Baby names by nakshatra: the starting syllables for your newborn

What it is

In the naming rite, the namakarana, many families give a child a name that begins with a particular sound. That sound comes from the birth nakshatra, the lunar mansion the Moon was passing through when the child was born. The sky of the Moon's path is divided into twenty-seven nakshatras, and each nakshatra into four quarters called padas. Each pada has its own syllable, so a child born in the first pada of Ashwini, for example, is given a name beginning with a different sound from one born in its fourth pada.

Families keep this custom in different ways. Some choose the child's everyday name from the syllable. Some keep the syllable for a second name, used in the puja ghar and in the family's prayers, and choose a first name freely. Some follow the Moon sign, the rashi, rather than the pada. Your family elders or your pandit will know your own tradition, and the tool lets you follow either.

What you enter

The form asks for the birth, and lets you narrow the names. Its fields, as the web app shows them:

• Date of birth, the one field you must fill.
• Time of birth and Place of birth, which fix the Moon's place exactly.
• Gender: Boy, Girl, Unisex names, or Any.
• Syllables from: Both, Birth pada or Moon rashi, for the custom your family keeps.
• Preferred deity, if you would like names that call on one deity, or Any deity.
• Name length: Any length or Short names.
• Script: Both, Devanagari or Latin.
• Naming ceremony after, the date after which you plan the namakarana.

If you leave out the time of birth, the tool works from sunrise on that day and says so, because the nakshatra, or its pada, can change during a day.

What you get

The tool shows the starting syllables for that birth, from its nakshatra and pada, and names that begin with them, narrowed by the choices you made. The names are shown in the script you chose, so you can read them the way they will be written.

That result is free. If you would like more, a written reading of the result, prepared for your child's birth, is a paid extra that the web app offers after the free result; you never need it to see the syllables.

How it is worked out

The tool finds the Moon's sidereal position at the moment of birth, for the place of birth you gave, and reads which nakshatra and which pada it was in. The syllable of that pada is the one the tradition names. Near the edge of a pada, a few minutes of birth time can move the Moon into the next quarter, which is why the time of birth matters most for babies born close to such a change.

Every answer comes from our own panchang engine, worked out for the city you choose and read on the sidereal zodiac with the Lahiri ayanamsa, the one the Calendar Reform Committee of India adopted. The same engine prints the dates and times on our calendar and panchang pages, so the tool and the calendar never disagree with each other. How we compute explains the method, and why a printed almanac from your town may differ from it by a minute or two.

Before you begin

The tool is free with a Bhagya Card account. If you are not signed in, the button above takes you to sign in first, with your mobile number or your email, and then straight to the tool.

Have the birth details from the hospital record, and the town or city of the birth. If the child was born in one town and you live in another, give the town of the birth: the Moon's place is read for where the birth happened.

Questions