What is namakarana, the Hindu naming ceremony?

Grihya Sutras of the Rigveda (Ashvalayana and Shankhayana)

These manuals give the baby a name of two or four syllables that begins with a voiced sound and holds a semivowel (y, r, l or v); a girl's name has an odd number of syllables. Shankhayana gives a name at birth that only the father and mother know, and on the tenth day a second name for everyday use. Ashvalayana also has the parents choose a name for formal greetings, which they alone know until the child's upanayana.

Sources for this reading

• Shankhayana Grihya Sutra 1.24.4–6, in Hermann Oldenberg (tr.), The Grihya-Sutras, Part I (Sacred Books of the East, vol. 29, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1886): a name “that his father and his mother should know”, and “on the tenth day a name for common use”. Oldenberg died 1920: public domain. Summarised in our words. (p. 50 (leaf n61))
• Ashvalayana Grihya Sutra 1.15.4–8, in Oldenberg (tr.), The Grihya-Sutras, Part I (SBE 29, 1886): two or four syllables, “an even number (of syllables) for men, an uneven for women”, and a name for respectful salutations “that his mother and his father (alone) should know till his initiation”. Public domain. (pp. 182–183 (leaves n193–n194))

Grihya Sutras of the Yajurveda (Paraskara and Apastamba)

In Paraskara's manual (White Yajurveda) the naming comes on the tenth day. The mother rises from childbed, Brahmins are fed, and the father gives the name. Apastamba's manual (Black Yajurveda) also names the child on the tenth day, after the mother has bathed, and the father and mother are the first to say the name. Apastamba adds that a name may hold the word su, "good", and that a girl's name has an odd number of syllables.

Sources for this reading

• Paraskara Grihya Sutra 1.17.1–3, in Oldenberg (tr.), The Grihya-Sutras, Part I (SBE 29, 1886): “On the tenth day (after the birth of the child) the father, having made (his wife) get up, and having fed the Brahmanas, gives a name (to the child)”. Checked on the page image. Public domain. (p. 297 (leaf n308))
• Apastamba Grihya Sutra 6.15.8–11, in Hermann Oldenberg (tr.), The Grihya-Sutras, Part II (Sacred Books of the East, vol. 30, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1892): on the tenth day, after the mother has bathed, the father names the son, and “the father and the mother (should pronounce that name first)”; a name with the particle su; “a girl's name should have an odd number of syllables”. Page 283 checked on the page image. Public domain. (pp. 282–283 (leaves n325–n326))

Grihya Sutra of the Samaveda (Gobhila)

Gobhila allows three times for the naming: when ten nights have passed, or a hundred nights, or one year. The father, or someone in his place, sits by the sacred fire, and the mother hands him the baby in a clean cloth. He makes offerings to Prajapati and to the tithi and the nakshatra of the birth, touches the baby's head, and gives the name. He tells the name to the mother first.

Sources for this reading

• Gobhila Grihya Sutra 2.8.8–17, in Oldenberg (tr.), The Grihya-Sutras, Part II (SBE 30, 1892): “When ten nights have elapsed after (the child's) birth, or a hundred nights, or one year”; offerings to Prajapati, to the tithi and to the nakshatra; “after he has told the name to the mother first”. Page 57 checked on the page image. Public domain. (pp. 57–58 (leaves n100–n101))

Dharmashastra (Manu)

The Manusmriti sets the naming on the tenth or twelfth day after birth, or on an auspicious lunar day and hour, under a favourable nakshatra. For girls it asks for names that are easy to say, pleasing and auspicious, with a plain meaning, ending in a long vowel and holding a word of blessing.

Sources for this reading

• Manusmriti 2.30 and 2.33, in Georg Bühler (tr.), The Laws of Manu (Sacred Books of the East, vol. 25, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1886): the naming “on the tenth or twelfth (day after birth), or on a lucky lunar day, in a lucky muhurta, under an auspicious constellation”; women's names “easy to pronounce … pleasing and auspicious, end in long vowels, and contain a word of benediction”. Bühler died 1898: public domain. Checked on the page image. (p. 35 (leaf n177))

Family custom in Gujarat

A record of Gujarati Brahmin families from 1920 describes the naming on the twelfth day where possible, and later when the family is in mourning. The father's sister names the baby. The baby lies in a sari held at four corners by the nearest relatives, children swing it and sing a short Gujarati song, and the aunt says the name. The priest tells her which first letters belong to the baby's birth nakshatra. The name is not that of the father, the grandfather or a relative who has died.

Sources for this reading

• Margaret Stevenson (Mrs Sinclair Stevenson), The Rites of the Twice-Born (London: Oxford University Press, 1920), chapter 1, “Birth and babyhood”: the cradle-song naming by the paternal aunt; the initial chosen from the letters of the birth constellation, which the priest tells the aunt; the name not that of a dead relative, the father or the grandfather; the naming on the twelfth day if possible, put off in mourning. Stevenson died in 1957 (Library of Congress name authority n86817364, “Stevenson, Sinclair, Mrs., 1875-1957”): the book is public domain in the US and India, but in copyright in the UK, the EU and Australia until December 31, 2027. Cited only: facts restated in our own words, nothing quoted; the author's own judgements are not repeated. Page 14 checked on the page image. (pp. 13–15 (leaves n40–n42))

Family custom in Kerala

A 1906 record from Travancore gives two customs. Among Nambudiri Brahmins the naming is on the twelfth day: the father holds the child on his lap and whispers its name in the right ear, and then the mother does the same. Among Nayar families it is on the twenty-seventh day: the karanavar, the senior man of the family, gives the baby a spoonful or two of milk with sugar and calls the name into its ear three times.

Sources for this reading

• The Travancore State Manual, by V. Nagam Aiya, vol. II (Trivandrum: Travancore Government Press, 1906) (Nambudiris, “Namakaranam”, p. 255 (leaf n294); Nayars, “Ceremonies”, p. 352 (leaf n395), checked on the page image)

Family custom in Mysore (Kannada country)

A 1928 account of Brahman families in the Mysore State, in the Kannada country, says that the eleventh day is the usual day for the naming in South India. The parents sit facing east, with the mother and the baby on the father's right, and the rite begins with the worship of Ganesha (Vinayaka). On a plate of rice are written the name of the family deity, the month of the birth, the birth nakshatra and its deity, the name the child will use in public, and a secret name that only the parents know. The father calls the child by each name into its right ear, and the Brahmins present bless the child. Then the mother and the rest of the family call the child by its public name, and aarti is waved.

Sources for this reading

• H. V. Nanjundayya and L. K. Ananthakrishna Iyer, The Mysore Tribes and Castes, vol. II (Mysore: The Mysore University, 1928), “Brahman”, the naming ceremony: the eleventh day “is the practice in South India”; the plate of rice with the names; the father calls the child by each name at the right ear; the family then calls the child by the public name. The authors died in 1920 and 1937: public domain. Summarised in our words; the old texts' claims about what a name will bring are left out. (pp. 377–379 (leaves n471–n473); pp. 378–379 checked on the page images)

Sources

• Paraskara Grihya Sutra 1.17.1, in Oldenberg (tr.), The Grihya-Sutras, Part I (SBE 29, 1886), with the cross-references in Oldenberg's note to Gobhila 2.8.14 and Ashvalayana 1.15.4: the naming on the tenth day in the household manuals. Public domain. (p. 297 (leaf n308))
• Margaret Stevenson, The Rites of the Twice-Born (1920): the priest names the first letters that belong to the birth constellation. Cited only (the author died in 1957); facts restated in our own words. (p. 14 (leaf n41))

Samskaras and family rites

Muhurat rules for this rite, and windows for your city. Every date is computed by our calendar, with its rule and source named. The family priest’s choice comes first.

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