How rare is your name?

Hindu names draw on Sanskrit and the regional languages of the subcontinent, and most carry a meaning you can trace directly — a deity or one of their epithets, a quality like patience or radiance, or something from the natural and cosmic world. Many are thousands of years old and still in everyday use.

Sikh names come mainly from Punjabi and Gurmukhi scripture, and a great many are deliberately gender-neutral — the same name is given to a son or a daughter, with Singh or Kaur following it. Compounds built on Gur- (guru), Har- (God) and endings like -preet (love) and -jeet (victory) run right through the tradition.

Buddhist names span Pali, Sanskrit, Tibetan, Sinhala, Burmese and Thai, reflecting how far the tradition travelled. Many are concepts rather than people — awakening, compassion, loving-kindness, equanimity — while others come from the Buddha's own circle or from the Tibetan monastic tradition.

Jain names are rooted in Prakrit and Sanskrit and lean heavily on the tradition's ethical core — non-violence, restraint, forgiveness and detachment — alongside the names and epithets of the twenty-four Tirthankaras. They tend to sound gentle, which is very much the point.