Kar ( mr, कर , knn, कार ) is a suffix used after the names of villages along the western coast of India, forming the most common surnames used by the

Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people *Palaiosouda, also known as Marathi, a small island in Greece See also * * ...

and Konkani people in

Maharashtra Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a states and union territories of India, state in the western India, western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the List of states and union te ...

Goa Goa () is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is located between the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north and Karnataka to the ...

and some parts of

Karnataka Karnataka (; ISO: , , also known as Karunāḍu) is a state in the southwestern region of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act. Originally known as Mysore State , it was renamed ''Karnat ...

. Kar is the surname of mostly the Brahmins of Kashmir, Maharashtra, Bengal and Odisha. Kar Brahmins hail from Karhama village in Kashmir, India. In Bengal, the Kar surname is also used by people of the Kayastha clan.

Etymology

The suffix ''Kar'' comes from the

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

, which means "making, doing, lord of", later modified to mean "hailing from" or "belonging to" in

Prakrit The Prakrits (; sa, prākṛta; psu, 𑀧𑀸𑀉𑀤, ; pka, ) are a group of vernacular Middle Indo-Aryan languages that were used in the Indian subcontinent from around the 3rd century BCE to the 8th century CE. The term Prakrit is usu ...

-based languages.

Usage

Such surnames are commonly used by communities of Konkani and Marathi ethnicities all over India. Most of them identify themselves with a place their ancestors hailed from, or sometimes with new places to which they have migrated. For example, if a person hails from the village of

Borim Borim or Bori is a census town in Ponda taluka, North Goa district in the state of Goa, India on the banks of Zuari River. It has a land area of 1536.07 acres and has a population of 8,257. The village has a rich history dating back to the 12t ...

in Goa, his surname would be '; this custom is also followed by Konkani migrants to Karnataka. If a person hails from the town of Sirsi, the surname used would be ''Sirsekār''. The surname Kar is also used in countries like :Bangladesh, :Iran, :Turkey, :Myanmar, :Egypt, and others.

References

{{reflist Indian surnames