Nepali Names

Structure & order

Names are given-name-first, optionally with a middle name, then the surname:

[GIVEN] [MIDDLE?] [THAR / SURNAME]

e.g. Mann Maya Lama (Mann = given, Maya = middle, Lama = surname). Middle names are optional and parent's choice. See Name Ordering and Surname Formation.

Given names

Given names are usually drawn from Sanskrit and Pali vocabulary and carry transparent meaning (e.g. Himalaya = "snow-capped mountains"). For Hindu Nepalis the name is conferred by a priest at the Nwaran ceremony on the 11th day after birth, chosen from the child's birth details and horoscope (Buddhist families have their own naming customs, but the literature consulted is thinner on the specifics: treat as under-documented here).

Middle names are loosely gender-marked: boys often take Prasad, Bahadur, Maan, Kumar, Ratna, Mani (sometimes correlated with caste), girls Kumari, Maya. These middle elements are common enough that name parsers should not assume a middle token is part of the surname.

Family names & patronymics

The Nepali surname is the thar (थर), a term from a Prakrit word meaning roughly "collection/group," denoting a clan/lineage name that doubles as the surname. Among Hindu Khas (Bahun, Chhetri) groups the thar is paired with a gotra (Vedic sage-lineage, e.g. Bharadwaj, Kashyap, Atreya, Kaudinya); the gotra is strictly exogamous and is not written as part of the everyday name. Descent and inheritance are patrilineal. Surnames are inherited from the father; pre-marriage women use their father's surname, and after marriage typically adopt the husband's surname (a common but not universal practice: flag as variable). See Patronymics and Lineage.

The thar strongly signals caste / ethnic group (claims below are socially and politically contested and should be treated as cultural association, not fixed fact):

• Bahun (Brahmin): Acharya, Bhatta(rai), Joshi, Pandit/Pandey, Sharma, Upadhyay; toponymic/-al, -wal types (Ghimire, Pokharel, Dahal, Dhakal, Koirala, Aryal, Tripathi).
• Chhetri (≈ Kshatriya): Thapa, Karki, Basnet/Basnyat, Bista, Khadka, Adhikari, Bhandari, Mahat, Raut, Budhathoki; Kshatriya/Thakuri titles turned surnames (Rana, Kunwar, Shah).
• Newar (Kathmandu Valley, own 64-caste system): Indo-Aryan-type Shrestha (merchant/clerk stratum), Joshi, Pradhan, alongside indigenous Maharjan (Jyapu farmers), Dangol.
• Tibeto-Burman / janajati: Gurung, Magar, Tamang, Sherpa, Lama, Rai, Limbu, here group/clan identity often functions as the surname, and these communities historically follow clan systems rather than Vedic gotra.
• Khas-Dalit: occupational surnames such as Kami, Bishwakarma (B.K.), Damai.

How to address someone

The honorific particle -ji (जी) is appended to a name or title for respect (e.g. Ram-ji). Kinship and respect terms (dai elder brother, didi elder sister, guru/sir/madam) are widely used in address. Formal address commonly uses Shri (श्री) before a man's name and Shrimati for a married woman. See Salutations and Address. (Honorific specifics are partly from general South Asian usage, verify for formal/official contexts.)

Pitfalls for software

• The surname is a thar (clan/caste/ethnic marker), not a patronymic; do not infer the father's given name from it.
• Surnames reliably leak caste/ethnicity; treat any automated caste inference as sensitive and contested, never authoritative.
• High ethnic diversity: a single corpus mixes Indo-Aryan (Sharma, Pandey), Tibeto-Burman (Gurung, Tamang, Rai, Limbu), and Newar (Shrestha, Maharjan, Pradhan) surname systems, no single morphology rule covers all.
• Middle elements (Prasad, Bahadur, Kumari, Maya, Devi, Ratna) are frequent and can be mistaken for given or surname tokens.
• Married women often switch surnames, so the same person may appear under father's vs husband's thar.
• Strong overlap with Indian surnames (Joshi, Sharma, Pandey) means script/locale alone may not disambiguate Nepali from Hindi and North Indian Names.