Naming Convention, Traditions

Dear Jackson, You may be correct. I have …

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Comment posted Names, Middle Names and Last Names among the Syrian Christians by M Thomas Antony.

Dear Jackson,

You may be correct. I have heard of family names like karettu etc which means “in a higher land”

Did we have a convention of keeping surnames in south india ? Even family names ? As far as I understand, south indians adopt a family name from the place they live. even when they move. For example, a paddy farm near to my family house is about 350 para area- 35 acres. All the people living around this farm use 350-il chira as their house name for all official purposes. Many of the family names in Kuttanadu originated like this. When they move to another area where they have 38 para of farm, the name changes to 38 parayil !!
Nair, pillai etc are not surnames, they are caste names. There are tharakans, mappilas, panicker etc which are surnames granted by kings to certain individuals. We can see panicker in christian, nair, ezhava etc communities.
I agree there were famous family names like pakalomattom kalikavu shankarapuri etc.

Re Eskay’s comment about the convention of family name- father’s name- individual’s name, this is seen in all communities including christians and hindus. This may have originated from the traditional document writers- adharam ezhuthukar- to identify and document an individual correctly as a verbal picture like ***** veettil varughese ‘s son thomas..