The name "India" originates from the river Indus, which was historically called "Sindhu" in Sanskrit. The ancient Persians pronounced "Sindhu" as "Hindu," and the Greeks adapted this to "Indos" or "India," losing the initial 'h' sound due to their dialect
. The Greek historian Herodotus, in the 5th century BCE, used the term "Indos" to refer to the region beyond the Indus River, and this name gradually came to denote the entire Indian subcontinent
. The British later adopted the name "India" during their colonial rule (circa 1757-1947), using it officially for the subcontinent, derived from the Indus River's name
. Meanwhile, the indigenous name "Bharat," rooted in ancient Indian scriptures and linked to the legendary emperor Bharata, has been used within India for centuries and was adopted alongside "India" as an official name in the Indian Constitution after independence in 1947
. Thus, the name "India" was not given by a single individual but evolved through linguistic transformations from the Sanskrit "Sindhu" via Persian and Greek influences, and was formalized by British colonial administration
