How the first sound is found
In the Hindu naming tradition, the first sound of a baby’s name comes from the position of the Moon at the moment of birth. The sky is divided into 27 equal stars, the nakshatras, each 13 degrees 20 minutes wide, and every nakshatra is cut into four padas of 3 degrees 20 minutes. Each pada has one traditional syllable, so there are 108 in all. The table that lists them is called the Avakahada chakra, and a name that begins with the syllable of the birth pada is the one the tradition prefers.
This tool does the work in four steps. It converts your local birth time to universal time using the time zone that was in force at the birth place on that date, daylight saving included. It reads the Moon’s position from the Swiss Ephemeris tables on this site and subtracts the Lahiri ayanamsa to get the sidereal longitude. It divides that longitude into nakshatra and pada. Then it looks up the syllable and lists the names in our collection that start with it, with their meanings.
If you do not know the time of birth
The Moon travels about 13 degrees a day, so it crosses a pada in roughly six hours and a nakshatra in about a day. Without a time, the tool follows the Moon through your whole birth date at the birth place and shows every pada it passes, with the hours each one lasts. If the family remembers whether the birth was in the morning, afternoon or night, that is usually enough to choose one of them.
How to read the list
The names are grouped by the syllable, and you can ask for boys, girls or both. Each name has a short meaning in plain words. Many families treat the syllable as the starting point and then look for a name they love, so a list is only as useful as the choice it gives you. If nothing here appeals, the baby name finder lets you search by meaning, rashi and letter, and each nakshatra has its own page, for example Ashwini and Rohini, with many more names.
The tool also shows your baby’s Moon sign, the rashi. It is the sign the Moon occupied at birth, and it is the sign Vedic astrology reads for the mind and temperament. You can read more on the moon sign calculator page, and the nakshatra calculator gives the star’s lord, deity and other details.
Where traditions differ
Two points deserve honesty. First, some families in Gujarat and elsewhere choose a name by the first letter chart, which can place a letter in a different rashi from the nakshatra syllables, and both methods are in use. Second, the Shravana nakshatra has two sets of syllables in different books, so a Shravana baby may be offered either set by the family priest.
A syllable is a custom, not a rule that decides anything about the child. Many people name babies without it, and many keep a formal name from the syllable and a daily name at home. The namakarana samskara page explains the ceremony in which the name is announced.
What this tool does not do
It does not judge a name as lucky or unlucky, and it does not look at the rest of the chart. It also does not check the numerology of the spelling. For that, the name number calculator is a separate and lighter tradition, and the name rashi calculator goes the other way, from a name to its rashi.
Frequently asked questions
↳ How is a baby's first letter chosen in Hindu astrology?
The Moon's nakshatra and pada at birth give a traditional syllable, and the name begins with that sound. Each of the 27 nakshatras has four padas, so there are 108 syllables in the table.
↳ Do I need the exact time of birth?
The exact time gives one pada. Without it, the tool shows every pada the Moon passes that day with the hours, so you can choose from a short list using what the family remembers.
↳ Why do the names change when I change the place?
The place sets the time zone, and the time zone decides the exact moment of birth in universal time. Born on the same clock time in two different time zones, a baby has a different Moon position.
↳ Must the name begin with the syllable?
No. It is a tradition that many families follow for the formal name, and many do not. Choose what suits your family and your community.
↳ Are the meanings checked?
The meanings are short plain-word descriptions written for this site. If a name matters to you, ask a Sanskrit teacher or an elder in the family to confirm the meaning in your tradition.