Baby Name Letter Calculator

What the name letter calculator does

This tool answers one question: which sound should my baby's name start with? It takes the birth date, time and place, works out where the Moon was in the sky at that moment, and reads off the nakshatra, pada and syllable. It also shows the rashi and the other syllables you could use if you'd like more choice.

Under the hood it's the same chart engine as the free Mygrah kundli: sidereal positions with the Lahiri ayanamsa, which is the standard used by Indian panchangs. So the nakshatra here will match what you see in a kundli made with the same details.

Nakshatra, pada and syllable, step by step

1. Moon's longitude. The zodiac is 360°. We find the Moon's sidereal position, for example 52.4°.
2. Nakshatra. The circle is split into 27 equal parts of 13°20'. 52.4° falls in the 4th part, Rohini (40° to 53°20').
3. Pada. Each nakshatra splits into 4 padas of 3°20'. 52.4° is 12.4° into Rohini, which is pada 4.
4. Syllable. Rohini's four syllables are O, Va, Vi, Vu. Pada 4 gives Vu.
5. Rashi. 52.4° is between 30° and 60°, so the Moon sign is Vrishabha (Taurus).

The result card shows all of this, plus names from our list that start with the syllable.

Why the birth time matters

The Moon is the fastest-moving body in a chart. It covers about 13° a day, which means it changes pada roughly every six hours and nakshatra about once a day. If you leave the time blank we use 12:00 noon, which can be off by a pada or even a nakshatra. Hospital birth records usually have the exact minute, so it's worth asking for it.

The place matters less for the Moon than for the lagna, but it sets the time zone. A baby born at 6 am in Kolkata and one born at 6 am in London are about five and a half hours apart in real time.

The 27 nakshatras and their syllables

When the syllable is hard to work with

Some syllables have very few names. Ardra's "Ng" and "Chha", or Uttara Bhadrapada's "Jha", are good examples. Families handle this in a few ways. Some pick a name from another syllable of the same rashi. Some use the nakshatra name only for rituals and keep a different name for daily life. Some go by the closest sound, which is why you'll see Shravana listed with both Khi and Ju. Any of these is fine. The tradition is meant to help you, not limit you.

After you have the letter

Tap through to the nakshatra or rashi page for a longer list, filter by boy or girl, and search by meaning. When you've got a shortlist, our name numerology calculator can show the number for each spelling. If you have questions about the baby's chart, like the Moon sign or the dasha they're born in, you can ask the Mygrah AI astrologer.