NAMES of European Christians, of the Rajputs, Mahrattas, and Brahmans of India, and of the Chinese, are hereditary. Those of the Rajputs are however, so diffused as to he almost imposs ible to apply except in the most general way, for every one of this race knows whether he is of a Puar, a Chauhan, a Rahtor, Grahilot, Kachwaha, Yadu, Pramara, Parihara, or Chalukya family. In the south of India, Brahmans have confined themselves to intellectual employments, and every one knows the got or family to which he belongs ; and among the Mahrattas, the Bhonsla, Gackwar, Holkar, and Sindia are well-known patronymics. In China, the family names are only a little over 400, but they are carefully remembered, because that race are strictly exogamic, and do not marry women with their own family names. In all races, whether or not possessing family names, there are personal names applicable to the in dividual. Captain R. C. Temple has given notices of over 4000 names of the people of India, and they are largely those of their deities, and animals and plants familiar to them.
The habit of distinguishing families by epithets derived from objects in the animal or vegetable creation, has prevailed in every land, and many a name, which receives our homage from blending phonetic dignity with historical recollections, traces its origin to some humble and often ludi crous incident, as that watchword of chivalry, Plantagenet, derived from the lowly broom. The names of animals, plants, and things inanimate all furnish symbolic appellations. In Scripture we have the fly, the bee, the ram, to describe the princes of Egypt, Assyria, and Macedonia. Amongst the ancient as well as the present races in India, we have the snake, the horse, the monkey, the fox, the tortoise, the wolf, the boar, the nag or snake race being the Taksbak, the rhinoceros, the tiger.
Before Islamism had thoroughly taken root amongst the Turks, it was by no means uncommon to designate grave and distinguished personages by the names of animals. Boghra, or more properly Bokra or Bokhra, means in Eastern Turkish a male camel. The Gurgiani tribe of the Brahui take their title from Gurg, the Persian for a wolf ; the Numri or Lumri tribe from the fox ; and Landgha, wolf, also gives its name. Among
the Rajput clans are the Rahtor or the spine, the Kachwaha. and Sessodia from the tortoise and hare. In India, the names of Muhammadan men are usually associated with some attribute of the Almighty, or with the name of some reverenced person.
Among Muhammadan men's names are Abbas, stern of countenance; Abd-u-Rahman, servant of the merciful ; Abubakr, father of the maiden (Ayasha) ; Chengiz, from Zin in Moghul, great, gis or ghis, the superlative—Zingis is applied to the ocean ; Eldoz means star ; Fazil, excellent ; Ghalib, overcoming ; Haidar, Hirsuma, Asad, and all mean lion ; Hamd, part of an Arabic verb, meaning he did praise—from this all the names Ahmad and Hamid, the most praised, the same, Mahmud and Muhammad, praised ; Hashim, a breaker, from Hashm, he broke ; Hasan, beauti ful; Husain, a little beauty ; Jafar, a little stream ; Kasim, divided ; Malik, master ; Obeid is the diminutive of Abd, servant. The titles Sultan, Khan, and Agha Sultan are of frequent occur rence. Tahir, ARAB., pure. The Tahir dynasty became independent in the 3d century of the Hijira.. The founder was ambidexter, and styled Zu-l-yamanin, possessor of two right hands. Takin or Taquin in Turki, a warrior, as Alpetgin, whose slave •Sabaktagin was father of Mahmud; Tayib, good, delicate ; Togrul, Tusac, a falcon.
Among Muhammadan ladies' names are Ak Be gum, white lady; Amina, mother of Mahomed, means tranquillityFakhr-un-Nissa, glory of women. Akbar's mother's titular name was Hazrat Mariam Makani, Haniida Bana Begum. Khainun for a Moghul lady, and Begum, a Turki lady, are the feminines of Khan and Beg ; Mahomed's wives were Khadija, Fatima, Ayasha, Asya, Miriam or Mary, Hind or Hinda, Zainab, Maimana, Safiya. Nur Banu, lady of light ; Nur Mahal, light of the palace ; Mihr, the sun ; Rakya, enchantment ; Shahar, the moon ; Zainab, ornament, the Zen obia of the Europeans ; Zobeida, wife of Harun-u Rashid ; Zohra, the blooming, a name of Venus.