History
The earliest recorded examples of the names ending with "Simha" are the names of the two sons of the Saka ruler Rudraraman in the second century CE.
The first ruler of the Solanki/Chalukya clan who bore the title Simha ruled around 500 CE. The Vengi branch of the Chalukyas continued using Simha as a last name till the eleventh century. The Rajputs started using Singh in preference to the classical epithet of "Varman". Among the Rajputs, the use of the word Simha came into vogue among the Paramaras of Malwa in 10th century CE, among the Guhilots and the Guhilot of Narwar in the 12th century CE, and the Rathores of Marwar after the 17th century.
In the 18th century, the non-Rajput martial tribes, including the Brahmins, the Kayasthas and the Baniyas of what are now Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, also started using the title Singh in imitation of the Rajputs. In the 19th century, even the Bengal court peons of the lower castes also adopted the title Singh.
The adherents of Sikh faith adopted Singh as a surname in 1699, as per the wish of Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth Sikh Guru. In the Spring of 1699, on the day of Baisakhi, Guru Gobind Singh Ji (originally named Guru Gobind Rai Ji), made it mandatory for all Sikh males to append the name suffix Singh after their name and "Kaur" for Women.
Singh/Sinh is used by Sikhs, Bhumihar Brahmins and Kshatriya communities such as Kurmis, Marathas, Gurjars, Rajputs, etc. as either a middle name or a surname. e.g., Kotwal Dhan Singh Gurjar, Chaudhary Charan Singh, Maharaja Bhim Singh Rana, Prahlad Singh Patel etc.
The last name "Singh" is in fact used by a wider population from Bihar Jharkhand Punjab to Uttar Pradesh and from Kashmir down into Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Maharastra to Uttarakhand as well as the far eastern states of Manipur, Assam, Tripura, Sikkim, and even Bhutan, spanning the entire subcontinent and even reaching Southeast Asia, where in Thailand, as the Chakri Dynasty strove to empower Siam after the fall of the Ayutthaya Kingdom, Singh Singhaseni (1777–1849) was a prominent general, and Chao ("Lord") Racha Wong Singh governed Yasothon, 1815–1823. The name is also found in use among West Indians of Indian origin namely in places of Guyana, Trinidad, and Surinam, as well as people of Indian origin found in Mauritius and Fiji Island.
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