Most clothing brands in India name their products in English. A few of our designs have Hindi and Punjabi names instead, and every one of them means something.
Here is what those names mean. Tap a card to flip it.
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Guess first, then tap. Tap again to flip back.
Kanak: one word, two meanings
Our Kanak tee carries golden wheat across the neckline and shoulders. In Punjabi, ਕਣਕ means wheat, the crop celebrated at Baisakhi. In Hindi, कनक means gold. A field of ripe wheat is gold, so the name works in both languages, and the golden thread fits either reading.
Gulab: the rose, by way of Persia
Gulab came into Hindi from Persian, where gul is flower and ab is water. The word first meant rose water, the scented water still used in sweets and at weddings, and slowly became the name of the flower. Our Gulab Petal tee puts a single red rose on black cotton.
Neelbel: a blue creeper
Neel is blue, the same root as indigo dye. Bel is any climbing plant that winds up a wall or a tree. The Neelbel tee has two blue flower vines climbing up a black front, which is the name drawn in thread.
Taanka: named after the stitch itself
Taanka is the word you would use at home for a single stitch, the kind you put in a torn sleeve. Naming a tee after it suits a design that is all about the stitching. The Taanka Kantha tee has a hand-embroidered chest stripe and a blue blanket-stitched collar, with running stitch borrowed from kantha.
Kantha: the quilt that became a stitch
Kantha is Bengali for a quilt made from layers of old saris and dhotis, held together with plain running stitch. Over time the name moved from the quilt to the stitch. Two of our tees borrow it: Taanka and the Concepteur kantha tee, with colourful trim along a black neckline. The full story is in what is kantha embroidery.
Lal Dil, Phool and Sadak
Some names are just plain Hindi, and that is the charm. Lal Dil is a red heart. Phool is flower, and Phool Jungle is a shirt covered in a jungle of them. Sadak is a road, and Daisy Sadak runs a road of daisies down the front of a shirt.
Why a name in your own language feels different
A shirt called Red Heart is a description. A shirt called Lal Dil sounds like something your nani would say. That makes these names easy gifts: a small joke shared with family, or something for parents who would never wear an English slogan.
If you want your own name in Hindi, we stitch that too. Our Hindi name t-shirt takes any name in Devanagari, and our guide to getting Devanagari spelling right will help you avoid the common mistakes.
More symbols and their stories are in 12 motifs decoded. The whole range is in Hand Embroidered T-Shirts, and the most-loved floral names live in floral tees.
Hand-embroidered to order by women artisans in Bulandshahr, Uttar Pradesh.
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