathi
vEgavAhini
lathAngi
varALi
sAranga
Gopika for gopikathilakam
hamsadwani
jayanthi for jayanthasena/jayanthasri ; enough for now !

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 11 May 2015, 20:35

Ponbhairavi, yes Revathi will be a great choice.

>Mangalam is oldish (karnAtakamAna peyar ) and may suit for your last girl child (exception a la T M K )

as a side bar, contrary to almost universally held impression, mangalam and 'end' do not necessarily need to go together. I do not know when it came to mean that in CM but it may not have been during Thyagaraja's period, his musical dramas have a Mangalam song or two in the middle and if I recall right, one is close to the beginning.

Anyway, back to our naming discussion, if someone's calling name is 'mangalam' is it really for the last girl child? Just curious.

Sundara Rajan, Sankari is a great name. May be considered old fashioned, but somehow I feel it can come back and considered modern. (as long as people do not shorten it as 'sank')

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 11 May 2015, 21:29

vasanthakokilam wrote:as a side bar, contrary to almost universally held impression, mangalam and 'end' do not necessarily need to go together.

Yes - in the vazhuvUr style (predominantly) of bharatanATyam, traditionally, performances begin with the gnyAnasabhESar kauttuvam, followed by what is called the 'tODaya mangaLam' thought to have been derived from the phrase 'toDakattu mangaLam' (mangaLam at the start), which invokes the blessings of a series of gods for a successful performance.

Ponbhairavi · Post by **Ponbhairavi** » 11 May 2015, 22:38

"mangalam and end do not necessarily need to go together." Yes I agree but as per the common practice they go together in the mindset of the people.

mangalam only means auspicious. It does not lterally mean end. As per our tradition we we wish to begin with Ganesha and end everything in an auspicious way. all cinemas of yesteryears will end with "subham ". Many writers end their serial stories as subham, so " mangalam songs will hail happy ending . similarly we can make a n auspicious beginning also. In Bhajan sampradaya all Radha kalyanam , Sita kalyanam etc will always begin with thodaya mangalam. It is only a question of practice.In common parlance" mangalam paadiyaachu" means it is over. ( evn some functions begin with national anthem and end with that)
In nomenclature practice mangalam does NOT indicate that she is the last child of that family I think that Mangalaambikai is the goddess name at Kumbakonam
But on a side note,.It is interesting to note that if there is an elder girl in the family, the subsequent girls will not ( in orthodox families ) will Not have the name of lakshmi. the reason being that the elder girl willbecome " lakshmiku akka "( moodevi ).

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 11 May 2015, 23:07

Ponbhairavi, yep, all true. (if TMK starts the concert with pavamAna, he will be on solid grounds along the argument like mine but I can see everyone going nuts over it, blaming him as seeking cheap publicity

when he is really invoking a tradition before the current times and also as you both point out traditions that exist in other sampradAyas and mArgas).. Anyway, this is not about TMK but about Mangalam as a name so we will leave it at that.

wow, I did not know about that Lakshmi thing. So, among such believers, if one like the name Lakshmi, I guess one has to give it to the first girl child. (this prompts me to look at that sister of Lakshmi and how that came into being.. It will please me very much if that is also due to some social distortions like this Mangalam. If common practice in the mindset of people can put a blemish on an incredible raga like Mukhari to the extent people hesitate to sing that raga for subhakArya, any distortion is possible, so I always look out for such unfair societal distortions!!)

Ponbhairavi · Post by **Ponbhairavi** » 12 May 2015, 07:45

poet kamban"s views about this can be read in my thread critics and rasikas

ganeshkant · Post by **ganeshkant** » 12 May 2015, 10:55

sAvitri,shbhAshini,jalajA,kunthaLA,vinOdini,vardhani,chAru(mathi),bilAwal(bEnazir bhutto's son),sumanA or sumanEsan,mAyA,chAyA,...

VK RAMAN · Post by **VK RAMAN** » 12 May 2015, 18:30

Sahana and Ranjani are very popular among Generation Xers.

Gowrimanohari · Post by **Gowrimanohari** » 12 May 2015, 22:30

Wow, lots of good suggestions! Some of the names like Sahana, Ranjani, Shruti, Sangeetha, etc. are pretty popular (and we've already got many of these in our family).

Here are a few more that we came up with (not raga names, but still carnatic - related. We're not yet convinced about any of these, though):

- Avarthana
- Arohana (Aarohi)
- Briha
- Gamaka
- Tambura
- Manjira

If you have more suggestions, please keep them coming! And thanks in advance; this is a fun thread to read!

mahavishnu · Post by **mahavishnu** » 12 May 2015, 22:59

How come majority of these are female names?

Gowrimanohari · Post by **Gowrimanohari** » 12 May 2015, 23:07

mahavishnu wrote:How come majority of these are female names?

Because my original post asks for "Carnatic-related baby names for a girl".

That said, most raga names are female names anyways.

VK RAMAN · Post by **VK RAMAN** » 12 May 2015, 23:45

Bhava Raaga Laya Thala Vinodhini - we used for Saraswathi Bhajans - how nice all those words are part of Female Baby names

mahavishnu · Post by **mahavishnu** » 12 May 2015, 23:57

Gowrimanohari wrote: That said, most raga names are female names anyways.

I was wondering more about this phenomenon and why this is so...

VK RAMAN · Post by **VK RAMAN** » 13 May 2015, 00:17

We are putting identity of Goddess Saraswathi in all Carnatic Music and hence most ragas are named after female name IMHO. I do not know if this is correct, but other knowledgeable individuals may throw light on this mystery.

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 13 May 2015, 01:05

Gowrimanohari wrote:Wow, lots of good suggestions! Some of the names like Sahana, Ranjani, Shruti, Sangeetha, etc. are pretty popular (and we've already got many of these in our family).

If you have more suggestions, please keep them coming! And thanks in advance; this is a fun thread to read!

Yeah, look what you have done!!

You probably did not think it will grow into a conversation like this. Good stuff.

I am thinking of an extension. The concept is coming up a name that has a connection to carnatic music.

Let us consider the example from your list: Gamaka
Say you do not want gamaka but you like the concept of it, say, ornamentation. You loop up the sanskrit dictionary for Ornamentation and find
to our surprise 'mAtra' has a meaning of 'Ornament'. Now we have two routes to this name. OK, that was sort of easy

How about other names related to the concept of ornamentation. I found this which sounds nice
सज्जित sajjita adj. ornamented
प्रसाधित prasAdhita adj. ornamented

And interestingly
संस्कृत saMskRta adj. ornamented

These are all adjectives, so be careful. If you convert them to sajjitA, prasAdhitA, saMskRtA then they sound like names but I do not know if that makes sense Sanksrit nouns wise.

And then there are a few other promising ones

भूषा bhUSA f. ornament
विभूषा vibhUSA f. ornament

I am not sure if any of them will be suitable but if you find one you like, then you have a story behind choosing the name.

(This brought in an 'un ornamented' thought. How about 'prAsA' Short and sweet, a word with great meaning and very much related to music and literature.. Would it work as a baby name? )

This is more to point out the method of going from a word in CM and then expand it into other related words which may not be directly associated with CM but when someone asks about the name you have a good story to tell as to how it was chosen.

harimau · Post by **harimau** » 13 May 2015, 05:15

Gowrimanohari wrote:
Here are a few more that we came up with (not raga names, but still carnatic - related. We're not yet convinced about any of these, though):

- Arohana (Aarohi)

Ha!

Dad beat you to it by naming his drummer son Rohan!

I wonder if it would be legal to name a kid Rohan PhD!

harimau · Post by **harimau** » 13 May 2015, 05:19

Hamsavinodhini ... Name of a raga.

Sunaada.

harimau · Post by **harimau** » 13 May 2015, 05:22

Hundreds of girls named Mahathi. Isn't that Narada's veena?

Along that theme, Vipanchi and Vallaki.

harimau · Post by **harimau** » 13 May 2015, 05:29

Straying into drumming territory, how do Chapu and Gumki sound?

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 13 May 2015, 05:36

'vipanchi' sounds nice. Hope it means something good.

Chapu and Gukmi can be good nick names as a shortened name for other real names. Like how Chaks is for chakravarthi or chakrapani.
Hmm. may be Chapu can be a short for chakrapani.

I like abhinitA as a variation on अभिनीत abhinIta adj. highly finished or ornamented. People will definitely call her abhi

harimau · Post by **harimau** » 13 May 2015, 05:45

vasanthakokilam wrote:'vipanchi' sounds nice. Hope it means something good.

Vipanchi is some god's veena. I can't recall whose.

Vallaki is Meenakshi's veena. Mamava Meenakshi Raja Mathangi Manikya Vallaki pani

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 13 May 2015, 05:55

rAgamAlA is feminine which is a possibility. While looking that up, there are quite a few names that starts with rAga which are interesting.

रागलेखा rAgalekhA f. mark of dye, streak or line of paint
रागलता rAgalatA f. Passion-creeper

Even if not good for a baby name, I can potentially see an Actress taking on a name like rAgalekhA or rAgalatA .

Similarly for laya: layaputrI, daughter of time, female dancer, actress

The meaning 'daughter of time' is just awesome, but somehow I do not see that name fitting in the current times.

Pratyaksham Bala · Post by **Pratyaksham Bala** » 13 May 2015, 09:15

A few Vedic names :-

Aditi
Bharati
Divya
Gauri
Gayatri
Ila
Jagati
Juhu
Jyoti
Mahi
Paulomi
Rathi
Sarasvati
Savitri
Surabhi
Usha

VK RAMAN · Post by **VK RAMAN** » 13 May 2015, 09:17

Mangalam preceded by Thodaya is not the end but the beginning

pattamaa · Post by **pattamaa** » 13 May 2015, 09:24

what are the names for baby boy - apart from thyagaraja(n), guruguha etc ?

It will also be interesting to discuss how some of the musicians of today and yesteryear's have named their children..

Pratyaksham Bala · Post by **Pratyaksham Bala** » 13 May 2015, 09:32

Tyagaraja named his daughter "Seethalakshami".