Q: Why do Sikh men have the last name Singh and all women, have the last name Kaur?

A: Singh means a lion and Kaur means a princess. In Sikhism these titles eliminate discrimination based on “family name” (which denotes a specific caste) and reinforces that all Sikhs are sovereigns under God.

This tradition started because through the last name one could distinguish what caste you are from. Just by hearing the last name they would say, “Oh, you are the lowest” or “Oh, you are the middle” or “Oh, you are from high class”. Thus the Guru eliminated the last name from all the Sikhs so that no one could tell the caste and achieved equality for all Sikhs. He gave Singh as a last name to all the Sikh men and Kaur to all the Sikh women. Women were not treated as equals before the time of the Gurus, and so to ensure equality, a movement for women’s liberation was started five hundred years ago with the Sikh faith. The Guru said, “You are my beloved princesses, my daughters. You must be respected. How can this world be without you?” He admonished men for being rude and bad to women. He said, “Without women this world cannot be. So give them rights, give them equal respect.” So the Sikh faith says that you must respect women. Normally, when a woman would get married, she would take the last name of the family she went to. Since Guru eliminated the name, he said, “You don’t have to take anybody else's name. You are an individual, you are a princess, and you keep Kaur as your last name.” It gave women a lot of self-respect.


Q: Some Sikhs still use Gill, Sandhu and Sidhu etc. as their last name and they treat Singh as their middle name, why is that?

A: Those Sikhs are not completely following the Guru. Guru specifically said to use Singh as your last name. Those Sikhs are much interested in preserving their caste. A real Sikh will only use Singh or Kaur as his or her last name.


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