Baby names by nakshatra

Enter the baby's birth date, time and place. The tool finds the Moon's nakshatra and pada, gives the traditional first syllable for the name (naam akshar), and suggests names with their meanings. You can also pick a nakshatra yourself, or check which naam rashi any name belongs to.

How the first syllable is chosen

Each of the 27 nakshatras is divided into four padas, making 108 in all, and the Avakahada chakra assigns a sound to each one. In the naming ceremony (namkaran), the name traditionally begins with the sound of the pada the Moon was in at birth. Nine padas make one rashi, so the same table also gives the "naam rashi" of a name from its first sound.

A few sounds, such as ङ, ञ, ण and ठ, begin almost no names. Families then commonly use another syllable of the same nakshatra or one of the rashi's nine syllables, both of which the tool lists.

All 108 syllables

Reading a name's first sound

The checker reads the first consonant and its vowel. A consonant with the short vowel, as in र, is read with the long one in the table (रा). In a conjunct the first consonant counts, so प्रिया is read as पि. ब is read as व. The table has no श; it is shown as ष (Hasta) and स (Shatabhisha), as practice varies. Names typed in English letters cannot tell त from ट or द from ड, so both are shown. Writing the name in Devanagari gives the exact answer.

Limits

The name list is a short selection of well-known names with plain meanings, not a complete dictionary. The nakshatra and pada depend on an accurate birth time, especially near a pada boundary; the Moon moves through a pada in about six hours. Positions come from the same engine as the Kundli.