Last Updated on December 11, 2021 by astrologerbydefault

Being blessed with a baby is a life-time event. When you hold your bundle of joy in your arms you know that your life has changed for ever. You are now a mother/father and you feel all the happiness, responsibility and it’s a mixture of emotions!

After the baby is born, the most important question becomes naming him/her. The 12th day of life is when the baby is named, the Namkaran Sanskar. Here almost everyone in the family jumps in with a name, right from the grandparents to the uncle/aunts to the brothers/sisters of the baby, everyone wants their choice of the name to be given to the baby. But luckily we have Jyotish and the astrologers. By invoking their authority the parents can avoid the more out-landish names and at least choose one of their choice!

The baby is to be named on the basis of the Nakshatra occupied by the Moon at the time of birth. It is no big deal, this table below is available everywhere. So why this post? And why refer to an actual astrologer? The table is quite clear. But have you seen the alphabets? Eg if the Moon’s nakshatra is Ashwini you have a choice between the starting sounds ‘chu, che, cho, laa’. Rather difficult to find names beginning with these!

But apart from these literary problems there are more serious reasons why you should not directly copy paste from the table.

You should not name your child as per the Moon’s nakshatra syllables if….

The Moon occupies a dushamsthan, ie if he is in the 6th , 8^th or 12^th houses in the birth horoscope. (Some astrologers will also consider the 3^rd house to be equally bad). A Moon in a dushamsthan is already under stress. The baby will be suffering losses, catastrophic changes, demands for service, medical conditions etc linked to the Moon’s agents. If you name him as per the Moon’s nakshtra it will amplify the effects on him/her.

If the Moon is conjunct malefic planets or heavily aspected by malefics. The Moon is unable to give his full benefic effect. The malefics restrict him and there will be issues related to the Moon’s agents in life.

The Moon is under a heavy influence of the Gandant placement. Here the Gandant effect is going to affect the baby’s early childhood, so avoid naming him/ her with the same syllables.

Now find out the father’s and the mother’s birth Moon sign. You already know the baby’s. See if there is a 6/8 axis operating between the baby’s and the mothers’ birth moon signs. And also is there is a 6/8 adversarial axis between baby and the dad. (Good astrologers will also check the 2/12 axis) Eg. Baby has Aries moon, mother has Pisces moon and father has Virgo moon. So baby-mother is 2-12 axis and baby-father is 6/8 axis. As it is the child is going to have a slightly antagonistic relationship with the parents, more with the father than the mother, because of this placement. The emotional understanding between them will be slightly off. They might feel a bit emotionally uncomfortable with each other. It is not a problem as such but a slight under-current will exist. To reduce this effect, if you wish, avoid keeping the baby’s name from his moon Nakshatra syllables.

(eg recently a baby was born in my family. The best name for the child had a 5/9 axis with the father and a 6/8 with the mother. This was considered acceptable as the child would have a great relationship with one parent and a generally average relationship with the other.)

So if not the Moon’s nakshatra then which one? Here are the options,

1. The Nakshatra of the rising degree. Eg if the rising degree is 2deg Aries, it is in Ashwini nakshatra. So you are basically enhancing the energy of the rising degree /ascendant degree. However if the ascendant sign/1^st house is suffering from highly malefic influences then avoid this one too.

2. The Nakshatra of the atmakarak planet. For this, check which planet has the highest number of degrees in the chart. ie which planet as advanced maximum into his sign. Use the syllables of the Nakshatra that this planet is placed in. Again avoid this if there are malefic influences on it or it is a functional malefic.

3. Finally the last option, choose the Yogkarak planet’s Nakshatra. Or the Nakshatra of the ascendant lord as he is the other best benefic planet for the chart.

And if possible give him/her a name which has a meaning in itself. Ie a name derived from Sanskrit. It is his own personal mantra, so let it be a word of inherent power.

(If you are an advanced student and can check out the Ashtak-varga table. Or can read the Strengths of the planets, the Bala. Then you can use the strongest planet from these tables if they suit. Choose the name using the Nakshatra of this planet. But remember whichever planet you use, you are enhancing its power in the chart. So choose carefully)

There is another thing, to avoid any family member feeling upset, the parents let everyone name their baby, so at the end of the naming ceremony there are 3-4 names tagged to the baby. The parents then finalise the name when the kid is registered in school. This is a waste of the power generated during the naming ceremony rituals. It is a Naamkaran sanskar, compulsory for Hindus. Choose one name and give it to the baby with all the intention and power generated in the ceremony. Don’t let your relatives overpower!

Now, you are grown up and you realise that the name you are given does not resonate with your horoscope. There are two options, one is to change your name which might be a complicated legal process. Second is to choose a nick-name starting from the appropriate syllable. Do as you feel is convenient. But when you choose your new name, do this small exercise. Write your name 108 times on a piece of paper with full concentration and intention. The name change will be more auspicious.

A name is power. Your mom calls you by your diminutive names but when she really wants your attention she uses your full name. And the effect is electrifying, you get all alert and ready for what will come next.

So I guess the poet was wrong when he said that ‘a rose by any name!’.

(So whoever asked the question in the contact form, Yes names are important on the spiritual front too and all the best and blessings for your baby.)

(A personal experience, my name is quite long, Tejaswini. It was given to me by my Guru. He did the Naamkaran when I was a baby. But because it was so long my family members rarely called me by the full name, they used a diminutive. Later when I grew up, I faced some problems in my spiritual practice. So my Guru was like eyes rolled up, exasperated, ‘no one calls you by your given name! How do you expect to succeed?’ So then I got everyone to call me by my given name and a lot of things fell into place! The name does carry power.)