Choosing a name for your baby could be more difficult than you think. There are many reasons for why such a simple task could become fairly daunting. The most prominent reason…because we want to do give our best.

Indian names like Indian civilization have evolved over last thousands of years. Our scriptures, epics, dieties, nature and traditions have all contributed to the huge collection of names. Internet revolutionized how we search and ultimately choose our baby names. We at Naamdhun have tried to provide meaningful tools to make your search easier.

Here is a comprehensive list of selection criteria, take your pick.

1. Meaning

• Modern parents are looking for names that have a good meaning. This kind of search usually leads to names that have roots in Sanskrit.
• Another aspect, people will come up with a name and then search the meaning to make sure the name has some decent sounding meaning.

2. Should be short and sweet

• There are millions of Indians living outside India plus traditions in urban India are now changing. This leads to the new fashion for names like “Ria”
• Short names are usually easy to pronounce
• One can experiment with a long traditional name and morph a short form of it.

3. Trendy

• A test of fashion is a test of time. One has to pay certain caution here. Research suggests that names that were considered very trendy a decade or few decades ago are not on horizon any more. What is a very trendy name today could be tomorrow’s nightmare.

4. Celebrity and famous Character names

• Celebrity names have been and possibly will continue to inspire baby names.

5. Pronounciation

• More than 12 million Indians live outside India. They want the names to be easy enough for foreigners while having Indian roots.

6. Should not have a bad meaning in some other prominent language

• A lot of names have negative meanings in other languages. This can become a source of teasing for your kid in school. Pay attention to where you live, and the prominent language there.

7. Good nicknames can be derived out of the root name

• Usually this is not the primary criteria but a plus.

8. Raashi, Star and other similar factors

• Naamkaran is one of the sixteen essential Samskaras, on 12th day after a child’s birth a Naamkaran ceremony is conducted.
• Many people search based on Child’s star or Raashi, as these names are considered Shubh and supposed to bring prosperity.

9. Combination Name

• A relatively new and emerging trend is to combine parent’s name in a way to find possible child names. For example Dinesh, Aabha could name their kid Dia

10. A name A wish for a future

• Finally, one could choose a name based on what they wanted the kid to become. For instance a Kishore who sings well could be a very good futuristic bet.