THE MOST COMMON FIRST NAME IN INDIA

Modak Analytics, a three-year-old start-up in the big data space, collected and sifted through 18 tera bytes of data which was made public by Election Commission and Indian Census in 2013–14. This data included the names of 81 crore Indian citizen (close to 65% of the country’s population) — which is a really huge sample.

Based on this data, it was found that the most common first name in India is Ramesh.

Some other interesting tidbits from their analysis:

Of the 13.4 crore voters in Uttar Pradesh, the country’s biggest State by number of voters, at least 1.2 crore people have Ram somewhere in their name. i.e. 1 in 11 voters in UP has Ram somewhere in their name.

In Andhra Pradesh, the name Srinivas is spelt 600 different ways

About three lakh women in Gujarat have Gita Ben as their first name

Bihar is home for 3.27 lakh women with Sita as their first name and an almost equal number of women named Geeta.

Other names that are quite popular are: Lakshmi (19.28 lakh, Andhra Pradesh), Fernandes (81,000, Goa), Shankar (11.41 lakh) and Patil (24 lakh, Maharashtra)

Two longest names for voters are registered in Andhra Pradesh — E Janake Sathya Surya Vijaya Durga Maheshvari in Sangareddy constituency and Venkata Sathya Suriya Maitreyi Kumari Toleti in Narsapur constituency.

Source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/politics/india-elections-big-data-throws-up-interesting-trivia/article6011219.ece

THE MOST COMMON LAST NAME IN INDIA

While the article above does not throw much light on last names, Sagar Irabatti’s earlier answer stating that the most common last name is Kumar seems to be correct.

Its a surname thats prevalent across the most populous states in North India — Uttar Pradesh & Bihar; and in South India — Andhra Pradesh, Telangana & Tamil Nadu. You will also find a large number of Kumars in East India (West Bengal) and West India (Gujarat).

Image(s) used in this post:

Ramesh: Reverse Engraved Innkeeper Name Plate

The Kumars: Engraved Wooden Name Plate — Photo Vignette