Bengali name

This article has multiple issues. Please help or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages) This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources:  –  ·  ·  · scholar · JSTOR (June 2011) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) This article relies largely or entirely on a single source. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. Please help by introducing citations to additional sources. Find sources:  –  ·  ·  · scholar · JSTOR (November 2016) This article possibly contains original research. Please by verifying the claims made and adding inline citations. Statements consisting only of original research should be removed. (November 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

This article contains Bengali text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols.

Part of a series on
Bengalis
Bengali history Vanga Kingdom Gangaridai Gauda Kingdom Pala Empire Bengal Sultanate Bengal Subah Bengal Presidency Partition of Bengal (1905) Eastern Bengal and Assam Partition of Bengal (1947) East Bengal East Pakistan Names of Bengal
Bengali homeland Bengal Bangladesh West Bengal Tripura Barak Valley Assam
Bengali people Social group: Bangal Ghotis Diaspora Religious community: Muslims Hindus Buddhists Christians Bengali name Subgroups: Dhakaiyas Sylhetis
Bengali culture Language Dialects Alphabet Romanisation Literature Poetry Science fiction Novels Folklore Art Music Cinema Bangladesh West Bengal Theatre Weddings Bengali Muslim wedding Bengali Hindu wedding Cuisine Architecture Bengal Temple Calendar Festivals New Year Spring Monsoon Harvest
Bengali symbols Bangamata Joy Bangla Bengal tiger Bengal cat Bungalow Bengal fire Bengali Renaissance Amar Sonar Bangla National symbols of Bangladesh Fish and rice Ilish Chingri malai curry Rasgulla Chomchom Jamdani Ganges Suvarnabhumi Bay of Bengal
Politics United Bengal Bengali nationalism Bangabhumi Greater Bangladesh
v t

Personal names in Bengali-speaking countries consist of one or several given names and a surname. The given is usually gender-specific. A name is usually cited in the "Western order" of "given name, surname". Personal names may depend generally on the person's religion and also have origins from other languages like Arabic, Persian, Sanskrit and Pali, but they are used and pronounced as according to the native Bengali language.

First names[]

Many people in Bangladesh and West Bengal have two given names: a "good name" (Bengali: ভালো নাম, romanized: Bhalo Nam), which is used on all legal documents, and a "call name" or "nickname" (Bengali: ডাক নাম, romanized: Dak Nam), which is used by family members and close friends.

The two names may or may not be at all related; for example, a man named "Shumon" or "Sumon" or "Suman" (Bengali: সুমন) may be called by his Dak Nam (e.g. Bengali: বুবাই, romanized: Bubai) at home and by his Bhalo Nam (Bengali: সুমন, romanized: Shumon) elsewhere.

Many people also have a shortened version of their Bhalo Nam. For example, Dipu (Bengali: দিপু) for Dipok (Bengali: দীপক), Faru (Bengali: ফারু) for Farhana (Bengali: ফারহানা) etc. in addition to their full Bhalo Nam and their Dak Nam.

Middle names[]

Though middle names are very common in Bangladesh, not every individual has one; this applies to West Bengal as well. Recently, many people have begun to add their dak nam to the middle or end of their full official name, resulting in names like "Saifuddin Kanchon Choudhuri" (সাইফুদ্দীন কাঞ্চন চৌধুরী), where "Saifuddin" would be the man's bhalo nam, "Kanchon" would be his dak nam and "Choudhuri" would be his family name. "Saifuddin Kanchon Choudhuri" could also be written as "Saifuddin Choudhuri Kanchon" dak nam in the end, depending on the choice of the person, how he/she displays their name. In these situations, this man would be correctly addressed "Mr. Choudhuri", not "Mr. Kanchon".

Family names[]

The majority of the people of Bengal are adherents of Islam, and because of this, they mostly use names of Arabic origins followed by Farsi, and Bengali. Among Muslims of Bangladesh, there are several different naming conventions. There is no fixed scheme for the structure of names.^[1] Many people do not really use a family name, so members of a family can have different last names. The system of usage of different family names in the same family may also be followed by non-Muslims due to the dominating name style of not having same family names in a family by Muslims in Bangladesh. The largest minority of the people of Bengal are Hindus. They use many names which are listed below. Some of their names are somewhat shortened and altered, like Chatterjee, due to British influence. Some family names may be common between all religions like: চৌধুরী (Choudhuri / Chowdhury), সরকার (Sorkar / Sarker / Sarkar) and বিশ্বাস (Bishwas).

List of common family names by a person's religion[]

Muslim family names[]

Hindu family names[]

Initials and prefixes[]

Muhammad (মোহাম্মদ), Mohammed, Mohamed, Mohammad, Mohammod, Muhammod or is a common prefix used before the name of many Muslim males, and it is often not considered as the name used to refer to the person. In many cases, the "Muhammad" prefix is shortened to মোঃ ("Md.", or "MD."). Other common prefixes are not systematic. The prefix often serves as the first name and the given name appears as the last name/surname.^[3]

References[]