Family name origins & meanings
- Indian (southern states) : Hindu name from Sanskrit rājagopāla ‘king of cowherds’, from rāja ‘king’ + gopāla ‘cowherd’, an epithet of the god Krishna, who is said to have been brought up among cowherds. Among Tamil and Malayalam speakers who have migrated from their home states, it is a variant of Rajagopalan. This is only a given name in India, but has come to be used as a family name in the U.S.