Kartik

/K-AA-R-T-IH-K/

Boy HinduJain Sanskrit origin IndianMarathi

Named after the sacred Hindu month and the god of war Kartikeya, son of Shiva. The month of Kartik is the holiest, when millions light lamps along the Ganges.

See Kartik scored for your family

Quick — what every parent wants to know about Kartik:

🌟 What's Kartik's birth star? 🔢 What's its numerology? 🔊 Does it go with your names? 👶 Is Kartik right for your baby?

Yes — Kartik is a Hindu boy name of Sanskrit origin, meaning “Named after the sacred Hindu month and the god of war Kartikeya, son of Shiva. The month of Kartik is the holiest, when millions light lamps along the Ganges.”. It also appears in Jain tradition.

The one thing this page can't tell you

How well does Kartik fit your family?

This page tells you what Kartik means. The app tells you whether it's right for your baby — scored against the names already in your family, your heritage, and your baby's exact birth star.

Unlock Kartik's score — free
NameRoot scoring a name across six signals — phonetics, numerology, birth star, culture, meaning and uniqueness

Six signals — scored for your family, not in the abstract:

🌟
Birth starAuspicious for your baby?
🔢
NumerologyDestiny 7, matched to you
🔊
PhoneticsGoes with your names?
💗
MeaningThe Light cluster
🛕
HeritageHindu + family-tree fit
✨
UniquenessFamiliar vs rare

Meaning & origin

Kartik is a boy's name of Sanskrit origin, traditionally used in Hindu families. The name means "Named after the sacred Hindu month and the god of war Kartikeya, son of Shiva. The month of Kartik is the holiest, when millions light lamps along the Ganges." and belongs to the Light cluster — names meaning radiance, illumination, and hope.

Beyond its Hindu heritage, Kartik is also used in Jain traditions, reflecting how this name has traveled across cultures.

Common among Indian, Marathi, Bengali, Gujarati, Punjabi, American, British, Singaporean families, Kartik carries cultural weight that goes beyond its dictionary definition — it's a name with a story and a community.

What's Kartik's birth star?

In Vedic tradition, a baby's name is matched to their nakshatra (birth star) and rashi (moon sign) — usually through its first syllable. Kartik opens with “Ka.” But whether that's auspicious depends on your baby's exact date, time, and place of birth.

A name's rashi card in the NameRoot app — element, ruling planet, and quality

NameRoot works it out for you. Enter your baby's birth details and see exactly which nakshatra and rashi Kartik aligns with — and how strongly it scores.

See Kartik's birth-star reading →

What does Kartik's numerology say?

Numerology assigns each name a single-digit destiny number by summing its letter values. Different schools use different mappings — NameRoot computes both so you can see how Kartik resonates in either tradition.

Pythagorean
7
introspection and spiritual wisdom
Chaldean
3
creativity and joyful expression

Kartik's destiny number is 7 — but a number only matters in context. The app matches it to your family's own numbers for a real compatibility read. See Kartik's full reading →

Does Kartik go with your family's names?

Kartik breaks into 6 sounds: /K-AA-R-T-IH-K/. The real test isn't how it sounds alone — it's how it sounds beside the names already in your family: yours, your partner's, and any brothers or sisters. NameRoot scores that harmony, so Kartik sits naturally next to a Mum and Dad like Michael & Anna, or a big sister named Gianna — no awkward clashes, no two names that blur together. Hear Kartik beside your family's names →

Nicknames

Common affectionate forms of Kartik — useful for everyday family conversation, early childhood, or as standalone given names themselves.

KartiKiki

Names similar to Kartik

If Kartik resonates with you, these names live in the same world — drawn from the same tradition, sharing the same meaning, or echoing a similar sound.

From the same tradition

Other Hindu boy names, common in Indian families

Aarav
From Sanskrit 'arava' (peaceful, calm) or 'rav' (sound, musical note).
Vivaan
Full of life, possessing radiance, from Sanskrit vivān, combining the intensifier vi- with vā (to blow, to breathe). The name evokes the first rays of the morning sun and a vital, breathing energy, casting the bearer as one filled with luminous vitality and the quickening force of dawn.
Vihaan
From Sanskrit vihana (dawn, morning, the early hours).
Aditya
Son of Aditi, belonging to the sun, from Sanskrit, where the Adityas are the solar deities born of the boundless mother Aditi. In ordinary speech the name stands directly for Surya, the sun, making it a bright emblem of light, warmth, and celestial radiance in Hindu tradition.

Sharing the same meaning

Other Hindu boy names from the Light cluster

Reyansh
A ray of sunlight, a small portion of the sun's immeasurable radiance — Reyansh captures the idea that even a single ray from the sun carries enough warmth to change the temperature of a room, enough light to illuminate a page
Yash
Glory, fame, the bright reputation earned through righteous deeds — Yash is the renown that outlives a person, the story told about them when they have left the room
Aarush
First ray of the sun — the very first beam of light that breaks the horizon. A name that positions the child as a harbinger of brightness, the one who brings light to the family.

Names that sound similar

Hindu boy names that open with the same syllables as Kartik

Karthik
Named for the month of Kartika and the star cluster Krittika — Karthik is an epithet of Murugan, the youthful war god born from six divine sparks to defeat the demon Tarakasura
Karthikeyan
Son of the Krittika stars — Karthikeyan names Lord Murugan as the divine child raised by the six Krittika nymphs (the Pleiades constellation). A foundationally Tamil name carrying the cosmic motherhood of the stars themselves.
Kadamba
The kadamba tree — Kadamba (Sanskrit kadamba) names the orange-flowered tree under which Krishna played his flute in the forests of Vrindavan. The tree's globular orange blooms appear after monsoon rains.

Explore more names

Keep exploring names like Kartik — by tradition, by meaning, or by first letter.

Hindu boy namesIndian boy namesMarathi boy namesNames that mean lightNames starting with K All baby names

Common questions about Kartik

What does the name Kartik mean?

Kartik means "Named after the sacred Hindu month and the god of war Kartikeya, son of Shiva. The month of Kartik is the holiest, when millions light lamps along the Ganges.." It is a boy name of Sanskrit origin, traditionally used in Hindu families.

Is Kartik a boy or girl name?

Kartik is most commonly used as a boy name.

What is the origin of the name Kartik?

Kartik is of Sanskrit origin, used in Hindu, Jain traditions, commonly among Indian, Marathi, Bengali families.

Is Kartik a Hindu name?

Yes. Kartik is a boy name traditionally used in Hindu families, of Sanskrit origin. It also appears in Jain tradition.

What does Kartik mean in Sanskrit?

Kartik originates from Sanskrit, where it means "Named after the sacred Hindu month and the god of war Kartikeya, son of Shiva. The month of Kartik is the holiest, when millions light lamps along the Ganges.."

What are common nicknames for Kartik?

Common short forms of Kartik include Karti, Kiki.

What is the numerology of Kartik?

Kartik has a Pythagorean destiny number of 7 — introspection and spiritual wisdom.

See how Kartik scores for your family

NameRoot is the only baby-name app that scores every name across 6 signals against your specific family context. Download free — Kartik is waiting.

Get NameRoot — free