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.

Kashmiri names often have the following format: given name, middle name (optional), family name. (For example: Jawahar Lal Nehru)

Javed Ali (Hindi: जावेद अली, Urdu: جاوید علی) is an Indian playback singer. He has been singing in Hindi movies from 2000 but shot to fame in 2007 when he sang the song "Ek Din Teri Raahon Mein" from the movie Naqaab and thereafter another big hit "Jashn-e-Bahaaraan" from the movie Jodhaa Akbar (2008). He is currently one of the leading playback singers in Hindi, Bengali, Tamil and Telugu. His recent song, "Kilimanjaro" held the #1 position in the music charts. He judged a reality show Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Li'l Champs 2011 on Zee Tv and his team is known as Javed ke Abhiroo and the winner of the show was from his team , Azmat Hussain. The second runner up of the show also belonged to his team, Nitin Kumar.

During an interview Ali and Faisal said that his father used to sing kirtans, a form of Hindu praying and praising Gods. Along with his father, Javed also used to hit some notes. He was only 7–8 years old then. Javed was met with very good reactions from people who also claimed that he has the calibre to become a good singer. At first Ali wanted to become only a ghazal singer as his ustaad Ghulam Ali is a famous ghazal singer. Later his talent was recognised by Anandji of the Kalyanji-Anandji duo who convinced him to pursue a career in playback singing. Born and brought up in Delhi, Ali started singing since a very early age. He started singing with his dad — a popular qawwali singer, Ustad Hamid Hussain. Javed is a student of the famous Ghazal singer Ghulam Ali who not only guided him but also gave him a chance to sing. Born as Javed Hussain, he changed his name to Javed Ali in honor of his ustaad.