Christian surnames from Indian subcontinent

[Romanise]

Are there any christian surnames exclusively of the subcontinent?

Is Nathan more subcontinental than say Samuel or Mathews or De Silva?

[Neil Boss]

Nathan is Christian where as Natan means Lord.

Romanise <jos...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1143866788.7...@t31g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...

[ranjit_...@yahoo.com]

Romanise wrote:
> Are there any christian surnames exclusively of the subcontinent?

There are both names of Indian origin and names of non-Indian origin
that are used only by Indian Christians. ArOgyaswAmi and valsA (from
vatsalA) are used in Tamilnadu and Kerala, respectively, by Christians
and not Hindus. Chandy from Alekhandrios (Alexander), Eapen/Eipe from
stefAn, Chacko from Jacob and Gheevarghese/Varghese from Georgeos, are
examples of Indianizations of non-Indian names.

> Is Nathan more subcontinental than say Samuel or Mathews or De Silva?

In a Christian's name, it would be short for Nathaniel (gift from God).

[Romanise]

Neil Boss wrote:
> Nathan is Christian where as Natan means Lord.

If Murali, Badri, Appudurai, Ramaswamy, Chitra, Sivapragasam, Sumithra,
etc bear Nathan surname could they be called Christian and on whose
authority?

[karthika]

In Tamil NATHAN means lord. NATAN is not tamil or anything!

"Romanise" <jos...@gmail.com> wrote in message

news:1143996808....@v46g2000cwv.googlegroups.com...

[Romanise]

karthika wrote:
> In Tamil NATHAN means lord. NATAN is not tamil or anything!

I am sure it is like many others, rama->raman, krishna->krishnan,
ganesha->ganeshan,
but somehow there are more britishers with nonIndian origin who have
Nathan as their surname. Ranjit has alsready explained it as "short for
Nathaniel (gift from God)" though I doubt the God in there is
nAtha"swAmI".

[Romanise]

ranjit_...@yahoo.com wrote:
> There are both names of Indian origin and names of non-Indian origin
> that are used only by Indian Christians. ArOgyaswAmi

Are there two os, O and o ? Due to legth or tongue position.

> and valsA (from
> vatsalA) are used in Tamilnadu and Kerala, respectively, by Christians
> and not Hindus. Chandy from Alekhandrios (Alexander), Eapen/Eipe from
> stefAn, Chacko from Jacob and Gheevarghese/Varghese from Georgeos, are
> examples of Indianizations of non-Indian names.

Many converted to christianity in Gujarat hav mekvAn as their
surname.They often write it as McWan. Shailes McWan (fellow cant bother
that he should be Shailesh), Divyabala McWan. Converts I know are from
SC. Many SC not converted have their surname as makvANa(transliterate
as makwana). They say "Makwana is a Rajput caste-name. It is one of the
36 sub-castes belonging to the Odak lineage. Kamad, Jethwa, Chavada,
Dabhi, and Zala are a few others." Dont know about Kamad but other 4
are Rajput surnames and had been rulers across Gujarat and Rajasthan.
Among Gujarati SCs tendency is to adopt Rajput surname, though one SC
who taught my MA class did have a brahmin sounding name, just now cant
remenver it.

[ranjit_...@yahoo.com]

Romanise wrote:
> ranjit_...@yahoo.com wrote:
> > There are both names of Indian origin and names of non-Indian origin
> > that are used only by Indian Christians. ArOgyaswAmi
>

> Are there two os, O and o ? Due to length or tongue position.

Length; there are 2 phonemic os. There are 3 phonetic os in dialects of
Tamil where /a/ and/or /A/ is pronounced as an open o like in Bengali.
In these dialects, /kAs/ (cash) can be pronounced like "cause".

[ranjit_...@yahoo.com]

Romanise wrote:
> karthika wrote:
> > In Tamil NATHAN means lord. NATAN is not tamil or anything!
>
> I am sure it is like many others, rama->raman, krishna->krishnan,
> ganesha->ganeshan,
> but somehow there are more britishers with nonIndian origin who have
> Nathan as their surname. Ranjit has alsready explained it as "short for
> Nathaniel (gift from God)" though I doubt the God in there is
> nAtha"swAmI".

It is El - at one time the chief Canaani god and later one of the names
for the Hebrews' only god. The closest Tamil translation of Biblical
Nathan would be aruL

> > "Romanise" <jos...@gmail.com> wrote ...

> > > Neil Boss wrote:
> > > > Nathan is Christian where as Natan means Lord.
> > >
> > > If Murali, Badri, Appudurai, Ramaswamy, Chitra, Sivapragasam, Sumithra,
> > > etc bear Nathan surname could they be called Christian and on whose
> > > authority?

No; the other way around. If it is known that they are Christian, it
may be supposed that they got their Nathan from Judeo-Christian sources
rather than Indian sources. If it is known that they are Hindu, on the
other hand, it may be supposed that they got their Nathan from Indian
sources.

> > > > Romanise <jos...@gmail.com> wrote ...