india name indian-constitutional-law
Child naming in India - is it regulated
<p>My question has two parts regarding with the -</p>
<blockquote>
<ol>
<li>Regulation of <strong>First and/or Middle name</strong></li>
<li>Regulation of <strong>Last name</strong></li>
</ol>
</blockquote>
<p>First question might not be tricky but for second question there could be some challenges.</p>
<p>As we know most of the <strong>last names</strong> in India are either</p>
<ul>
<li><em>caste</em> (like Sharma, Sahu, Rao) or</li>
<li><em>generic terms</em> (like Kumar, Singh) or</li>
<li><em>some family name</em> (like Allu — mainly in South India)</li>
</ul>
<p>In this regard except for <em>caste</em> based last name there shouldn't be any problem.</p>
<p>Now for <em>caste</em> based last names —</p>
<blockquote>
<p>What if someone belonging to <em>Sharma</em> caste names their child <em>ABC Sahu</em> ?</p>
<p>Is it allowed?</p>
<p>If allowed - What about reservation  for which Govt manages list of castes under various categories like Gen/OBC/SC/ST ?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>(However there must be other evidences to decide category - still there could be problems like <em>Meena</em> and <em>Mina</em> where only <em>Minas</em> are given reservation benefits and spelling change can erupt confusions as it already did. — Latin and Devanagari scripts being used in Certificates)</p>

<p>Since there is no such law, it is difficult to prove the non-existence of a law. Indian law derives from UK law, with additions. There is no such law in the UK. There is a specific Indian law about <a href="https://unstats.un.org/unsd/vitalstatkb/KnowledgebaseArticle50944.aspx" rel="nofollow noreferrer">registration of births and deaths</a>, which simply includes a provision that the child's name is to be registered. There is no specific statutory provision against an unconventional name.</p>
