Rahul

Rahul belongs to the earliest strata of Indian naming, first recorded as the name of the Buddha's only son, a boy whose birth his father famously described as a fetter. The meaning has been softened in popular usage to something like capable or efficient. Rendered राहुल, it glides across two easy syllables, RAH-hool, the aspirated consonant keeping everything in motion. Rahul Gandhi's long political career has kept the name in daily headlines; the cricketer Rahul Dravid carried it onto pitches around the world. Steady, legible, and close to ubiquitous in India while staying quietly exotic in English.