Indian family names are based on a variety of systems and naming conventions, which vary from region to region. Names are also influenced by religion and caste and may come from epics. India's population speaks a wide variety of languages and nearly every major religion in the world has a following in India. This variety makes for subtle, often confusing, differences in names and naming styles. For example, the concept of a family name did not exist widely in Tamil Nadu.
For many Indians, their birth name is different from their official name; the birth name starts with a letter auspicious on the basis of the person's horoscope (based on the nakshatra or lunar mansion corresponding to the person's birth).
In communities that don't use family names, the third name can be a god's name, or the grandfather's or grandmother's name, depending on the sex of the child. Many children are given two names sometimes as a part of religious teaching, and "Velanati" and "Telaganya" indicate the ancestral places of their origin. These are used for subcaste identification and not necessarily used routinely as part of a person's official name or daily use name.
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The Ahom community have a naming system that is loosely based on their ancestors profession during Ahom kings' reign. Usually most names follow the Firstname, Middlename, Lastname format. Last name Saikia indicates commander over 100 soldiers (sa=100). Hazarika was commander over 1000 soldiers (hazar=1000). Other lastnames are Bora and Borbora, Barua and Borbarua, Gohain, Borgohain, Buragohain, etc. where Bor = elder or bigger, Bura = older. Other communities have last names which may be same as last names used in other parts of north India such as Das, Sarma, Chaudhary, etc..,
The family name always follow the given name. A middle name often exists but may be omitted in casual conversation. Patronymics are non-existent. In addition, some honorific titles (e.g., Purkayastha, Ray, Chaudhuri, Samanta, Ray Chaudhuri, Paul, Ganguly, Bose, Dutta etc.) may be used along with the family name or the family name may be completely dropped. Mitra, Paul , Bose and Dutta are the upper caste bengalis after Brahmins like Ganguly , Chaudhuri, Samanta, Ray Chaudhuri etc.
In most cases, father's names aren't used as middle names.
For Brahmins, the family name is most often the name of the clan or gotra, unless honorifics such as Roy or Chaudhuri supplant them. Honorifics such as Chakravarti or Bhatta-acharya can be used in place of gotra names as family names.
Kashmiri names mostly follow the following structure: Jawahar Lal Nehru — given, sometimes middle, family name.
In Kashmir, the tendency to call people by their nicknames, which often tend to replace their 'real family' names exists. Hence, some family names like Razdan and Nehru may very well be derived originally from the Kaul family tree. Popular Kashmiri surnames include Adalti, Agha, Aima, Ambardar, Atal, Bazaaz, Bhan, Budshah, Bhagati, Bhat, Daftari, Darbari, Dar/Dhar, Durani, Farash, Fotedar, Ganju, Garyali, Gilani, Haak, Hangal, Jalla, Jalali, Kandhari, Kaul/Koul, Khemu, Khan, Khandaar, Kilam, Mattoo, Moza (short for Mozaz), Nadeer, Nadeem, Nakhasi, Nakshband, Nehru, Ogra, Parimoo, Pir, Qasba, Qazi, Qasid, Raina, Razdan, Safaya, Sapru, Saproo, Saraaf, Sopori, Sultan, Tikku/Tickoo, Toshkhani, Toorki/Turki, Wazir, Wakil, Wali, Zalpuri, Zarabi, Zutshi. Most of these surnames are common to both Kashmiri Muslims and Kashmiri Pandits (Brahmins).
Many Oriya surnames come from the caste system based on the occupation of people. For example, a common last name is Mohapatra and Dash (as opposed to Das) are Brahmin surnames. Likewise, Kar,diwedi,trivedi,samantaray ,purohit,Mishra,Sarangi,Nanda, Ratha, Panda, Satapathy, Panigrahi, Tripathy, Muni and Mund are all Brahmin surnames. Mohanty, Pattnaik, Das are Karanas, while Samatasinghar, Sundaray, Jagdev, Baliarsingh, Harichandan, Mangaraj, Mardaraj, Senapati,Rao,Rout,Swain Routary Srichandan, Pratihari, Chhotaray, Patasani, Parida, Samal, Nayak, Muduli, Behera and Dhal,Danta etc. are Khandayet. Some surnames are common across the states of West Bengal and Orissa and can be attributed to migration across the two states.,
In Gujarat and Maharashtra, the naming system is patronymics. For example, the first name of cricketer Sunil Manohar Gavaskar is Sunil, Manohar is his father's name, and Gavaskar is the family name.
Traditionally, married women take their husband's given name as their middle name, in addition to adopting his family name. In Maharashtra sometimes a male newborn is given his grandfather's name.
In Gujarat, people also add suffixes to their names based on their gender. "Bhai/kumar/lal" (brother) for men and "Ben/Bahen" (sister) for woman. For example, Sunil is called Sunilbhai and Lata is called Lataben or Latabahen. Similarly, Maharastrians address males as "Rao". (Sunil will be called Sunilrao.) This is generally an informal convention, used between friends and not on official documents.
Common Gujarati family names include Patel (a very common surname in Gujarat), Soni, Mehta, Jani ,Modi, Desai, Parekh, Shah and Chudasama. Frequent Marathi family names include Kulkarni, Joshi, Deshpande, Deshmukh, Chaudhary, Kolte, Jadhav, Shinde and Patil. The family name Bhat is used for a Maharashtrian Brahmin; an extra t is added for the Gujaratis.
A number of Marathi family names end in kar, e.g. Gavaskar, Tendulkar, Savarkar, Madgulkar, Mayekar, Agarkar, Acharekar, Navalkar, Joglekar, Juhekar, Deuskar, Manglokar, Chindarkar, Mankar, Mondkar and are sometimes associated with the native village of the family or its ancestors. E.g., Chindarkar may stand for origins in the town Chindar at Sindhudurg District in Maharashtra-Konkan region.
Marathi last names and origins are extremely well documented and the roots and lineage can be traced back hundreds of years. See main article Maratha clan system.
In Gujarat, family names ending in the suffix 'vala' or 'walla' may refer to the place where a person resides when written on wedding invitations (concotri), when listing members of the family. Someone who did not live locally, for example, someone from London may have his surname put down as 'Guidowalla' just to describe the fact they reside there; their actual surname might be the normal family name. It also may describe the ancestral village of the family when used as the actual surname. An example of this is the moving of some of the Tandel family from the village of Meh to nearby Mogod Dungri (Valsad District) in recent times, changing their surnames to Mehwala, to say that they are from Meh. It is also used to denote a profession or family business, like Lakdawalla, which denotes that the person's family business is trading in wood.
Konkani people inhabit the states of Goa, Maharashtra, Karnataka and some parts of Kerala. Basically Hindus, they later were converted to Catholicism. They are strictly patriarchal, thus the first name is always followed by fathers names, though it's now only strictly observed by Hindus. Hindus used titles like Shenai, Kamati, Shett, Parpati, Mahale, Naik, Nayak, Koyande, Kini or the caste identifying names (which was common amongst people who belonged to the so-called lower castes) such as Gaude, Velip, Mulli, etc. before the advent of Portuguese. Village names were used by them only when they migrated from their ancestral village. Suffix kaar or hailing from was attached to the village names, e.g., Khorjuvekar, Chodankar, Raikar, Borkar, Vernekar, Kerkar. This practice is still alive today, and almost all Goans and a few of the Konkanis in other states use their original village names (where their ancestors belonged) before the Inquisition followed by their mass migrations to other places in Goa and other states. Surnames denoting occupations are also common, e.g., Abhisheki, Teli, Kasar, Vaidya. Brahmins often have "Bhatt" as a surname, in keeping with the migration of Saraswat Brahmins into Karnataka within the last 700 years. Almost all the Konkani Catholics use surnames like, Pereira, Fernandes, Nazareth, etc. However, a few families from the Kunbi community bear their original last names like Gavkaar, Tari, etc. Similarly, many Catholic families belonging to the Roman Catholic Brahmin (Bamonn) caste use their original Hindu surnames such as Prabhu, Shenoy, Naik, Pai, Shet, Bhat, etc. Karnataka houses a variety of Konkani-speaking people divided into many small sects.
For a long time, South Indians had a simple naming system. Historically, everyone was given a single name, which was chosen on the basis of one of three possible ways:
The naming convention among some South Indian communities (especially the Palghat Iyer community) is one where the first-born male child takes the name of the paternal grandfather; the second male child, the maternal grandfather; the first female child takes the name of the paternal grandmother and the second female child, the maternal grandmother. Naming of subsequently born children do not follow any particular convention and are named after family deities and the like. For example, the first born child to Kavassery Venkatraman Krishnan and Guruvayoor Shankaranarayan Lalitha (where Venkatraman is the child's paternal grandfather) would be named Venkatraman, and the second born male child would be named Shankaranarayanan. If the grandparents are alive when the grandchild is born, then the child is addressed by a given name or "pet name", so that the parents of the child can avoid the irreverance of uttering their parent's name while addressing their children.
In Andhra Pradesh, the surnames are derived from the name of their ancestral hometown or the family profession as the last name or family name. In this case sometimes the surname is placed before the given name. Reddy is the most common last name in Telangana. Some Telugu people have both village name and a caste name as part of their name, for instance Alluri Sita Rama Raju or Sita Rama Raju Alluri. Here Alluri is the surname referring the person's clan/ancestral home town, Sita Rama are the person's first and middle names and Raju is the caste name or sometimes they are called by their caste name alone, like Kumar Chowdary, Naidu, Raju, Reddy,. There is no father's name as middle name in this region. It is common for Telugu women to adopt their husband's surname as their surname. Vangala (parent's surname) Radhika Reddy might change her name to Vemuri (husband's surname) Radhika Reddy after marriage.
Mainly in southern Andhra Pradesh the use of caste name as well as family name along side first name to show up that they belongs to particular clans is in practice. Surnames starts with Yendluri, Pavuluru(ri) Chowdarys(Naidus) follows these kind of naming.
In Karnataka, the naming convention is given name, father's name (Middle name), last name (can reflect surname, family name, place, occupation etc.). Manjunatha, Muralidhar, Venkatesha, Raghava, Radha Krishna Murthy,shyam,santosh, Raghavendra, Jayappa, Shayle, Mallappa, and Kantharajappa Vishwanath are some common names for men. For women, names such as Bhagya, Bhagyalakshmi, Lakshmi,savita, rajeshwari, Shylaja, Manasa, Meera, Shanthala, Seeta, Uma, Gayathri, and Chaitra are all common names. It is customary for a woman to take on her husband's surname to reflect the symbolic change in moving out of her father's house and becoming part of the husband's family. Man is the head of the household.
In villages and away from the city sometimes initials precede a given name. For example, Kagodu Bairappa Timmappa (village, father, given name). Sometimes only the village name precedes their given name. Some names explicitly mention affiliation to a family, such as Pasharara Kolli (Kolli of Pashara family) or Naigodara Kanni (Kanni of Naigod family).
In Kerala, the procedures were different in Travancore, Cochin and British Malabar.
In British Malabar the format followed is Family name-Given name-Caste/title name (if applicable). Therefore Kannott Karunakaran Marar, can be interpreted as Karunakaran of the Marar caste' from the Kannoth family. A minority who held land and power oppressed the majority of the society in the name of caste. While these ones with power and land kept caste names as a status symbol, the majority has avoided caste names since it was considered as a symbol of slavery.
Since present day Kerala was a feudal society before the mid-20th century, Keralites divided based on castes, unlike other parts of South India. So-called upper class held the caste names as a pseudo symbol of societal status. Those who were suppressed and those who realized realized the venomous casteism (e.g: A K Gopalan, Kelappan, Mannath Padmanabhan etc.), avoided caste names. (Swami Vivekananda called Kerala as a “Mad Asylum” seeing the caste based atrocities. )
Since centuries, the naming system in Kochi and Travancore has the format Family/House Name-Father’s name-Person’s name. OR Father’s name-Person’s name E.g.: A K Antony: Arackaparambil (House Name) Kurian Pillai (Father’s Name with a title) Antony (First Name). Today, this age-old practice from the Southern Kerala has been adopted by people in Malabar too.
While Travancore and Kochi Muslims followed the common practice above, among the Malabar Muslims, it was a common practice in naming to mix (or localize) Arabic names (Given names) with Malayalam language ones, like "Putiyavittil Muḥammadutti" or "Fāṭimah Todiyattu" to "Pattumma Todiyattu". But currently complete Arabic names (Given names) are most probably used, in a Given name-Family name or Family name-Given name manner (Putiyavittil Inzamām or Ninā Rāshin Todiyattu). Among Christians in Kerala, it is a common practice to have a second given name (middle name) which is the baptismal name, usually the first name of a grandparent or godparent, like Roshni Mary George and Anoop Antony Philip.
Many South Indians use the name of their ancestral hometown, or the family profession as the last name or family name. In this case sometimes the surname (especially when it is village name) is placed before the given name. Some Tamil people have both a village name and a caste name as part of their name
There is also widespread usage of a patronym: use of the father's given name as the second name. This means that the given name of one generation becomes the second name of the next. In many cases, this second name is used as an initial and the given name may appear like a second name. When written in full (like in passport), the initial is expanded as last name. For example a name like "R. Ramesh" or "Ramesh R.", will be written in full as "Ramesh Ramaiah", and refers to "Ramesh son of Ramaiah". If Ramesh then has a son named Ashvin, then his name would be "R. Ashvin" or "Ashvin Ramesh". It is common for Tamil women to adopt their husband's given name as their second name. Sunitha Gopalan (Sunitha daughter of Gopalan) might change her name to Sunitha Rajiv (Sunitha wife of Rajiv) after marriage.
Some South Indians also use an inverted patronym. For example, Swati Krishna might write her name as Krishna Swati making her patronym the first name and given name the last name. More common among women, the inverted patronym is also adopted by people migrating West who want to be called by their given names without having to explain Indian naming conventions.
Also there might be last names based on the caste titles like - Iyer, Iyengar, Nadar, Gounder, Thevar, Naickker, Udayar, Chettiar, Mudaliar, Pillai, Aachari, etc.
In Western, English-speaking societies, when there are two people with the same name, for example, Robert Jones and Robert Smith, in an elementary school class, they may be referred to as Robert J. and Robert S. respectively to avoid confusion. But two Ramans in Tamil Nadu have just the one name each. So the names of their fathers are used as initials instead of a surname. Raman, son of Gopal, would be G. Raman, and Raman, son of Dinesh, D. Raman. This led to the initial system, mostly followed in South India. Most schools automatically add the initials upon enrollment.
In some parts of Tamil Nadu, traditional family names have recently been abandoned in favour of a father's/husband's given name as a family name. The use of a father's/husband's given name as a family name is in vogue. These names are also used as initials. School and college records would have the names with initials as given below.
Legal documents such as passports will have the last name fully expanded, instead of initials. Other legal documents such as property deeds will have any of these name formats with the mention of father's /grandfather's/husband's given name and/or village/town/city name. Mandating expansion of initials in passport and multinational companies that are influenced by western standards is a big source of confusion in South India. For example, a letter for Raja Gopala Varma, son of Krishna Kumar, who is usually referred as "K. Raja Gopala Varma", might be addressed incorrectly to "Krishna Kumar Raja Gopala Varma".
Men's names are usually prefixed with initials as mentioned before. Some men used to omit the initial, adding the father's given name in the end. However, this isn't a legal name and won't change their name in official records. For example, both P. Chidambaram and Chidambaram Palaniyappan are valid; however the latter form is not legally used. Generally, the initials are omitted, and father's name is suffixed to shorten a name, for example, G. Raja Ravi Varma, son of M. Gopal Krishnan, becomes Raja Gopal.
For women, the system of initials is slightly different. Before marriage, a girl uses her father's initial, but after marriage, she may choose to use her husband's initial. Of late the trend has changed and many women, especially those employed, do not change the initials, but continue with their father's initials. This is mainly for convenience, since school degree and career papers have the woman's father's initials on them. Changing a name legally is a cumbersome procedure, including announcing the proposed change in a newspaper and getting it published in an official gazette. So the modern trend is to add the husband's name at the end, like some Western women who add their husband's name with a hyphen.
People who do not understand the South Indian naming protocol sometimes expand the initials in an incorrect manner. For example, the name P. Chidambaram, tends to be expanded to Palaniyappan Chidambaram, which is incorrect in the sense that it implies that the person's given name is "Palaniyappan", and the family name is "Chidambaram". In fact, the person's only name is "Chidambaram", with an initial of "P". Also if the name is Srishti Venkata Sesha Phaneendra, it may be written as S.V.S.Phaneendra with three initials.Other such famous misrepresentations include the chess grandmaster, V. Anand (wrongly expanded as Vishwanathan Anand); cricketer, L. Sivaramakrishnan (Laxman is his father's name); and the freedom fighter and statesman, C. Rajagopalachari (often cited as Chakravarty Rajagopalachari). On the other hand, north India media refers to Dr. Anbumani Ramadoss (son of Dr. Ramadoss) often simply as Dr Ramadoss, which again is incorrect as Ramadoss is his father's name and not his name.
The involvement of Justice Party (1926 onwards) and the other Dravidian parties in the start of Independent India had contributed much to the confusion. For instance, a person by name Rajaram Iyer used to get advantage in schools, colleges, jobs etc. for being an Iyer. Alternatively, a person may not like to declare his /her caste name to avoid being identified. "Why should a person get advantage or disadvantage just by declaring his / her caste?". This was the primary question raised by the Dravidian ideology. For instance, a Rajaram Mudaliar may not get the same treatment as a Rajaram Nadar in a public office. Moreover, a Rajaram without any surname/castename will be put in confusion. This led to the inclusion of Father's name as initial. In certain vulgar terms, in some parts of Tamil Nadu it used to be referred like this. "We are born to Fathers, and not to Castes".
Some use initials as a form of pride and an option to recognize/credit their father. Some rare people use mother name's initial, when their father is cruel or deserted—just to credit their mother's role in bringing them up. In some parts of Tamil Nadu, the term "person without initial" is often used as an euphemism for bastard.
Family names are not common in Tamil Nadu, but most of the rest of India uses a family name. There are also certain people in Karnataka which do not use Family names anymore, however have initials to indicate their fathers name.
Many South Indians also use a family name.
Common South Indian surnames/family names are:
Kumar, Rao, Murthy or Moorthi OR Moorthy , Shastri, Acharya, , Prasad, Swamy, Pillai
In Karnataka: Gowda, Nayak, Hegde and many north Karnataka families have the some surnames which are more popular in Maharastra such as Despande , Desmukh , Kulkarni,etc.
Mangalorean:(Tulu, Konkani) Shetty, Rai, Hegde, Bhat, Kamat, Pai, Bhandary, Upadhyay, Poojary, Moily, Alva, Ballal, Chowta, Naik, Kadamba, Hoysala, Maurya, Poonja
North Karnataka: Patil, Desai, Joshi, Kulkarni,Dodamani, Patil <mostly surnames common with its neighbouring state of Maharashtra>
In Andhra: Chowdary, Reddy, Naidu, Raju, Varma, Shastri, Achari, Sharma, Setti
In Kerala: Nair, Menon, Nambiar, Pannikar, Namboodiri, Warrier, Kurian, Cherian, Varghese, Varma, Kutty...
In Tamil Nadu: Iyer, Chettiar, Chetty, Achari, Mudaliar, Subrahmyan, Pillai, Nayar, Sooriyaprakash, Devan, Ilaiya, Rajan, Veluram, Peera, ending in 'swamy/swami', ending in 'rajan', ending in 'pillai', Senthil, Murugan, Vijay, Sondharam, Sudhakar, Muthayan, Chandran, Jaison, starting with 'Jaya/Jeya', Jeyaramachandharan, Peeramaswamyan, Ranganatham, Kumar, Kular, Ikkuzhan, Adath, Murthiyrakkaventharan, Meena, ending with 'enthen/eenthen', ending with 'poosam/poosan'...
Kannada names might include place names, clan/title/caste names, father's names along with person's own given name. The rules generally followed when combinations of the names used; Some times they prefix and suffix as surname and middle name will be given name.
e.g. Kadidal Manjappa, where Kadidal is place name and Manjappa is person's given name.
e.g. Kuppalli Venkatappa Puttappa, where Kuppalli is place name, Venkatappa is father's name and Puttappa is person's given name.
e.g. Adnoor Bheemappa Narendra, where Adnoor is place name, Bheemappa is father's name and Narendra is person's given name. Adnoor and Bheemappa can be initialled resulting in the name "A. B. Narendra".
e.g. Kundapur Varun Shenoy, Kundapur is place name, Varun is person's given name and Shenoy is the surname. e.g. Satish Ramanath Hegde, Satish is person's given name, Ramanath is father's name and Hegde is the title. e.g. Satish Gowda
However, if a person wants to go by only his/her given name, there is a tendency in official circles to forcibly add extra names (generally, the place names). Sometimes the surname depends on the work that person does.
Most Keralites have a family name. Most of the family names are of obscure origin, but many have geographical origins – e.g., Vadakkedath (from the North), Puthenveetil (from the new house), Akkarakaran (from that coast), etc. Traditionally the full names followed one of three patterns:
This is a common trend nowadays where both the mother's and father's names are found with the given Name. For example, L. Athira Krishna. Here the Mother's name 'Leela' finds mention in the initial and father's name 'Krishna' is taken as surname.
Many Christian names such as Varghese (Ghevarghese) is of Aramaic/Syrian origin.
Many people from the southern states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala do not use any formal surnames, though most might have one. This is because traditionally the surnames refer to their caste, and as a way to ensure that their names are caste-neutral, their surnames are completely dropped. Therefore, in practice, people use either the father's name or initial as a substitute for the surname. Initials, when used, can be placed either before or after their given name. For example; G. Venktaesan, Venkatesan G, or Venkatesan Govindarajan, are different ways in which a person with a given name Venkatesan, whose father's given name is Govindarajan can refer to himself.
Most ethnic Indians (mostly Tamils) in Malaysia trace their ancestral origin to South India. In Malaysia, the general naming format for Indians is X son of Y or X daughter of Y. The term 'son of' is ANAK LELAKI (abbreviated to A/L in ID documents) in the Malay language and the term 'daughter of' is ANAK PEREMPUAN (abbreviated to A/P in ID documents).
For example, Murugan the son of Vellupillai would appear as MURUGAN A/L VELLUPILLAI in Malaysian ID Card (MyKad) in the name field and the Malaysian Passport.
Using the example above, MURUGAN A/L VELLUPILLAI would also arrange his name in such a way that his father's name become his initial and his given name appears to be his Surname/ Last Name: V. MURUGAN. This practice is similar to the name format of the famous South Indian writer R. K. Narayan (R - Place of Origin: RASIPURAM, K - Father's Name: KRISHNASWAMI). Since most Malaysian Indians are today born in Malaysia, usually only the father's name appears as the initials.
However an increasing number of Malaysian Indians are migrating to the West, and they have begun using their father's name as the Last Name to avoid confusion. Therefore, Murugan the son of Vellupillai would simply go as MURUGAN VELLUPILLAI or M. VELLUPILLAI in the West.
In the British colonial days, male Indian ( mostly Tamils ) names would employ the connective term S/O (son of) and female Indian names D/O (daughter of) respectively, and these terms are still in common use in Singapore.
The family names of Telugu people precede the given name and are mostly abbreviated. For example, the name Kambham Nagarjuna Reddy would be abbreviated as K.N.Reddy. In this name Nagarjuna Reddy is the given name, and Kambham would be the family name (surname). Some of the people who belong to a particular Reddy caste include the caste names in their names, especially "Naidu", Chowdary, Shetty, Goud or Mudiraj. For example, Vijay Reddy, Hari Chowdary, Devender Goud. In general, if the name of a person in Western format was Vijay Reddy Kandi (given name, second given name and family name), then the name in Telugu-speaking areas would be written as K. Vijay Reddy. There are same surnames like "lankala" to many castes, such as Lankala Veeraiah in Yadav caste, or Lankala Deepak Reddy in Reddy caste.
Sharma, Sastry[shastry], and Rao are commonly found family names among Telugu people, mostly belonging to Bramhin community. These names are mostly placed at the end of their name; for example, in Karne Prabhakar Sharma, Karne stands for the surname and Sharma indicates the person belongs to Bramhin community. There are thousands of surnames belonging to different gotras among the Bramhin community.
Family names of Telugu people are supposed to be the name of the village or area their ancestors came from. Sometimes the family name can be the same for people belonging to different castes. For example Nandumuri Taraka Ramarao could be abbreviated as N.T.RamaRao. Taraka RamaRao is the given name and probably Nandumuru (a village in Krishna) is the ancestral village of N.T.R.
Sometimes the family name can be same as human body part such as Boddu (umbilicus) or Lingam (male genitalia). However, there is always spiritual meaning associated for those names. In spiritual sense, Boddu means center of origin of universe, Lingam means Lord Shiva.
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