Tamil Last Name Generator
What Tamils really write in the surname field
Browse 500 names that Tamils carry in the last-name slot: fathers' names like Subramanian and Natarajan, titles like Pillai and Chettiar, Sri Lankan forms like Sivalingam, and diaspora spellings like Naidoo and Muniandy.
About Tamil last names
Most Tamils traditionally have no hereditary family name. A person has a given name and carries the father's given name with it, usually shrunk to an initial in front, so Murugan's daughter Kavitha signs as M. Kavitha. When a passport or a foreign form demands a last name, the initial is spelled out and moved to the end, and that is how Subramanian, Krishnan, Natarajan and Shanmugam came to fill the surname field. Such a name lasts one generation unless a family decides to keep it.
Other families do pass a name down. Community and title names such as Pillai, Mudaliar, Chettiar, Nadar, Gounder, Thevar, Iyer and Iyengar have long been used as last names, though many people in Tamil Nadu dropped them during the twentieth century. They are listed here as plain attested surnames, and none of them proves anyone's community, faith or standing. Sri Lankan Tamils favor long compounds ending in -pillai, -lingam, -ratnam and -rajah, like Kanapathipillai, Sivalingam and Thavarajah.
The list also holds names carried by Tamil Muslims (Marikkar, Rowther, Labbai) and Tamil Christians (Arulappan, Devasahayam, Savarimuthu), plus spellings that settled abroad: Subramaniam, Muniandy and Letchumanan in Malaysia and Singapore, and Naidoo, Govender, Moodley and Pillay in South Africa. Every entry is a single name with no initials.
How to choose Tamil last names
- Decide first whether the family passes a name down at all. In Tamil Nadu a character called Arun whose father is Natarajan is N. Arun at home and Arun Natarajan on a foreign form, and his own children would carry Arun, not Natarajan.
- Match the spelling to the country. The same name is Subramanian in India, Subramaniam in Sri Lanka and Malaysia and Soobramoney in South Africa, just as Pillai becomes Pillay and Naidu becomes Naidoo.
- For a Sri Lankan Tamil character, pick one of the long compounds such as Nadarajah, Thiruchelvam or Coomaraswamy, and keep the final h in -rajah.
- Treat the title names as surnames and nothing more. Pillai, Chettiar and Nadar are in the list because families carry them, so do not build a character's worth or beliefs on the name alone.
- Keep one spelling per family. Romanization varies between samy and swamy or moorthy and murthy, and zh stands for a Tamil sound with no English match, as in Azhagiri and Ezhumalai.
Frequently asked questions
Do Tamil people have last names?
Traditionally most do not have a family name that passes down the generations. A person uses a given name together with the father's given name, which usually appears as an initial. The names in this list are what Tamils write when a form asks for a surname: a father's name, a title name their family kept, or a name that became fixed after a move abroad.
Why are Tamil names written with initials?
The initial stands for the father's given name, and sometimes a second initial stands for the home village. So S. Meena is Meena, daughter of a man whose name begins with S, such as Subramanian or Shanmugam. Outside India the initial is often written out and placed last, which turns it into a working surname.
What Tamil last names will I meet outside India?
Fathers' names such as Subramanian, Krishnan, Natarajan, Srinivasan and Narayanan are widely seen in the surname slot among Tamils abroad. In Malaysia and Singapore you meet spellings like Subramaniam and Muniandy, and in South Africa Naidoo, Govender, Moodley and Pillay. The list gives no ranks or figures.
Are these names real?
The list is meant to hold only names that Tamils carry in the last-name slot, in India, Sri Lanka and the diaspora. It was screened for duplicates, and the spelling of a Tamil name varies from family to family. If a name matters for your project, search it yourself before you rely on it.
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All 500 Tamil last names
A: 43 names
- Abubacker
- Achari
- Adhimoolam
- Alagappan
- Alagaratnam
- Alagarsamy
- Alim
- Amaladoss
- Amalraj
- Ambalavanar
- Amirthalingam
- Anandakrishnan
- Anandan
- Anandarajah
- Anbalagan
- Angamuthu
- Angappan
- Annamalai
- Antonysamy
- Appadurai
- Appasamy
- Appavoo
- Ariyaratnam
- Arokiam
- Arokiasamy
- Arudpragasam
- Arulampalam
- Arulanandam
- Arulanantham
- Arulappan
- Aruldoss
- Arulmani
- Arulnathan
- Arulsamy
- Arumugam
- Arunachalam
- Arunagiri
- Asirvatham
- Ayyadurai
- Ayyappan
- Ayyasamy
- Azariah
- Azhagiri
B: 8 names
- Balakrishnan
- Balaraman
- Balasubramanian
- Balasundaram
- Balendra
- Baskaran
- Bhattar
- Boopathy
C: 17 names
- Chandrakumar
- Chandrasekaran
- Chelladurai
- Chellapermal
- Chellappan
- Chelvanayakam
- Chettiar
- Chetty
- Chidambaram
- Chinnadurai
- Chinnaiyan
- Chinnappan
- Chinnasamy
- Chinniah
- Chinsamy
- Chockalingam
- Coomaraswamy
D: 16 names
- Dakshinamoorthy
- Daniel
- Deivasigamani
- Desikar
- Devadoss
- Devanesan
- Devaraj
- Devarajan
- Devasahayam
- Dhanapal
- Dhanasekaran
- Dhandapani
- Dhinakaran
- Dikshitar
- Durairaj
- Duraisamy
E: 5 names
- Ebenezer
- Ekambaram
- Eliathamby
- Eswaran
- Ezhumalai
F: 2 names
- Farook
- Fernando
G: 19 names
- Ganapathy
- Ganesan
- Ganeshalingam
- Gnanalingam
- Gnanaprakasam
- Gnanaraj
- Gnanasekaran
- Gnanendran
- Gomathinayagam
- Gopalan
- Gopalsamy
- Gounder
- Govender
- Govindarajan
- Govindasamy
- Gramani
- Gunasekaran
- Gunasingam
- Gurusamy
H: 3 names
- Hajiar
- Hameed
- Haniffa
I: 7 names
- Ilangovan
- Indrakumar
- Irudayaraj
- Irudayasamy
- Ismail
- Iyengar
- Iyer
J: 14 names
- Jabbar
- Jaffar
- Jagannathan
- Jayakaran
- Jayapal
- Jayaraman
- Jebakumar
- Jebaraj
- Jegatheesan
- Jesudoss
- Jesuraj
- Jeyarajah
- Jeyaratnam
- Jeyaseelan
K: 45 names
- Kader
- Kadirgamar
- Kailasam
- Kailasapathy
- Kaliappan
- Kalimuthu
- Kaliyaperumal
- Kalyanasundaram
- Kanagaraj
- Kanagarajah
- Kanagasabapathy
- Kanagasingam
- Kanapathipillai
- Kandasamy
- Kandiyar
- Kannan
- Kanniah
- Karunakaran
- Karuppan
- Karuppasamy
- Karuppiah
- Kasinathan
- Kassim
- Kathiresan
- Kathirgamanathan
- Kathirvel
- Kavirayar
- Kesavan
- Kirubakaran
- Kistnasamy
- Konar
- Kothandaraman
- Krishnamoorthy
- Krishnan
- Krishnasamy
- Kugathasan
- Kulandaivelu
- Kulasegaram
- Kumarakulasingam
- Kumarappan
- Kumarasingham
- Kumarasuriyar
- Kumaravelu
- Kumaresan
- Kuppusamy
L: 6 names
- Labbai
- Lakshmanan
- Lakshminarayanan
- Lebbe
- Letchumanan
- Lingam
M: 54 names
- Machado
- Madasamy
- Madhavan
- Mahadeva
- Mahalingam
- Mahendran
- Maheswaran
- Maideen
- Maniam
- Manickam
- Manickavasagam
- Manivannan
- Maniyakkarar
- Manoharan
- Manradiar
- Maraikayar
- Mariadoss
- Mariappan
- Mariasusai
- Marikkar
- Marimuthu
- Maruthamuthu
- Masilamani
- Meenakshisundaram
- Meeran
- Mohamed
- Mohideen
- Moodley
- Mookiah
- Moonsamy
- Moopanar
- Mootoosamy
- Motha
- Moulana
- Mudali
- Mudaliar
- Muniandy
- Munien
- Munusamy
- Murugaiyan
- Murugan
- Muruganandam
- Murugavel
- Murugesan
- Murugesu
- Murugiah
- Muthiah
- Muthukrishnan
- Muthulingam
- Muthuraman
- Muthusamy
- Muthuvel
- Muttukumaru
- Mylvaganam
N: 31 names
- Nachimuthu
- Nadar
- Nadarajah
- Nadasen
- Nadesan
- Nagalingam
- Nagapen
- Nagappan
- Nagaratnam
- Nagendran
- Naidoo
- Naina
- Nainar
- Nallainathan
- Nallakaruppan
- Nallasamy
- Nallathambi
- Narasimhan
- Narayanan
- Narayanasamy
- Natarajan
- Natesan
- Nattar
- Navamani
- Navaratnam
- Navaratnarajah
- Navaratnasingam
- Neelakantan
- Nellaiappan
- Nesamani
- Nithiyanandan
O: 1 name
- Oduvar
P: 42 names
- Packianathan
- Packirisamy
- Padayachee
- Padayachi
- Padmanabhan
- Pakkir
- Palaniappan
- Palanisamy
- Palanivel
- Pallavarayar
- Panchalingam
- Pandithar
- Pandurangan
- Panneerselvam
- Paramalingam
- Paramanathan
- Paramasivam
- Parameswaran
- Paramsothy
- Paranjothy
- Pararajasingam
- Parthasarathy
- Pathar
- Pather
- Pathmarajah
- Pattakarar
- Paulraj
- Periasamy
- Perinpanayagam
- Perumal
- Pillai
- Pillay
- Pitchai
- Ponnaiyan
- Ponnambalam
- Ponniah
- Ponnudurai
- Ponnusamy
- Ponnuthurai
- Premachandran
- Pugazhendhi
- Pushparaj
R: 42 names
- Radhakrishnan
- Raghavan
- Raghunathan
- Rajadurai
- Rajagopal
- Rajah
- Rajaiah
- Rajalingam
- Rajamani
- Rajamanickam
- Rajanayagam
- Rajaraman
- Rajarathinam
- Rajasingham
- Rajasooriyar
- Rajendran
- Rajeswaran
- Rajoo
- Ramachandran
- Ramadoss
- Ramaiah
- Ramalingam
- Ramamoorthy
- Raman
- Ramanathan
- Ramasamy
- Ramsamy
- Ranganathan
- Rangarajan
- Rangasamy
- Rasanayagam
- Rasiah
- Rathinam
- Rathinasamy
- Ratnam
- Ratnasingam
- Ravindran
- Rayappan
- Rayar
- Reddiar
- Roche
- Rowther
S: 76 names
- Sabanathan
- Sabanayagam
- Sabapathy
- Sadagopan
- Saibo
- Sambandam
- Sampanthan
- Samy
- Sankaranarayanan
- Santhanam
- Santhanasamy
- Saravanamuttu
- Saravanapavan
- Sargunam
- Sastri
- Sathasivam
- Sathyanathan
- Savarimuthu
- Sawmynaden
- Sebastian
- Seenivasagam
- Sellamuthu
- Sellappan
- Selvadurai
- Selvanayagam
- Selvaraj
- Senathirajah
- Servai
- Servaikarar
- Seshadri
- Sethuraman
- Shanmugalingam
- Shanmugam
- Shanmuganathan
- Shanmugaratnam
- Shanmugasundaram
- Sheik
- Sikkandar
S, continued
- Sinnathamby
- Sinnathurai
- Sinnathuray
- Sinniah
- Sittampalam
- Sivaguru
- Sivagurunathan
- Sivalingam
- Sivaloganathan
- Sivanandam
- Sivanathan
- Sivanesan
- Sivapalan
- Sivaprakasam
- Sivaramakrishnan
- Sivasankaran
- Sivasithamparam
- Sivasubramanian
- Sivathamby
- Sivathasan
- Solomon
- Somasundaram
- Soobramoney
- Srikantha
- Srinivasan
- Sritharan
- Subbarayan
- Subramaniam
- Subramanian
- Sulaiman
- Sundaram
- Sundaramoorthy
- Sundararajan
- Sundaresan
- Suppiah
- Swamidoss
- Swamikannu
- Swaminathan
T: 30 names
- Tambimuttu
- Tamilarasan
- Thambiah
- Thambirajah
- Thamotharampillai
- Thanabalan
- Thanabalasingam
- Thangadurai
- Thangarajah
- Thangavel
- Thangavelu
- Thanikachalam
- Tharmalingam
- Tharmarajah
- Tharmaratnam
- Thavamani
- Thavarajah
- Thevar
- Thiagalingam
- Thillainayagam
- Thiraviam
- Thiruchelvam
- Thirugnanam
- Thirugnanasambandam
- Thirumalai
- Thirumalaisamy
- Thondaiman
- Thurairajah
- Thurairatnam
- Thuraisingam
U: 2 names
- Udayar
- Ulaganathan
V: 30 names
- Vadivel
- Vadiveloo
- Vaidyanathan
- Vaithilingam
- Valaydon
- Vamadevan
- Vanchinathan
- Vandayar
- Vanniyar
- Varadarajan
- Varadhan
- Vedachalam
- Vedamuthu
- Vedanayagam
- Veerappan
- Veeraraghavan
- Veerasamy
- Velayutham
- Vellasamy
- Veloo
- Veluppillai
- Velusamy
- Venkatachalam
- Venkataraman
- Venugopal
- Vijayaraghavan
- Visuvalingam
- Visuvasam
- Viswanathan
- Vithiananthan
X: 1 name
- Xavier