List of 62 Popular Nepali Middle Names Idea for Your Baby
As a Nepali, you must have heard a lot of Nepali middle names. Don’t say that you haven’t heard a single one as the whole of the Rana kings had some sort of middle names. Some of the most renowned ones being ‘Bahadur’ of Late Junga Bahadur Rana and ‘Bir Bikram’ of our Late King Birendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev.
What is a Middle Name?
Names that come between your first name and last name, either that can be words given by ancestors, or mother’s surname.
Origin of Middle Names
The origin of the middle name seems rather interesting. It originated as a concept in the Roman empire to being rediscovered in the middle ages in Italy which associated middle name with class and religion, which then sipped through Spain and France.
Later, the British took it in the early 1600s to identify themselves and their family lineage associating the middle name to represent the upper class of Medieval Britain. Subsequently, this trend increased throughout the medieval age, and only in the later 19th century, the trend of the middle name spread across all classes.
As we discussed above, giving the middle name has a lot to do with identity-social and culture, the Europeans settled to name their child either by inheriting the family’s middle name or the name of clergy who baptize the child.
Why do we keep or have a middle name?
- To honor a family member
- To keep mother’s surname (maiden name) alive
- To give a not to the heritage
- To make the name more meaningful
- To make the name sound pleasant
- Follow the tradition
- A compulsion for the royal family
- To personalize a child’s name if first and last name are common
How many middle names one can have?
Generally, most of the people across tradition have inherited at least one middle name. But there is no hard and fast rule that you must have just one middle name. For instance, as the middle names most commonly are inherited from family lineage, you can pick the middle name of your father and your spouse’s father both as a middle name for your child.
The most practical question however lingers-is the middle name even considered as a part of the legal name? And the answer is most countries don’t. And the other question is how can you insert your middle name in any legal document? The thing is if you have more than one middle name you face a practical problem to insert all of your names in the limited space provided in any legal document.
What is a Maiden Name?
These sound simple but the one about maiden names may confuse you a bit. Let us explain!
Sometimes females can give their maiden names (the surname they had before they got married) to their babies if they change their surnames. An example of this is when a woman with the surname “Bantawa” gets married to a man with the surname “Rai”, she will become a “Rai” but she can give her children her maiden name “Bantawa” as a middle name. Suppose the name of the child is “Rajni” In this case, the full name of the child will be “Rajni Bantawa Rai”
Now since middle names are not considered to be too important and people rarely ask them, parents have a lot less pressure while keeping the middle name of their child. So they can express their desires (Haku Lal), choose a family name (Kumari/Kumar), choose the name of a respected family member (Junga Bahadur), or use their maiden name (Bantawa Rai) for the middle names of their children.
In Some Cases,
People who have been excluded from a certain caste do not have a surname nor a middle name. The same is true for people who have given up their caste, and their name just includes the person’s first name followed by their father’s name that acts like their surname. Sometimes, the place of birth of an individual is included as their middle name.
An example of this is if the sons’ name of such a person with a name is Ram and his name is Hari, then the son will be named “Ram Hari” and if he is born in Lalitpur, then he can keep Lalitpur or Yala as his middle name. So his final name after all of this will be “Ram Yala Hari”.
Now with all of that being said, here we have listed some of the most common middle names that you can hear quite often in your surrounding or locality.
List of 44 Nepali Middle Names For Boys
| Babu | Gopal | Man | Pratap |
| Bahadur | Gyan | Mani | Raj |
| Bhagat | Indra | Man/Man Singh | Ram |
| Bhanjan | Jit | Madan | Raman |
| Bhopal | Jung | Nanda | Ratna |
| Bir/Bir Bikram | Kaji | Nandan | Shamsher |
| Chand | Keshar | Narayan | Sen |
| Chandra | Kiran | Narsingh | Singh |
| Dev | Kumar | Nath | Sur |
| Dhoj | Kunwar | Pati | |
| Dorje | Lal | Prasad |
List of 18 Nepali Middle Names For Girls
| Chandani | Lhamu | Meen |
| Devi | Lodh | Mina |
| Kala | Mati | Prabha |
| Kumari | Mala | Priya/Priyanzala |
| Lata | Maya | Rajya Laxmi |
| Lali | Maiya | Shri |
To Conclude
All in all, the middle names had its wave of twists and turn in the Western World and currently the trend of giving the middle name to newborn is on the rise-thus confirming the rediscovery of middle name.
Now, in the context of Nepal, the trend of giving middle name to new born seems to lag though we can be hopeful that we rediscover the trend and it all begins with us.
As Nepali’s have a lot of middle names, and these are just some of the commonly heard ones. Do you have a middle name? If you do, was it on this list? If it isn’t, tell us in the comments and as always if you have some suggestions do leave them in the comments as well.
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