Rahul is a popular male name in

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

and has a variety of meanings. The earliest meaning found in the

Upanishads The Upanishads (; , , ) are late Vedic and post-Vedic Sanskrit texts that "document the transition from the archaic ritualism of the Veda into new religious ideas and institutions" and the emergence of the central religious concepts of Hind ...

is "conqueror of all miseries." Later use of the word is attributed to the

Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha (),* * * was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist legends, he was ...

, who named his son '' Rahula'' as he felt that family ties could be an obstacle in the path to

renunciation Renunciation (or renouncing) is the act of rejecting something, particularly something that the renunciant has previously enjoyed or endorsed. In religion, renunciation often indicates an abandonment of pursuit of material comforts, in the inte ...

and

nirvana Nirvana, in the Indian religions (Jainism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Sikhism), is the concept of an individual's passions being extinguished as the ultimate state of salvation, release, or liberation from suffering ('' duḥkha'') and from the ...

. Buddha uttered Rahul when he first saw his son and gave a new meaning "relationship" and "bondage" to this name. Rahul means ''Moon, Able/efficient'' in

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

and

Pali Pāli (, IAST: pāl̤i) is a Classical languages of India, classical Middle Indo-Aryan languages, Middle Indo-Aryan language of the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist ''Pali Canon, Pāli Can ...

. Rahul also means "Traveler" in

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

People named Rahul

Arts

Rahul Banerjee (actor) Arunoday Banerjee (born 16 October 1983), better known as Rahul Banerjee, is an Indian actor who works in Bengali language films and television Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. ...

(born 1983), Indian Bengali actor *

Rahul Bhatt Rahul Bhatt (born 24 January 1982) is an Indian fitness trainer and actor. The son of film director Mahesh Bhatt and Kiran Bhatt, Rahul gained notoriety in 2009 following the revelations that David Headley, an accused in the 2008 Mumbai atta ...

(born 1982), Indian fitness trainer and actor *

Rahul Bose Rahul Bose (born 27 July 1967) is an Indian actor and athlete who works in Hindi films. Bose is the president of Rugby India. He has appeared in Bengali films such as '' Mr. and Mrs. Iyer'', '' Kalpurush'', '' Anuranan'', '' Antaheen'', ''L ...

(born 1967), Indian Bengali actor, director, screenwriter, social activist * Rahul Deshpande (born 1979), Indian classical singer *

Rahul Dev Rahul Dev Kaushal (born 27 September 1968) is an Indian actor and former model who predominantly works in Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam and Odia language films He also participated in Bigg Boss (Hindi season 10) and was evicted on ...

(born 1968), Indian actor and model *

Rahul Dev Burman Rahul Dev Burman (; 27 June 1939 – 4 January 1994) was an Indian music director and singer, who is considered to be one of the greatest and most successful music directors of the Hindi film music industry. From the 1960s to the 1990s, Burman ...

(1939–1994), Indian composer and music director *

Rahul Dholakia Rahul Dholakia is an Indian film director- producer-screenwriter, most known for his National Film Award-winning film, '' Parzania '' (Heaven & Hell On Earth) (2005),Rahul Khanna Rahul Khanna (born 20 June 1972) is an Indian actor, VJ, model and writer who works in Bollywood. He is the eldest son of actor Vinod Khanna and the elder brother of Akshaye Khanna. Early life and background Khanna was born and raised in Mu ...

(born 1972), Indian Hindi actor *

Rahul Kohli Rahul Kohli (born 13 November 1985) is an English actor. He is best known for his television roles as Dr. Ravi Chakrabarti in '' iZombie'' (2015–2019), Owen Sharma in '' The Haunting of Bly Manor'' (2020), Sheriff Hassan in ''Midnight Mass'' ...

(born 1985), English actor *

Rahul Madhav Rahul Madhav is an Indian actor who works in Malayalam and Tamil films, along with a few Kannada films. His notable films include ''Vaadamalli'', ''Thani Oruvan'', ''Memories'' and '' 100 Days of Love''. Career He made his debut with the Tamil ...

, Indian Malayalam actor *

Rahul Nambiar Rahul Nambiar is an Indian playback singer and live performer. He won the ''Swapthaswarangal'' show in 2001 and began singing live. He sang more than 2000 songs in movies, and later ventured into playback singing, performing for many leading Sout ...

, Indian singer *

Rahul Pandey Rahul Pandey (Devanagari: राहुल पाण्डेय) is an Indian Bollywood Playback singer and Songwriter. He debuted in the Indian Film industry with the song ''Haseena Tu kameena Mein'' from the movie Happy Ending in 2014. In 2015 ...

, Indian Bollywood musician *

Rahul Raj Rahul Raj is an Indian music composer. He has composed and produced Film score, scores and soundtracks predominantly for Malayalam language, Malayalam movies. He is an alumnus of the prestigious Berklee College of Music and holds a postgraduat ...

(born 1980), Indian composer *

Rahul Ram Rahul Ram is an Indian bass guitarist, social activist and music composer. He plays bass guitar for musical band Indian Ocean, which he joined in 1991. He is also one of the three members of 'Aisi Taisi Democracy,' along with Varun Grover and Sa ...

, Indian musician *

Rahul Ramakrishna Rahul Ramakrishna (born 15 January 1991) is an Indian actor, writer and journalist. He made his debut with the short film, ''Sainma''. He became popular with his role in the 2017 Telugu film, '' Arjun Reddy''. Early life Rahul Ramakrishna was ...

(born 1991), Indian actor, writer and journalist *

Rahul Rawail Rahul Rawail is an Indian film director and editor in Bollywood known for his films like ''Love Story (1981 film), Love Story'' (1981), ''Betaab'' (1983), ''Arjun (1985 film), Arjun'' (1985), ''Dacait'' (1987), ''Anjaam'' (1994), ''Arjun Pandit ...

(born 1951), Indian film director *

Rahul Roy Rahul Roy (born 9 February 1966) is an Indian actor, producer and former model known for his works in Hindi films and television. Roy began his acting career with the 1990 blockbuster '' Aashiqui'', a Mahesh Bhatt production as the lead actor ...

(born 1968), Indian Hindi actor, producer and model *

Rahul Vaidya Rahul Krushna Vaidya (born 23 September 1987) is an Indian singer and music composer. He started his career with the reality show '' Indian Idol 1'' in which he became 2nd runner up. He has also participated in '' Bigg Boss 14'' and was crown ...

(born 1987), Indian singer

Politics

Rahul Daulatrao Aher Rahul Daulatrao Aher is a Member of the Legislative Assembly from Chandwad (Vidhan Sabha constituency) of Maharashtra as a member of Bharatiya Janata Party. On 19 October 2014, he won the assembly election, defeating Indian National Congress ...

(born 1975), Indian politician from Maharashtra *

Rahul Gandhi Rahul Rajiv Gandhi (; born 19 June 1970) is an Indian politician. A member of the Indian National Congress (INC), he is currently serving as the 12th leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha and as the member of the Lok Sabha for Rae Bareli Lok ...

(born 1970), Indian politician * Rahul Mahajan (politician) (born 1975), son of Late Pramod Mahajan, a prominent Indian politician

Science

* Rahul Mukerjee (born 1956), Indian academic and statistician * Rahul Pandit (born 1956), Indian physicist * Rahul Potluri (born 1983), Indian-British physician and researcher * Rahul Sarpeshkar, American bio-engineer

Sports

Rahul Banerjee (archer) Rahul Banerjee (; born 15 December 1986) is an Indian Olympian and Arjuna Awardee archer. Career Banerjee started archery at the age of thirteen. His sister Dola Banerjee is also an Olympic archer. His first international appearance was in Y ...

(born 1986), Indian archer *

Rahul Bheke Rahul Shankar Bheke (; born 6 December 1990) is an Indian professional footballer who plays as a defender for and captains the Indian Super League club Bengaluru FC and the India national team. Club career Early career and Air India Born in M ...

(born 1990), Indian footballer * Rahul Chahar (born 1999), Indian cricketer *

Rahul Dravid Rahul Dravid (; born 11 January 1973) is a former cricket player, ex-captain and ex-coach of the Indian national cricket team. Known for his outstanding batting technique, Dravid scored 24,177 runs in international cricket and is widely re ...

(born 1973), Indian cricketer * K. L. Rahul (born 1991), Indian cricketer * Rahul Kanwat (born 1974), Indian cricketer * Rahul Sanghvi (born 1974), Indian cricketer *

Rahul Yadav (cricketer) Rahul Yadav (born 15 January 1989) is an Indian cricketer. He plays first-class cricket for Delhi. He was also member of Kolkata Knight Riders The Kolkata Knight Riders, also known as KKR, are a professional Twenty20 cricket team based i ...

(born 1989), Indian cricketer *

Rahul Yadav Chittaboina Rahul Yadav Chittaboina (born 3 May 1998) is an Indian badminton player. He reached the semi-finals of 2017 Russian Open. Achievements BWF International Challenge/Series ''Men's singles'' : BWF International Challenge tournament : BWF ...

(born 1998), Indian badminton player * Rahul KP (born 2000), Indian footballer

Other fields

Rahul Bajaj Rahul Bajaj (10 June 1938 – 12 February 2022) was an Indian billionaire businessman and politician. He was the chairman emeritus of the Indian conglomerate Bajaj Group. He was awarded the third-highest civilian award in India, the Padma Bhus ...

(born 1980), industrialist * Rahul Chandran (born 1976), policy analyst *

Rahul Easwar Rahul Easwar is an Indian public policy commentator, philosophy author, advocate and activist from Kerala. Personal life and education Rahul Easwar was born in Kerala, to Easwaran Namboothiri and Mallika into a Malayali Nambudiri Brahmin fami ...

, Indian author and activist * Rahul Ligma, fictional ex-employee of

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

played by an amateur actor *

Rahul Mahajan (blogger) Rahul Mahajan is an American blogger, author, and educator. He has written two books and has had articles published in a wide range of newspapers including USA Today, Newsday, the Baltimore Sun, the Dallas Morning News. He currently serves on the ...

, noted American blogger and author * Rahul Roy (accountant) (1963–2009), Indian accountant * Rahul Sankrityayan (1893–1963), Indian historian, religious scholar, philosopher, writer and polymath *

Rahul Sood Rahul Sood is the CEO and co-founder of Irreverent Labs, the former CEO of Unikrn), and was the founder of VoodooPC. Sood was also an early investor in AR/VR company Vrvana he's also an investor in blockchain play to earn horse racing game ZED Ru ...

(born 1973), Canadian business executive * Rahul Yadav (born 1988), Indian entrepreneur

Multiple people

Rahul Kumar (disambiguation) Rahul Kumar may refer to: * Rahul Kumar (politician) (born 1984), Indian politician * Rahul Kumar (footballer) (born 1985), Indian footballer * Rahul Kumar (actor) (born 1995), Indian actor * Rahul Kumar (cricketer) (born 2003), Indian cricketer {{ ...

, several people *

Rahul Prasad (disambiguation) Rahul Prasad can refer to: * Rahul Prasad (cricketer, born 1982), an Indian cricketer who played for Jharkhand. * Rahul Prasad (cricketer, born 1993), an Indian cricketer who played for Jharkhand. {{hndis, Prasad, Rahul ...

, several people *

Rahul Sharma (disambiguation) Rahul Sharma may refer to: * Rahul Sharma (actor), Indian actor * Rahul Sharma (Gujarat police), Indian police officer * Rahul Sharma (Hong Kong cricketer) (born 1960), Hong Kong cricketer * Rahul Sharma (cricketer, born 1986), Indian cricketer * Ra ...

, several people *

Rahul Singh (disambiguation) Rahul Singh may refer to: *Rahul Singh (actor) (born 1966), Indian film actor *Rahul Singh (comic book character), a character in the Shekhar Kapur's comic ''Devi'' *Rahul Singh (cricketer, born 1992), Indian cricketer *Rahul Singh (cricketer, born ...

, several people

People named Rahul

Arts

Politics

Science

Sports

Other fields

Multiple people

References

See also