Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version nyu B notes v1.5 12/10/84; site csd2.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!bellcore!decvax!genrad!teddy!panda!talcott!harvard!seismo!cmcl2!csd2!agrawal
From: agrawal@csd2.UUCP (Mukul Babu Agrawal)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: Common names in other countries
Message-ID: <3550002@csd2.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 19-Jan-85 17:50:00 EST
Article-I.D.: csd2.3550002
Posted: Sat Jan 19 17:50:00 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 23-Jan-85 05:37:42 EST
References: <7518@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Organization: New York University
Lines: 38

>
>
>	Bannerjee (also spelled Bannerji), is one of the three or four
>common Bengali Brahmin names (Chaterjee, Mukherjee, Bannerjee and
>Chakravathy) which comprise probably 80% of all Bengali Brahmins.
>I would expect there to be approximately 5 million of each in India.
>I personally know of three different families name Bannerjee that
>live in the Baltimore, Maryland area.  In India, one block that I
>was staying at a house on had 6 Bannerjee families within a 4 block
>radius.  (And it wasn't even in Bengal!).
>
>						-JCP-
>
>
>PS:
>	In India, it is usual to know a person's State Ancestry and
>Caste just from their last name.
>/* ---------- */



	Quite right , Bannerji is fairly common in the Bengali Brahmins.
My vote for the most common surname in India goes to "Singh" .
As mentioned before, it is possible ( generally ) to guess 
the persons caste/region from his surname but in the case of "Singhs" 
its quite different.  As far as I know "Singhs" ( not including 
the Sikh community ) are in fairly large numbers in atleast 
three states in India ( namely Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar ). If one 
includes the Sikh community as well ( In their case Singh is generally a 
middle name ) the number of Sighs will far outnumber the "Smith" population 
of the world. There are many other common surnames like "Rao" or "Murthy"
in S.India and I believe they too are in large numbers.
	Even my caste  ( Agrawal ) is extremely common in the North .



			Mukul Babu Agrawal
			agrawal@csd2.arpa