The genealogies provide a large store of material, for it is exceptional for two Todas to have the same name, and no Toda should bear a name which has been borne by another for four generations, and certainly not one which has been borne by one of his own family.
The great majority of Toda names have distinctive terminations which are different for men and women.
The common terminations for males are -van, -kûdr, -kût or -kûtan, -olv, -eidi, and -ners. The first was said to be the same word as pan or pun, the Toda name for the stone circles found on the summits of the hills. The names of deities often receive the same termination; thus Nòtirzi is also called Nòtirzivan, and, in several cases, men received the names of gods or hills followed by the syllable -van. The same termination is also given to names which have other derivations.
The terminations, -kûdr or -gûdr, -kût or -kûtan, are different forms of the word kûdr, which means primarily ‘horn,’ and when it occurs in a name seems to mean ‘child.’ The termination in -kûdr or -gûdr seems to be much more [[620]]frequently used by the Teivaliol than by the Tartharol, and in both divisions it is rare in older generations.
I do not know the meaning of the terminations in -olv and -eidi: it is noteworthy, however, that -olv is also a frequent ending of the names of dairies.
The termination -ner or -ners sometimes becomes -nîr, and it may be the word for water, possibly with the idea of ‘spring.’
The usual terminations of female names are -veli, -veni or -vani, -eimi, and -idj or -idz. Of these, the first is by far the most frequent, being usually pronounced with a th sound, as in -velthli or -vilthli. It is possibly the same word as a frequent Indian name of Venus, which is also the Toda name for this planet. The word also means silver and in the form pelthiti is used for ‘white.’
The termination -veni or -vani is probably derived from pani, which is said to be an ancient name for a Toda woman. Occasionally the latter form occurred, as in the name of Sinadapani (67), and one of the wives of Kwoten was named Kwaterpani. I know nothing of the derivation of the terminations -eimi and -idz.
The names of Todas are often derived from villages, dairies or dairy vessels, hills and their deities, and objects of various kinds. There seems to be no objection to use the names of deities or of such sacred objects as the mani as personal names, but only as those of men. Recently the Todas have begun to use words of Hindu or even English origin for the names of their children.
It is the names of men which are chiefly derived from villages, and at least twenty examples occur in the genealogies. In some cases the name of the village is used without any suffix, as in Ushadr (48) and Madsu (58); in other cases one or other of the customary terminations is used, as in Keradrkutan[1] (26), Nongarsivan (62), Kuirsiners (18), and Karseidi (8). The special point of interest here is that the names of villages which have now disappeared may be preserved as personal names; thus Harkness mentions the village of Kattaul as being near Ootacamund, and, though the [[621]]village has now disappeared, its memory is preserved in the name Katolvan (44), borne by one of the Melgarsol, to whom the village belonged. Again, the village of Kepurs, an extinct village mentioned in the legend of Kwoten, is preserved in the name of Kepursvan (18), borne by one of Kwoten’s clan, the Panol.