Nine padas of the Avakahada chakra fall in Mithuna, the moon sign the Western zodiac calls Gemini. They come from Mrigashira, Ardra and Punarvasu, and between them they give 9 sounds a name may begin with.
Below: every one of those syllables with the nakshatra and pada it belongs to, and the 39 names in our corpus that begin with them — each written in Devanagari and reduced to its Chaldean root number.
One per pada. A pandit reads the pada from the birth chart and hands the family the sound — this is the whole set for the rashi.
A rashi spans 30° and a nakshatra 13°20′, so the two never divide evenly: every rashi is exactly two and a quarter nakshatras.
| Nakshatra | Pada | Syllable | Names in our corpus |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🦌 Mrigashira | 3 | Ka | 19 |
| 🦌 Mrigashira | 4 | Ki | 5 |
| 💧 Ardra | 1 | Ku | 5 |
| 💧 Ardra | 2 | Gha | 0 |
| 💧 Ardra | 3 | Nga | 0 |
| 💧 Ardra | 4 | Chha | 0 |
| 🏹 Punarvasu | 1 | Ke | 1 |
| 🏹 Punarvasu | 2 | Ko | 1 |
| 🏹 Punarvasu | 3 | Ha | 8 |
Traditionally this table runs the other way: the janam kundli gives the birth star, the birth star gives the syllable, and the syllable gives the name. The birth chart is the authority, not the name. We show the reverse lookup for reference.
Devanagari from our transliteration engine; the root number is the Chaldean reduction of the spelling shown.
| Name | Devanagari | Syllable | Chaldean root | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hansraj | हंस्रज | Ha | 9 ♂ | |
| Harender | हरेंदेर | Ha | 2 ☽ | |
| Hari | हरि | Ha | 9 ♂ | Vishnu |
| Hariom | हरियोम | Ha | 2 ☽ | |
| Harish | हरिश | Ha | 8 ♄ | |
| Harpal | हर्पल | Ha | 2 ☽ | |
| Harpreet | हर्प्रीत | Ha | 5 ☿ | |
| Harsh | हर्ष | Ha | 7 ♆ | joy, pleasure, delight |
| Kabir | कबिर | Ka | 8 ♄ | great, noble; the saint-poet |
| Kailash | कैलश | Ka | 7 ♆ | |
| Kajal | काजल | Ka | 8 ♄ | collyrium; kohl, kajal |
| Kali | कलि | Ka | 7 ♆ | |
| Kalpana | कल्पना | Ka | 3 ♃ | imagination |
| Kalu | कलु | Ka | 3 ♃ | |
| Kamal | कमल | Ka | 2 ☽ | Nelumbo nucifera; lotus |
| Kamini | कामिनी | Ka | 5 ☿ | beautiful or desirable woman |
| Kamla | कम्ला | Ka | 2 ☽ | |
| Kamlesh | कम्लेश | Ka | 5 ☿ | |
| Kanchan | कंचन | Ka | 4 ♅ | gold (color and metal) |
| Kanta | कंता | Ka | 4 ♅ | |
| Kanti | कंति | Ka | 4 ♅ | |
| Kapil | कपिल | Ka | 6 ♀ | tawny, reddish-brown, brown |
| Karan | करन | Ka | 2 ☽ | |
| Karishma | करिश्मा | Ka | 1 ☉ | wonder (ie. marvel) |
| Kartik | कर्तिक | Ka | 3 ♃ | |
| Kavita | कविता | Ka | 6 ♀ | poetry; a poem |
| Kavya | कव्या | Ka | 2 ☽ | poetry; a poem |
| Keshav | केशव | Ke | 4 ♅ | |
| Kian | कियन | Ki | 9 ♂ | king; grace |
| Kiara | कियरा | Ki | 7 ♆ | bright, light |
| Kiran | किरण | Ki | 2 ☽ | ray of light, beam |
| Kirti | कीर्ति | Ki | 1 ☉ | mention, fame, glory |
| Kishan | किशन | Ki | 8 ♄ | |
| Komal | कोमल | Ko | 8 ♄ | soft, delicate, tender, downy |
| Kuldeep | कुल्दीप | Ku | 6 ♀ | |
| Kumari | कुमारी | Ku | 7 ♆ | maiden, a young unmarried girl |
| Kunal | कुनल | Ku | 8 ♄ | |
| Kundan | कुंदन | Ku | 5 ☿ | |
| Kusum | कुसुम | Ku | 3 ♃ | flower |
A blank meaning is a meaning we have not verified. We would rather leave the cell empty than fill it with a plausible guess.
Every name above reduced by the Chaldean method — how Mithuna actually distributes, counted rather than asserted.
| Root | Ruling planet | Names | Fields traditionally favoured |
|---|---|---|---|
| Root 2 | ☽ Moon | 8 | Hospitality, Diplomacy, Wellness |
| Root 8 | ♄ Saturn | 6 | Banking, Insurance, Real estate |
| Root 7 | ♆ Neptune | 5 | Research, Spirituality, Independent consulting |
| Root 3 | ♃ Jupiter | 4 | Education, Publishing, Wisdom-focused brands |
| Root 4 | ♅ Uranus | 4 | Construction, Engineering, Manufacturing |
| Root 5 | ☿ Mercury | 4 | Media, SaaS / Tech, Communication |
| Root 6 | ♀ Venus | 3 | Luxury, Fashion, Beauty |
| Root 9 | ♂ Mars | 3 | Defence, Sports, Surgery |
| Root 1 | ☉ Sun | 2 | Leadership, Politics, Entrepreneurship |
Mrigashira (padas 3 and 4), Ardra (all four padas) and Punarvasu (padas 1, 2 and 3). A rashi spans 30° and a nakshatra 13°20′, so every rashi works out to two and a quarter nakshatras — nine padas in all.
By the Avakahada chakra: Ka, Ki, Ku, Gha, Nga, Chha, Ke, Ko and Ha. All 9 belong to the rashi; the pada the child was actually born in narrows it to a single sound, and that comes from the birth chart, not from this list.
They name the same 30° of the zodiac, and Mithuna is normally translated as Gemini. They are not interchangeable in practice. Rashi in the Indian tradition is the Moon's sign measured against the fixed stars (Lahiri ayanamsa); a Western sun sign is the Sun's position measured against the equinox. The two zodiacs currently sit about 24.2° apart, so a baby who is Gemini by the newspaper column is very often not Mithuna rashi at all.
No — the birth chart does. The chakra runs the other way: a pandit reads the Moon's nakshatra and pada from the janam kundli and hands the family a syllable to start the name with. Read in reverse, as this page reads it, a syllable tells you which star the sound belongs to and nothing about your child.
It is a tradition, not a rule. Plenty of families take the syllable as a shortlist and plenty choose the name they love regardless; both are ordinary. Where it does matter is the namkaran ceremony, which is why the sound usually comes from the pandit before the shortlist is drawn up.
Enter the date of birth and we compute the Moon's actual nakshatra and pada, instead of reading it backwards from the name.
Check a nameThe 3 nakshatras that fall in Mithuna
The other rashis — Vrishabha before it, Karka after it in the zodiac
The root numbers these names carry