Pushya पुष्य · pada 3 of 4
Pushya Pada 3 Baby Names — Ho (हो)
The third pada of Pushya runs Cancer 10°00′ – 13°20′ and is assigned the syllable Ho. No established Indian name begins with it, so this page gives the three substitutes the tradition actually uses rather than four invented names.
- Pada
- third of four · Pushya is nakshatra 8 of 27
- Naming syllable
- Ho हो
- Span
- Cancer 10°00′ – 13°20′ · 100°00′ – 103°20′ sidereal
- Moon sign
- Cancer (Karka)
- Navamsa
- Libra (Tula) — the 4th navamsa from Cancer
- Names listed
- none — no established name begins this syllable
- Position in Cancer
- the fourth of the sign’s nine pada syllables
- Nakshatra lord
- Saturn · presiding deity Brihaspati · symbol Cow's udder
Why Pushya pada 3 has no name of its own
No established name begins with हो. Homa, sometimes listed, is the fire rite itself and not a name; Hoshiyar is an adjective meaning alert.
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 Pushya pada 3 rather than left as rules.
Where the Cancer naming letters come from
A panchang prints nine syllables against Cancer — Hi Hu He Ho Da Di Du De Do — 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.
Pushya pada 3 is the fourth of the nine, contributing Ho at 100°00′ – 103°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 Cancer birth, so a family working from the list alone has eight usable syllables, while a pandit working from a birth time narrows it to the one this pada owns.
| # | Syllable | From | Names listed |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hi ही | Punarvasu pada 4 | 7 |
| 2 | Hu हु | Pushya pada 1 | 1 |
| 3 | He हे | Pushya pada 2 | 7 |
| 4 | Ho हो | Pushya pada 3 — this pada | none |
| 5 | Da द | Pushya pada 4 | 10 |
| 6 | Di डी | Ashlesha pada 1 | 9 |
| 7 | Du डू | Ashlesha pada 2 | 3 |
| 8 | De डे | Ashlesha pada 3 | 10 |
| 9 | Do डो / दो | Ashlesha pada 4 | 1 |
The three substitutes, for Pushya pada 3
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 Pushya
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 Pushya that means pada 1, whose syllable Hu carries 1 name, pada 2, whose syllable He carries 7 names and pada 4, whose syllable Da carries 10 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 Cancer
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. Cancer holds nine pada syllables and eight of the other eight carry names, so a Pushya pada 3 birth has no shortage of options inside its own Moon sign. The fullest are Da (Pushya pada 4), De (Ashlesha pada 3) and Di (Ashlesha pada 1) — 10 names apiece or close to it.
3 · A name of Brihaspati
A name of the nakshatra's presiding deity, which sidesteps the syllable question altogether — Rudra for Ardra, Indra for Jyeshtha, Vishnu for Shravana. Pushya is presided over by Brihaspati, so this route is open regardless of what Ho 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 Pushya
A nakshatra is 13°20′ wide and a pada is a quarter of that, 3°20′ — so the third quarter of Pushya occupies Cancer 10°00′ – 13°20′ and its other three sit either side of it. What the four share is Pushya itself: Saturn as lord, Brihaspati as presiding deity, the cow's udder as symbol, and a character read as nourishing, devotional, protective. What separates them is the navamsa and the naming syllable, which is Ho for pada 3 and Hu, He and Da for the others.
| Pada | Syllable | Moon sign | Navamsa | Names |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pada 1 | Hu हु | Cancer | Leo | 1 |
| Pada 2 | He हे | Cancer | Virgo | 7 |
| Pada 3 — this page | Ho हो | Cancer | Libra | none |
| Pada 4 | Da द | Cancer | Scorpio | 10 |
All four listed together, with the full name tables and the Pushya profile, are on the Pushya 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 Pushya pada 3 page covers what this quarter means beyond the name.
Pushya pada 3 — common questions
What letter should a Pushya pada 3 baby's name start with?
Pushya pada 3 is assigned the syllable Ho (हो), 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 Pushya — pada 1 carries Hu, pada 2 carries He and pada 4 carries Da, and names of Brihaspati, the presiding deity of Pushya, are always accepted.
How many names begin with Ho?
None in established use. No established name begins with हो. Homa, sometimes listed, is the fire rite itself and not a name; Hoshiyar is an adjective meaning alert. The pages that show four for this pada have padded the list, which is why this one does not.
Which rashi is Pushya pada 3?
Cancer — Karka, entered at 100°00′ – 103°20′ sidereal longitude. For all four padas: Pushya sits wholly inside Cancer, so unlike the nine straddling nakshatras it has one Moon sign regardless of pada. What pada 3 adds is its place in the sign — fourth of the nine Cancer syllables, Ho.
Are all nine Cancer naming syllables different sounds?
Yes — Cancer is one of the eleven signs whose nine padas give nine distinct spellings, so the syllable Ho is not duplicated anywhere else in Hi Hu He Ho Da Di Du De Do. 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 Cancer, Pushya pada 3 owns Ho outright.
Does the navamsa change the name for Pushya pada 3?
Not the syllable. The syllable comes from the pada, and for Pushya pada 3 it is Ho. The navamsa — Libra here, the 4th navamsa counted from Cancer — is read for the child's temperament and for chart work rather than for the naming letter.
Naming a Pushya pada 3 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.