My name- consists of Neil (my first/given name) A*** (being secretive here… my father’s first name) and A****** (my family name).
The Northern male name = first name, father’s name, surname rule is only applicable to us Hindus, to the best of my knowledge. I should also point out that people from Bombay/Mumbai have begun abandoning this practicing lately. I happen to think its quite charming.
By way of “interesting side note”… you’ll find a lot of surnames, particularly Marathi (from the state of Maharastra) which end in -kar (like mine)… these mean “from the village/town of (insert whatever comes before -kar”.
Another item that may be useful- the vast majority of Indian emigrants are Marathi and Gujarathi, so generally you’ll see the North Indian naming system far more often.
I don’t think the majority’s name game is that complicated.
One of the North Indian conventions has been explained pretty well. The First Name is what is given to the person. His/Her middle and last names are derived from their father’s first/given name and father’s last name respectively. Since the father’s last name is usually like a family/caste name, it is passed on to the son/daughter across generations. So, though it looks like their name is composed of their father’s first and last names, it is really composed of their father’s first name, and a family/caste name.
(I think the above applies mainly to Maharashtra/Gujarat area)
The other North Indian convention is where the first name is the given name and the last name is the family/caste name. Here, the father’s first name is never passed on. All descendents in that family will share the family/caste name. Common examples of such surnames are Sharma, Gupta, Singh etc.
(I think the above applies to the hardcore North Indian belt)
In some parts of the South, there exists no concept of surnames at all! The name is usually written out with initials. For example, P.V. Krishnan where Krishnan is the given name, and P.V are the initials. Now, when one applies for the passport, they transform the initials into middle and surnames. Usually the initials are some combination of the father’s first name, native village’s name, grandfather’s name etc. As a result, usually, the father’s first name becomes the surname and the village’s name is tagged as the middle name. This is why you will find a lot of South Indians, mainly Tamilians, with their last name as their father’s given name.
Note that this is in direct contrast to the practice in the North when the father and his spawn shared a common last name (a family/caste name)