kerala christian names, their origin and english equivalents
It has been several years since we have been working on our genealogy database / family tree. Working on it is reveling, and revealing as you end up learning a lot about ones own ancestry and the stories surrounding it. One of the factors which grab attention while updating the database are the names. On the upper steps of the ladder, the names are mostly repetitive. These are the traditional kerala christian names, which have been handed over through generations, and have been used extensively until 1950s/independence (eg: Kunnappallil descendancy chart through the generations).
Naming convention
The repetitive nature is mostly due to the naming convention followed: The eldest son/daughter carrys the name of the paternal grand father/mother. The second son/daughter carrys the name of the maternal grand father/mother. If you summarise these names, you can see that all those widely used kerala christian names count upto just a few, like ~25 for males and ~10 for females. A compilation of these names, with their origin, have been given in tabular form below.
Names, Origin and their Malayalam variants
| English | Origin | Origin.Script | Malayalam |
| Abraham | Hw. Avraham | אַבְרָהָם | Avira, Avaran, Avarachan |
| Alexander | Gr. Alexandros | Αλεξανδρος | Chandy, Idiculla |
| Cyriac | Rm. Cirieco | Kurian | |
| Cyril | Gr. Kyrillos | Κυριλλος | Korula, Kuruvilla |
| David | Hw. Dvd | דוד | Tharian, Thavu |
| Dominic | Lt. Dominicus | Dummini | |
| Emmanuel | Hw. | Mani | |
| Francis | Lt. Franciscus | Pranji, Pranju, Porinju | |
| George | Gr. Georgios | Γεωργιος | Varghese, Varkey, Vakkachan, Vareethu, Geevarghese |
| Ignatius | Rm. Egnatius | Inasu | |
| Issac | Hw. Yitzchaq | יִצְחָק | Ittack, Itty |
| Issac Abraham | Ittyavirah, Ittiyerah | ||
| Jacob | Hw. Ya’aqov | יַעֲקֹב | Chacko, Yakob |
| John | Hw. Yochanan | יוֹחָנָן | Yohannan, Ulahannan, Lonan, Lonappan, Ninan |
| Joseph | Hw. Yosef | יוֹסֵף | Yesoph, Ouseph, Outha, Ipe, Ittoop, Kunjeppu, Joppan |
| Joshua | Hw. Yehoshu’a | יְהוֹשֻׁעַ | Koshy, Eenashu, Easow |
| Luke | Gr. Loukas | Λουκας | Lukose |
| Mathew | Hw. Mattityahu | מַתִּתְיָהוּ | Mathew, Mathai, Mathan, Mathu, Mathulla |
| Mark | Rm. Marcus | Markose | |
| Paul | Lt. Paulus | Paulose, Paili, Pailo | |
| Peter | Gr. Petros | Πετρος | Pathros, Pathappan |
| Philip | Gr. Philippos | Φιλιππος | Philipose, Peeli, Pothan |
| Sebastian | Lt. Sebastianus | Devasy, Devasia, Devasianos | |
| Stephen | Gr. Stephanos | Στεφανος | Eapen, Esthappan, Punnoose, Uthup |
| Thomas | Ar. Te’oma | Thomma, Thampan, Mamman, Oommen | |
| Zachariah | Hw. Zekharyah | זְכַרְיָה | Cheriyan, Kuncheria, Karia, Scaria |
| English | Origin | Origin.Script | Malayalam |
| Anna | Hw. Channah | חַנָּה | Annamma |
| Bridgit | Ir. Brighid | Bridgita | |
| Elizabeth | Hw. Elisheva | אֱלִישֶׁבַע | Elisa, Elia, Elacha, Eliamma |
| Mary | Hw. Miryam | מִרְיָם | Mariam, Maria, Mariamma |
| Rachel | Hw. | רָחֵל | Rahel |
| Rebecca | Hw. Rivqah | רִבְקָה | Akka, Raca, Akkamma |
| Rosa | Ger. Rose | Orotha, Kunjorotha | |
| Sarah | Hw. Sara | Saramma | |
| Susan | Hw. Shoshannah | שׁוֹשַׁנָּה | Susanna, Sosa, Sosamma, Achamma |
| Theresa | Sp. Teresa | Thresia, Therthia, Theyya, Iyya, Kochuthresia | |
Hw. Hebrew, Gr. Greek, Lt. Latin, Rm. Roman, Ar. Armenian, Ir. Irish, Ger. Germanian, Sp. Spanish
It is to be noted that the origin mentioned here is not the immediate origin from where the malayalam name originated, but the root of the name. The english equivalents given here are those used locally (in Kerala). Hovering your mouse over the english equivalents will give the extended meanings of the respective names.
There are still other kerala christian names out there, and do comment us about them. Yet to identify the origin of names like Dummini, Outha, Kuriakose (Cyril or Cyriac?) etc., if there are any. There is a school of thought which says that ‘Itty’ is used as a prefix, like kutty, kunju etc. For example, usage of Itty Ipe, Itty Avirah etc could be analogous to Kutty Varkey, Kunju Ipe, etc. Hence do not take this list as conclusive or exhaustive.
Transition in the naming style
The transition beyond the 1950s (post independence) brought a multitude of names to the kerala christian name group, from simply the english quivalents (eg: George, Thomas) to the two-syllabled names (Sunny, Lisy) to the combination of parents’ names (eg: child of Sunny and Lisy will be Susy) to all kind of possible sounds! Sometimes while updating the database, I have the names but I would get stuck in identifying the gender of the person. Like, in our genealogy database of 2200+ (current figures), there are 9 of which I could not identify the gender by name.
Reference:
1. genealogy.rocksea.org
2. behindthename.com
3. Cross reference: The Syrian Christians by S.G. Pothen; from an article by Nidhin Olikara on nasrani.net.
My name is Kuruvilla. What’s the origin and meaning of the name…
Shilpa,
The name Kuruvila and its variant Korula are derived from the Syriac name Coorilos, which stands for St Cyril of Alexandria, one of the early Church Fathers.
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Hello Roxy,
Thank you so much for this website and write up. I have shared this with several people.
However, there is some sort of technical vulnerability with this website and it is always picked up by the malware protector.
Please check: https://i.imgur.com/do5PAfV.png
Hello Abraham, thanks a lot for informing me about this! I have been running the latest versions for most of the scripts, so this was a surprise. If possible, could you please let me know the full path of the url given in the image?
Sure.
This is what it shows me:
https://www.rocksea.org/wp-content/plugins/show-useragent/flags/no.png
David – u missed ദാവീദ് in david
What is the name of saint who is equal to name kuruvila
Rohan, Kuruvila is derived from the Syriac Coorilos, which denotes St Cyril of Alexandria, one of the ancient church fathers.
This blog says that Achamma is a form of Susan. But if Akkamma is Rebekah, shouldn’t Achamma be Rachel?
Chechamma is from Rachel. So is Rahel. Akkamma which was also written as Ackamma slowly changed to Achamma whicha also means father’s mother, Achante amma or appachante amma
Need to know the english name of old female name called Thaanda, also the Male names called Korah, Ittoop..etc
Please tell me the English name of old Malayalam name Punnen?
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Hi Rocksea,
Found ur blog very interesting..good work.
Would like to know the malayalam form of Names “Liby” and “Eva”.
Can u suggest a new gen name alternative for sebastian
Can u suggest an equivalent name for thankamma
can you provide a christianity house name for my new home
thanks in advance
suresh scaria
can you provide a christianity house name for my new home
Please help me to find equivalent name for Monu.
Please anyone it’s the need of the time
It is like a pet name dear. But we have Moncy and Monsieur which means Sir OR Mister which means a respectable person. Enjoy
Hi guys,
I’m confused over my moms name … Its Achamma… According to this blog its Susan..someone also mentioned its from Rebecca/ Elizabeth.. But the clergy says its from Hannah… ….
Can somebody pls clarify
someone has said that the reason for the greek roots of several syrian christian names is alexander the great’s invasion. but alexander invaded only the north of india through afghanistan and pakistan, and that was around 350 b.c.
isn’t it more likely that we have several greek names because the first-ever new testament, compiled circa 75 a.d., was in greek?
regardless of the provenance of our greek-sounding names, thank you, rocksea, for your informative blog.
can u suggest a house name from Hebrew or Latin or any…
Can you find me the translation for Thandamma.
Any leads on this? Anyone know the English name for”Thandamma”?
Barna
Meaning: Son of exhortation
Gender: Male
Origin : Hebrew ( Barnabas)
Religion : Christian
Mariamma
Origin: Miryām in hebrew
Meaning: Sea of bitterness/wished-for child
Gender: Female
Religion : Christian
Most widely used : Kerala, India
My father’s name is James. What is the Malayalam version for his name? I was told it was Chacko which I thought belonged to Jacob.
Hi,
The Malayalam equivalent of James is Chacko. James is originally another variant of Jacob, which is Chacko in Malayalam. In Hebrew it is Yaqov, Iacobus in Greek, Jacobus in German, from which came both Jacob and James in English–one and the same. In Spanish and Portuguese, it is Iago. So St James is Santiago in those two languages. That is how the Roman Catholics along the coast of Kochi and Kodungallur have shrines to ‘Sandhyav’ (Santiago) and many an elderly man still carries that name.
Chacko is not the malayalam of James. It is otherwise know as Jaimsootty. Chacko is Jacob. Satiago is not a name even. It is actually San Diego. San means Saint and Diego is a Spanish origin name of Jacob. It is equal to Jacob as the name Diego means the one who took the position of the person who was lawfully there first.
I always thought ITTY = TITUS (not Isaac).
Always wondered what OOMMEN was – any idea?
Love this website! Thank you Roxy for taking the time out to research these names. I found the meanings of so many mallu names that sounded so funny to me. I still have 1 name for which I am trying so hard to find the meaning….please help! The name is Janso. Where did it originate from? What is the meaning?
Hey sugar, no idea! Janso doesn’t seem to be connected with the kerala traditional christian names…?
What is the English name of Ittoop?
I want to call my baby boy by malayalam name ( joseph-ouseppachan, kunjauseppu etc) , my baby’s name is Daniel Paul Bennet.(baptism name :paul). Can any one suggest a cutemalayalam version of daniel or paul?
What is the Malayali equivalent of James?
James is Chacko in Malyalam?
Basis: James is the English language New Testament (Vulgar/Later Latin) form of the Hebrew name Yaʻaqov (known as Jacob in its earlier Latin form)
As recently as last week, we had a discussion on this with a cousin. He is known to the family as Ouseph, so much so that everybody forgets he is Joseph officially. To which what he had to say is, the J is silent when it is pronounced in countries abroad.. I’ve taught my office folks that, whenever anybody comes calling for Ouseph they direct them to him 🙂
In addition, I would add that we can get to even the Christian denominations through the names! My supervisor had once put me on an assignment with God of Small Things.. it was revelation that Maria and Anna are more catholic while Susan and Philip are more chosen by the Orthodox and Jacobites.
Will go through the comments! (I’m not sure whether I had commented on this when it was initially published in 2009)
Hi, what is the equivalent of the old Kerala Christian name ‘Rapai’? Could it possibly be Raphael?
Great place to land up at 🙂 and indeed very interesting and informative. Just wondering if Selin is a Kerala Syrian name. Also, have a friend whose name is Yeldho, what is the origin of this name?
Hello.. it has been wonderful to read about our Syrian Christian traditional names and their english variants. great job.. Can someone tell me the English variant for Chachamma? I’ve been browsing a lot of sites to get this info. Would appreciate if someone could help me with this..
Chachamma is from Soshamma which is from Susan.
The Malayalam Bible was not translated from the Greek or Hebrew. It was from the Syriac Paschitha Bible as far as i know. That’s how before the Anglicanisation trend began, almost all Syrian names, irrespective of denomination, sounded very close or exact replicas of the Syriac original. That explains the origin of many of the Biblical names in Kerala like Ouseph, Yohannan, Esho (Jesus) and the lot.
Then the huge influx of Syriac prelates from present day Syria, Turkey and Iraq over the centuries introduced the names of Syriac saints and martyrs among the Syrians, especially those belonging to the Orthodox/Jacobite churches. That explains the origin of names like Kuriakose (St Kyriakose the martyr-Syracuse in Latin), Geevarghese (Giorgis in Syriac and George in English), Baselios (Basil in Latin), Bahanan (an Iranian martyr), to name a few.
mammen and oommen comes from Emmanuel and not from Thomas as mentioned above.
Per Wikipedia: Oommen (Malayalam: ഉമ്മന്, Hindi: उम्मन) is a name used by Syrian Christians (Nasranis) of India, especially in Kerala, the Southwestern state of India. The name Oommen is a local variant of the Syriac name ‘Thoma’ (Syriac: ܬܐܽܡܳܐ).
See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_(name)
what is the meaning of pappachen
One seems to have forgotten the Portuguese contribution to Malayalee Christian, especially Catholic names. Ever since the Synod of Diamper, the Portuguese missionaries, as well as those who came from Spain and Italy, popularised devotions to European saints like Sebastian, Antonio, Fracisco Xavier, Francisco Assisi, Clara, Barbara, St James (Santiago in Sp and Port) to name a few across Kerala, especially along the coast… Thus many Latin origin European as well as Biblical names became popular among Kerala Catholics in its Portuguese and Spanish avatar.
Thus we have first names derived from Portuguese like Vastyan and Devassy (from the Portuguese Sebastiao), Anthoni (Antonio), Sandyavu (Santiago), Paili and Paulo (from Portuguese Paulo), Pethiru, Pathrose (from Portuguese Pedro, which means Peter), Vironi (from Veronica, which is the same in Portuguese, Italian and Spanish), Maria (which is the Porutuguese version of the Hebraic Miriam), Dummini, Dumeeng and Meengu (from Domingo, which is the Portuguese version of Dominic), Alleeshu (a common coastal name derived from Portuguese Alexio), Eenashu (derived from Portuguese Ignacio, meaning Ignatius), Rafi, Rappel, Rappayi (derived from Rafaelo in Portuguese), Kaippari (Gaspari in Portuguese, which stands for one of the three Kings, Gaspar), Plemena (derived from Philomena), Aplonia (from Port, Spanish and Italian Appolonia), Luka (again from the Portuguese Lucca, which is Luke in English), Kathrina (Portuguese Catharina, which is the same in Spanish and Italian as well), Margareetha (from the same word in Portuguese, which means Margaret), Jusay, Jusi, Joppan (from Portuguese Jose where the J is pronounced as JYU), Shouri, Chavaro and Shavriyar (Portuguese Javier, which is stands for Xavier). Incidentally, most of these names can still be found among the coastal Latin Catholics, who were most influenced by the Portuguese and the Spanish missionaries.
Thanks, Renjith! That’s a great compilation of the portuguese contributions!
That’s nice…. I was skimming through the comments and was looking to read about the Portuguese / Roman Catholic influence of names on the local Christian community. On both, the Syrian Christian / syro malabar Roman Catholic and also on the fresh converts to Christianity. These names are not always found in the bible. Many of which are of saints from the vast expanse of the Latin speaking regions. In Kerala, such names are not common South of Kottayam. But very common among the Syro Malabar RC North of Kottayam. However, these names are common across the Coastal Christian community across Kerala.
Is there a local / malayam variant for Veronica?
Is local version Maatri = Margaret
Hi Elizabeth Thomas,
As far as your query regarding the Malayalam version of Veronica, I am only aware of the variant ‘Vironi’, which is largely found among the Roman Catholics of Kodungallur, Kochi, Alappuzha and Kollam. I am not sure whether Maatri is a variant of Margaret. Its popular version is Margareetha.
Many of these names were introduced by the Portuguese, Spanish and Italian missionaries during the time of the Padroado-Propaganda days of the Kerala Catholic Church. While they were hugely popular among the Roman Catholics (also known as Latin Catholics) of the coast-between Kollam and Kodungallur-a good number of Syrian rite Catholics living alongside the Roman Catholics in places like Kochi, Thrissur, Chalakkudy, Angamaly and other areas-especially north of Kottayam, also used the Malayalam variants of these European names.
That’s nice…. I was skimming through the comments and was looking to read about the Portuguese / Roman Catholic influence of names on the local Christian community. On both, the Syrian Christian / syro malabar Roman Catholic and also on the fresh converts to Christianity. These names are not always found in the bible. Many of which are of saints from the vast expanse of the Latin speaking regions. In Kerala, such names are not common South of Kottayam. But very common among the Syro Malabar RC North of Kottayam. However, these names are common across the Coastal Christian community across Kerala.
Is there a local / malayam variant for Veronica?
Is local version Maatri = Margaret
Dear rocksea,
Can u figure out English equivalent of Naithoma(female)????
the name Leelamma related to which christain name
pili – philip ,onan ?,chakkunni – ?,kunjacko – ? sevi – ? aethachan – ? ,chumman – ?
please answer me
Onan – yohannan, john
chakkunni – chocko, Jacob
Kunjacko – chacko, Jacob
sevi – Xavier
chumman – oommen, emmanuel
wonderful site. I came across it accidentally. But now I think I will have to visit it very often. Thank you dear.
What’s the proper English word for Thalathottappan..?
godfather
Roxy cheta…thanx :)…kochinu edan peru thapi nadakuvayirunnu…i guess i found the name..:)
Great Gisa, we are happy that you could find a name 🙂
Thanks Rocksea for a wealth of information on Syrani names.
Rock on bro!
Guess I could sign off as Geevarghese Chacko or Varkey Yakub to try out some of the equivalents of my name!
Keep up the good work.
George
HI Rocksea
very nice site and more other the comments are also equally educative
One thing I want to highlight is that the trend of having Anglicized names started much earlier than 1950’s.. eg: My grandfather was born in 1906 and his name was C. Abraham George while his father was Avira.. I was looking around and see that many born is 1910’s and 1920’s do have fully Anglicized names.
Travancore state was already under the influence of the British by late 19th century so it is quite possible that by 1900 we have already started changing.
what is the english equvalent of pappy,pappachan
Manoj, I think leela conected to chachi..
What about Kuriakose ?
Hey Rock Sea ,
Can you please help me with the derivatives of Santhamma ?
This site so good which I accidently hit. It solved a lot of unanswered questions/suspicions about our malayalee names which baffled me for more than five decades. Thanks for your time and talent. Keep it up!
Job = Hebrew: אִיּוֹב, Modern Iyyov Tiberian ʾIyyôḇ, Ayub in Arabic
The biblical names are taken from the Malayalam Bible which was directly translated from it’s Hebrew and Greek origin. The names are similar to the ones in Spanish / Armenian / Russian etc. Most of the Christian Biblical and traditional names were highly corrupted when Anglicized. So Ouseph is the original Joseph, Dawood is the original David, Anthony (pronounced an – tho-nee), Poulos is the original Paul, Yhannan is the original John and so one. Appan/Achhan, Kutty and Amma are suffixes used in Malayalam and other South Indian languages when addressing someone with respect or endearment. the Malayalee Christian names are closer to the original names and are less ‘corrupted’ than the English versions. So it is better to go to the actual original name and then find the English one if you really want to do it. Stick to the original I would say. Let the English find out the equivalent malayalee Christian name.