Kaur

Kaur (ਕੌਰ (Gurmukhi), کور (Shahmukhi); crown prince; sometimes spelled as Kour), is a surname or a part of a personal name primarily used by the Sikh and some Hindu women of the Punjab region. "Kaur" is also sometimes translated as "lioness", not because this meaning is etymologically derived from the name, but as a parallel to the Sikh male name "Singh," which means "lion." "Kaur" is recognized as “Princess” or "Spiritual Princess". The Dictionary of American Family Names states that the name is etymologically derived from the Sanskrit word "Kumari" meaning girl or daughter which was later abridged to "Kuar" and became "Kaur" by metathesis. Other scholars however assert that "Kaur" is a diminutive of and the Punjabi equivalent of Kanwar/Kunwar- a Rajput title meaning prince or bachelor that was used for people of status, and eventually became a common Rajput female designation. W.H. McLeod has also written that most regard the name as the female form of "Kumar". The traditional narrative is as follows: The tenth guru of Sikhs, Guru Gobind Singh, introduced Kaur and Singh when he administered Amrit to both male and female Sikhs; all female Sikhs were asked to use the name Kaur after their forename, and male Sikhs were to use the name Singh. The adoption of Kaur and Singh as religious surnames was also intended to reduce caste-based prejudice. Because familial last names often signal a person's caste status (or for women who adopted their spouse's surname, the caste of their spouse), substituting Kaur and Singh allowed Sikhs to implement the Sikh religion's rejection of the caste system. This narrative has been contested by some scholars who write of the name's anachronistic religious association. According to early sources, Kaur was used by both males and females in Punjab. The appellation appears in the Guru Granth Sahib retaining its traditional delineated meaning of "prince", whereas in the Dasam Granth it is used to refer to a woman's name. Kaur had been appended by some Sikh women prior to the initiation of the Khalsa, including the daughter of Guru Har Rai.