Rashi Baby Names by Starting Syllable

How rashi syllables work

In many Hindu families a baby's name is chosen to begin with a syllable linked to the child's rashi, the moon sign at birth. A pandit reads the birth time, finds the nakshatra and its quarter, and gives the family a syllable such as Ka, Ra or Ma; the family then looks for a name that begins with it. The custom is often called naam rashi, and it is why cousins born in the same month sometimes share a first letter.

This page lists the starting syllables traditionally assigned to each of the twelve rashis, with the catalog names that begin with them. The assignment is read from the first Devanagari syllable, the way a pandit reads it, not from the English spelling: Chandni begins with च and falls under Meen although in English it starts with C. Short and long vowels are treated as one class, which is the usual practice.

Two caveats. Syllable tables vary slightly by region and almanac, so a family's pandit may place a borderline syllable differently from this table. And a name's rashi association is a naming custom, not a calculation of the child's birth chart; nothing on this site can tell you a baby's actual rashi. If your pandit has given you a syllable, use the table to find the sign and the names, then confirm the choice with them.