Mrigashira मृगशिरा · pada 2 of 4
Mrigashira Pada 2 Baby Names — Vo (वो)
The second pada of Mrigashira runs Taurus 26°40′ – 30°00′ and is assigned the syllable Vo. No established Indian name begins with it, so this page gives the three substitutes the tradition actually uses rather than four invented names.
- Pada
- second of four · Mrigashira is nakshatra 5 of 27
- Naming syllable
- Vo वो
- Span
- Taurus 26°40′ – 30°00′ · 56°40′ – 60°00′ sidereal
- Moon sign
- Taurus (Vrishabha) — this nakshatra straddles a boundary, so the pada decides it
- Navamsa
- Virgo (Kanya) — the 5th navamsa from Taurus
- Names listed
- none — no established name begins this syllable
- Position in Taurus
- the ninth of the sign’s nine pada syllables
- Nakshatra lord
- Mars · presiding deity Soma · symbol Deer's head
Why Mrigashira pada 2 has no name of its own
No Indian given name begins with वो. Vora and Vohra, which the name lists offer, are surnames, and Voman is Vaman with the vowel changed.
Sixteen of the 108 padas are in this position, and the tradition has an answer for it that does not involve inventing a word. The three substitutes are below, resolved into actual names for Mrigashira pada 2 rather than left as rules.
Where the Taurus naming letters come from
A panchang prints nine syllables against Taurus — I U E O Va Vi Vu Ve Vo — 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.
Mrigashira pada 2 is the ninth of the nine, contributing Vo at 56°40′ – 60°00′ sidereal. That is worth knowing if a family has been given the rashi list rather than the pada: any of the nine satisfies a Taurus birth, so a family working from the list alone has seven usable syllables, while a pandit working from a birth time narrows it to the one this pada owns.
| # | Syllable | From | Names listed |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | I इ | Krittika pada 2 | 9 |
| 2 | U उ | Krittika pada 3 | 10 |
| 3 | E ए | Krittika pada 4 | 7 |
| 4 | O ओ | Rohini pada 1 | 7 |
| 5 | Va वा | Rohini pada 2 | 10 |
| 6 | Vi वी | Rohini pada 3 | 11 |
| 7 | Vu वु | Rohini pada 4 | none |
| 8 | Ve वे | Mrigashira pada 1 | 8 |
| 9 | Vo वो | Mrigashira pada 2 — this pada | none |
Mrigashira crosses a sign boundary, so the pada decides the rashi
A nakshatra is 13°20′ and a sign is 30°, and neither divides the other, so nine of the 27 nakshatras have their padas split between two signs. Mrigashira is one of them: its four padas fall in Taurus for padas 1 to 2 and Gemini for padas 3 to 4. Pada 2 is in Taurus, which is why the nine-syllable list above is Taurus’s and not the other sign’s.
The practical consequence is that two children born in Mrigashira a day or two apart can have different Moon signs — and therefore a different rashi letter list, a different monthly rashifal and a different set of substitutes if the syllable turns out to have no names. The nakshatra alone cannot tell you which; the pada can, and the pada needs the time and place of birth.
The three substitutes, for Mrigashira pada 2
The 108 syllables come from dividing the zodiac rather than from asking what Sanskrit allows at the start of a word, so some land on sounds that begin few names or none. Where that happens the tradition substitutes, and three routes are recognised. Below, each is carried out for this pada rather than stated as a rule.
1 · Another pada of Mrigashira
Another pada of the same nakshatra. The pada fixes the syllable, but the nakshatra as a whole is what the naming rite is built on, and using a sibling pada's syllable is the commonest accommodation. For Mrigashira that means pada 1, whose syllable Ve carries 8 names, pada 3, whose syllable Ka carries 10 names and pada 4, whose syllable Ki carries 7 names. A pandit will usually offer this first, because the naming rite is built on the nakshatra and all four padas belong to it.
2 · Another syllable of Taurus
Any syllable of the same Moon sign. Each rashi covers either two and a quarter nakshatras or nine padas, so this widens the choice to roughly nine syllables. Taurus holds nine pada syllables and seven of the other eight carry names, so a Mrigashira pada 2 birth has no shortage of options inside its own Moon sign. The fullest are Vi (Rohini pada 3), U (Krittika pada 3) and Va (Rohini pada 2) — 11 names apiece or close to it.
3 · A name of Soma
A name of the nakshatra's presiding deity, which sidesteps the syllable question altogether — Rudra for Ardra, Indra for Jyeshtha, Vishnu for Shravana. Mrigashira is presided over by Soma, so this route is open regardless of what Vo does or does not begin, and it is the one families choose when they want the nakshatra named in the child rather than merely encoded in a sound. None of the three is treated as a lesser choice.
The other three padas of Mrigashira
A nakshatra is 13°20′ wide and a pada is a quarter of that, 3°20′ — so the second quarter of Mrigashira occupies Taurus 26°40′ – 30°00′ and its other three sit either side of it. What the four share is Mrigashira itself: Mars as lord, Soma as presiding deity, the deer's head as symbol, and a character read as curious, gentle, searching. What separates them is the navamsa, the Moon sign — Mrigashira crosses a boundary — and, the naming syllable, which is Vo for pada 2 and Ve, Ka and Ki for the others.
| Pada | Syllable | Moon sign | Navamsa | Names |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pada 1 | Ve वे | Taurus | Leo | 8 |
| Pada 2 — this page | Vo वो | Taurus | Virgo | none |
| Pada 3 | Ka का | Gemini | Libra | 10 |
| Pada 4 | Ki की | Gemini | Scorpio | 7 |
All four listed together, with the full name tables and the Mrigashira profile, are on the Mrigashira 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 Mrigashira pada 2 page covers what this quarter means beyond the name.
Mrigashira pada 2 — common questions
What letter should a Mrigashira pada 2 baby's name start with?
Mrigashira pada 2 is assigned the syllable Vo (वो), and no established Indian name begins with it. That is a fact about the script rather than a gap in a list, so the tradition substitutes instead of improvising: the commonest route is another pada of Mrigashira — pada 1 carries Ve, pada 3 carries Ka and pada 4 carries Ki, and names of Soma, the presiding deity of Mrigashira, are always accepted.
How many names begin with Vo?
None in established use. No Indian given name begins with वो. Vora and Vohra, which the name lists offer, are surnames, and Voman is Vaman with the vowel changed. The pages that show four for this pada have padded the list, which is why this one does not.
Which rashi is Mrigashira pada 2?
Taurus — Vrishabha, entered at 56°40′ – 60°00′ sidereal longitude. Only for this pada: Mrigashira is split across two signs, and pada 2 is the one that lands last in Taurus, as the ninth of its nine syllables. Ask for the rashi of Mrigashira without naming a pada and there is no single answer — Taurus for padas 1 to 2 and Gemini for padas 3 to 4.
Are all nine Taurus naming syllables different sounds?
Yes — Taurus is one of the eleven signs whose nine padas give nine distinct spellings, so the syllable Vo is not duplicated anywhere else in I U E O Va Vi Vu Ve Vo. 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 Taurus, Mrigashira pada 2 owns Vo outright.
Does the navamsa change the name for Mrigashira pada 2?
Not the syllable. The syllable comes from the pada, and for Mrigashira pada 2 it is Vo. The navamsa — Virgo here, the 5th navamsa counted from Taurus — is read for the child's temperament and for chart work rather than for the naming letter.
Naming a Mrigashira pada 2 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.