Magha मघा · pada 1 of 4
Magha Pada 1 Baby Names — Ma (मा)
10 names with meanings for a child born with the Moon between Leo 0°00′ – 3°20′ — the first quarter of Magha, whose syllable is Ma. Moon sign Leo, navamsa Aries.
- Pada
- first of four · Magha is nakshatra 10 of 27
- Naming syllable
- Ma मा
- Span
- Leo 0°00′ – 3°20′ · 120°00′ – 123°20′ sidereal
- Moon sign
- Leo (Simha)
- Navamsa
- Aries (Mesha) — the 9th navamsa from Leo · gandanta
- Names listed
- 5 boys' names, 5 girls' names
- Position in Leo
- the first of the sign’s nine pada syllables
- Nakshatra lord
- Ketu · presiding deity Pitrs · symbol Throne
Names beginning Ma for Magha pada 1
Ma is what the first quarter of Magha is assigned, and to no other pada of the 108. Any of the names below satisfies the rite for a birth between Leo 0°00′ – 3°20′, and the meaning matters as much as the sound: a name is used for a lifetime and the gloss is the part a child will be told.
Boys' names — 5
| Name | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Manav | a human being, descendant of Manu |
| Madhav | of the spring — a name of Krishna |
| Mahesh | the great lord — Shiva |
| Manan | reflection, contemplation |
| Manas | the mind |
Girls' names — 5
| Name | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Maya | the creative power that veils |
| Mahika | dew |
| Manya | worthy of honour |
| Mandira | a temple |
| Malini | a garland-maker |
Where the Leo naming letters come from
A panchang prints nine syllables against Leo — Ma Mi Mu Me Mo Ta Ti Tu Te — usually with no explanation of why there are nine. They are the pada syllables that fall inside the sign. There are 108 padas and twelve signs, 108 divides by twelve exactly, and so every sign holds precisely nine padas with nothing left over. The rashi list and the pada syllable are not two competing traditions; the first is the second, collected by sign.
Magha pada 1 is the first of the nine, contributing Ma at 120°00′ – 123°20′ sidereal. That is worth knowing if a family has been given the rashi list rather than the pada: any of the nine satisfies a Leo birth, so a family working from the list alone has nine usable syllables, while a pandit working from a birth time narrows it to the one this pada owns.
| # | Syllable | From | Names listed |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ma मा | Magha pada 1 — this pada | 10 |
| 2 | Mi मी | Magha pada 2 | 5 |
| 3 | Mu मू | Magha pada 3 | 8 |
| 4 | Me मे | Magha pada 4 | 5 |
| 5 | Mo मो | Purva Phalguni pada 1 | 6 |
| 6 | Ta टा / ता | Purva Phalguni pada 2 | 8 |
| 7 | Ti टी / ती | Purva Phalguni pada 3 | 4 |
| 8 | Tu टू / तू | Purva Phalguni pada 4 | 5 |
| 9 | Te टे | Uttara Phalguni pada 1 | 3 |
The other three padas of Magha
A nakshatra is 13°20′ wide and a pada is a quarter of that, 3°20′ — so the first quarter of Magha occupies Leo 0°00′ – 3°20′ and its other three sit either side of it. What the four share is Magha itself: Ketu as lord, Pitrs as presiding deity, the throne as symbol, and a character read as royal, ancestral, dignified. What separates them is the navamsa and the naming syllable, which is Ma for pada 1 and Mi, Mu and Me for the others.
| Pada | Syllable | Moon sign | Navamsa | Names |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pada 1 — this page | Ma मा | Leo | Aries | 10 |
| Pada 2 | Mi मी | Leo | Taurus | 5 |
| Pada 3 | Mu मू | Leo | Gemini | 8 |
| Pada 4 | Me मे | Leo | Cancer | 5 |
All four listed together, with the full name tables and the Magha profile, are on the Magha baby names page. The pada follows from the Moon’s exact longitude, so it needs the time and place of birth — the baby name finder resolves it from a birth date, and the Magha pada 1 page covers what this quarter means beyond the name.
Magha pada 1 — common questions
What letter should a Magha pada 1 baby's name start with?
Ma, in Devanagari मा. That syllable belongs to the first pada of Magha specifically, not to the whole nakshatra: each of the four padas carries a different one, and Magha's other three are Mi for pada 2, Mu for pada 3 and Me for pada 4.
How many names begin with Ma?
10 names, 5 for boys and 5 for girls, each with its meaning — that is what Ma carries, and so what the first pada of Magha offers. The count is uneven across the 108 padas by nature: the syllables come from dividing the zodiac, not from asking what Sanskrit allows at the start of a word, so Magha pada 1 gets what Ma actually begins.
Which rashi is Magha pada 1?
Leo — Simha, entered at 120°00′ – 123°20′ sidereal longitude. For all four padas: Magha sits wholly inside Leo, so unlike the nine straddling nakshatras it has one Moon sign regardless of pada. What pada 1 adds is its place in the sign — first of the nine Leo syllables, Ma.
Are all nine Leo naming syllables different sounds?
Yes — Leo is one of the eleven signs whose nine padas give nine distinct spellings, so the syllable Ma is not duplicated anywhere else in Ma Mi Mu Me Mo Ta Ti Tu Te. That is not true of every sign: Sagittarius carries Dha twice, for the dental and retroflex forms, and yields eight spellings from its nine padas. Within Leo, Magha pada 1 owns Ma outright.
Does the navamsa change the name for Magha pada 1?
Not the syllable. The syllable comes from the pada, and for Magha pada 1 it is Ma. The navamsa — Aries here, the 9th navamsa counted from Leo — is read for the child's temperament and for chart work rather than for the naming letter. This pada is also gandanta, sitting on the junction between a water sign and a fire sign, for which a pandit will usually want the birth chart before fixing the rite.
Naming a Magha pada 1 child?
The syllable is fixed by the pada, but the namakaran itself is fixed by the chart and by the day — which is a reading rather than a table. Our pandits do both.