Shirdi Sai or Shesha Sai | Fusion - WeRIndia

Naming after Shirdi Sai baba is quite common for Hindus.

Though ‘Sai’ is a male name, it is a common tradition to add it to female names as well. The word ‘Sai’ is added before or after the name of both the genders.

The name became popular after the origin of Shirdi Sai baba in India in the 19 century. However, there is another ‘Sai’ in Hinduism which is being used to name their children.

Though both Sai and Sai are spelled similar in English, they are written differently in Hindi. The name of Shirdi Sai is written as ‘साईं’ whereas the other word Sai is written as ‘शाई’.

These days, several people think that it is related to Shirdi Sai baba, if they found ‘Sai’ in anybody’s name.

But, there was a time where people used the second ‘Sai’ to name their children. Often they used to name their children as Shesha Sai which means Lord Vishnu.

Shesha in Sanskrit has several meanings, one of the popular meanings is snake. It was the name of a serpent with many heads on which Lord Vishnu used to lay as a bed according to the epics.

The word Shesha Sai means the one who lays or sleeps on the Serpent; it is Lord Vishnu.

Hence, people used to name their children with this word which means Lord Vishnu. This word is mostly used to name male kids.

But, most people these days are not aware about the word ‘Sai’ which means Lord Vishnu. They are familiar with the name of Shirdi Sai. Moreover, many people these days do not know how to pronounce the ‘Sai’ (Lord Vishnu).

As they are written in Hindi, both words are pronounced as follows: ‘साईं’ and ‘शाई’. While the first word means Shirdi Sai and the second word means Lord Vishnu.

Image Credit:- “007” by EarlRShumaker is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

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