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Middle name
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===India=== Traditional names in [[India]] vary regionally due to its ethnic and religious diversity. Modern [[Hindu]] names across India adopt a first name, which is usually a word in Sanskrit or an indigenous Indian language, a middle name (on rare instances), which is usually the name of a child's father or spouse in case of a married lady followed by the surname which is usually the [[caste]] that the person's family belongs to, usually taken from the father or husband. However, diversity exists even here, for instance middle and last names from the traditionally [[matrilineal]] [[Nair]] community in Kerala are based on the mother's family. For example, in the case of the well-known statesman, [[V. K. Krishna Menon]], his first name would be Krishna, the V stands for Vengyalil, which is a well known aristocratic [[Nair]] family from [[Kerala]] that Krishna's mother belonged to, the K stands for Krishnan, his father's name and the surname is [[Menon (subcaste)|Menon]], one of the [[Nair]] subcastes. In modern times, this name would perhaps be styled as Krishna Vengyalil Krishnan Menon, in that order, Vengyalil Krishnan being the middle name. Traditionally the [[Dalit]] population of India were excluded from India's caste system and do not have a middle name and a [[caste]] surname. The same is true for people who have given up their caste identity, whose name just includes the person's first name followed by their father's name. Sometimes, the place of birth of an individual is included as their middle name. Among the [[Sikhs]] of India, many have adopted the middle name [[Singh]] or [[Kaur]] which mean lion and princess respectively. This is followed by their [[Punjabi people|Punjabi]] caste surname. Nowadays, many Sikhs have done away with their caste surname and have just kept Singh or Kaur as their surname. Among [[Indian Muslims]], similar naming conventions to Hindus and Sikhs are followed, but the names are usually in [[Arabic]], [[Persian language|Persian]] or [[Urdu]].
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