3. Name giving: Namakarana.

This takes place on the twelfth day after birth. The time of the cutting of the infant's umbilical cord, when it is thus separated from its mother, is considered the moment of birth, and is made note of. On the sixth day after birth the child's astrological status is supposed to be supernaturally inscribed on its forehead by the divine record-keeper Citragupta. On the sixth day (the day that lamp black is placed on the infant's eyes) a Josi, an astrologer, comes to the house and is told the time of birth—the day, hour, and minute. He tells the family something about the infant's astrological condition, and then returns to his house to prepare a written account, a jata :, which will be presented to the child on this twelfth day.^[3] At this time the child is given a secret name known to household members but not ordinarily used. This name is chosen by the household, but must begin with the proper first letter determined by the Josi from his reading of the infant's horoscope. The name is written on the birth record, the jata :, by the Josi, and is whispered into the infant's ear at this time by the head of the household.

In upper-status families, those who have the right to Tantric initiation, just after the phuki 's purification following the ten-day period of birth contamination the infant is taken to be presented to the family lineage deity, the Aga(n) God.^[4] As the place where this deity is kept, the Aga(n) House, is usually separate from the family house, among these families this is the first occasion on which the child is ceremonially taken out of the house.