Many languages, many traditions
“Indian” surnames are extraordinarily diverse, drawn from dozens of languages, religions and regions. They can indicate an occupation (Patel, “village headman”; Joshi, “astrologer”), a title (Rao, Shah, “king”), a place or village (Banerjee, Mukherjee), or a community — and historically, caste. Some, like Kumar (“prince/son”), are used very widely.
Regional patterns
Naming customs differ across India: in parts of the south, a father’s or village name may come first and “surnames” work differently, while North Indian names more often follow the given-name-then-family-name pattern. The meanings below reflect the most established etymology for each name.