Singh - Naming Patterns

Naming Patterns

Singh is often used the traditional way, as previously described, by having it as the middle name after the first name and followed by the clan/family name by many communities, groups and peoples. For example, Yogendra Singh Yadav, Prahlad Singh Patel, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, and Bhairon Singh Shekhawat. Sikh examples include Gurmukh Singh Saini, Jassa Singh Ahluwalia, Jassa Singh Ramgarhia, and Hari Singh Nalwa. Thus Singh can be used as a middle name before the individual's surname (last name), a common practice among many groups in India, e.g., Jassa Singh Ahluwalia (1: First name, 2: Singh, 3: Family lineage name). Many adherents of Sikh faith across the world, some of which may come from many other races, countries, cultures and groups use the name "Singh" as a middle name with last name as Khalsa, e.g., Avtar Singh Khalsa (1: First Name, 2: Singh, 3: Belonging to Khalsa spiritual family). Another practise among Sikhs is to use village/town/city/country lineage after middle name Singh to avoid using the caste lineage, e.g., Parkash Singh Badal (1: First Name, 2: Singh, 3: Village/town/country lineage).

Singh is also used as a surname (last name) (for example, Choudhary Charan Singh, Vijender Singh, Yuvraj Singh, Manmohan Singh, Vijay Singh, Harbhajan Singh, and Rajnath Singh).

Earlier, a common practice among the Rajput men was to have Singh as their last name, while Rajput women had the last name Kumari (Princess) which is derived from Kanwar (Prince). However, many Rajput women have Singh in their name as well. Several times during history Rajputs migrated out of Rajputana; many of those who settled in other parts of India have since come to use Singh as their last name even though they belong to separate Rajput gotras and clans. This happened over several generations due to the local population preferring to popularly call them just Singh in the new places. This was usually enough to denote that they belonged to the Kshatriya varna and were Hindu Rajput warriors by caste.