What does a socialist like New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, rejoicing across seven seas, have in common with Gujarat-based Indian corporates like Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani? The second names, Mamdani, Ambani and Adani, hold the clue, and reveal a civilisational and trans-continental immigrational pattern.
On Wednesday, Mamdani won the NewYork City mayor polls after defeating former Governor Andrew Cuomo, setting him on course to become the city’s first Muslim, first Indian-origin mayor, and youngest in over a century. His campaign centred on affordable housing, free public transit, rent freezes and other socialist economic pledges.
So, what links Zohran Mamdani to this broader story of names, including that of Adani, Ambani, or for that matter Iran’s Rafsanjani?
If we dig a little deeper, the story of his name, first and last, opens a window onto centuries of migration, trade and community networks.
New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani was born in Kampala, Uganda, to Ugandan-Indian academic of Gujarati Muslim descent, Mahmood Mamdani, and Indian-American filmmaker Mira Nair.
WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THE NAME ZOHRAN?
Dissecting the first name, Zohran, New York-based Persian author Muhammad Ali Mojaradi, known as Sharghzadeh, said it “probably derives from the Arabic root ‘za-ha-ra’, meaning flower-like”.
“Zohran probably derives from the Arabic root za-ha-ra, which relates to flowers or blooming. ‘Zahran’ might be a plural, meaning ‘two blooms’ or ‘two flowers’, or it could simply be a suffix that conveys an adjectival sense. Essentially, it could mean ‘flower-like’,” said Mojaradi, who is a Persian author, in his Instagram Reel.
The surname Mamdani reveals the civilisational roots and connection that South and Western Asia have shared for centuries.
MAMDANI: KHOJA MUSLIM COMMUNITY FROM GUJARAT
Zohran Mamdani, akin to the patrilineal practice, inherits his surname from his father, Mahmood Mamdani, the Uganda-based academic of Indian descent, whose family belongs to the Khoja merchant-trader community, according to Iqbal Akhtar, Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the Florida International University in the US.
The Khojas trace their origins to greater Sindh (today Pakistan/western India’s Gujarat) and migrated across East Africa, Arabia and the Indian Ocean littoral regions. They built trade networks in spices, textiles, gems and timber from the 18th century onwards.
The Gujarati surnames Ambani and Adani are associated with mercantile traditions in western India’s Gujarat in particular. The Ambani family belongs to the Modh Bania or Lohana business castes of Gujarat, according to reports. The Adani surname is likewise anchored in Gujarat’s trading families. Industrialist Gautam Adani has origins in Gujarat’s Tharad.
Both Adani and Ambani are toponymic surnames, meaning that they are derived from the names of places they came from.
Mukesh Ambani is the chairman of Reliance Industries and Gautam Adani is the founder of the Adani Group. They are among the world’s richest individuals, ranking 13th and 25th respectively on Forbes’ 2025 World’s Billionaires List.
WHAT DOES MAMDANI SURNAME SIGNIFY?
“Mamdani’s surname is particularly interesting. ‘Mamdani’ literally means ‘Muhammadan’ or a Muslim or a follower of Muhammad. The ‘ani’ suffix is similar to ‘-an’ in English, while the ‘mamd’ part is a Gujarati adaptation of ‘Muhammad’. This kind of linguistic transformation is common. The West Africans have ‘Momudu’, Turks have ‘Mehmet’, Persians have ‘Mamad’, and Gujaratis have ‘Mamd’ or a similar variant. When combined with ‘ani’, it signifies a follower of Muhammad,” said Persian author Mojaradi.
What unites all three surnames—Ambani, Adani, and Mamdani—their geographic and social milieu, and the shared legacy of traders of the Sindh-Gujatat-Kutch region operating across the Indian Ocean region.
Many surnames from this region, particularly among Sindhi and Gujarati communities—such as Jethwani, Lalwani, Ambani, Adani, and Mamdani—often end with an “ee” sound, reflecting a common linguistic pattern. These families historically belonged to the same mercantile and trading networks, with a long-shared history of commerce, migration, and community connections that stretched from South Asia to Africa, the Gulf, and beyond.
To further highlight the geographic spread of surnames ending with an “ee” sound, the last name of former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani might offer some insight. Iran is Persia of yore. With the linguistic transformation, Muhammad has become ‘Mamad’ in Persian and the very similar ‘Mamd’ in Gujarati.
In other words, while Zohran Mamdani styles himself as a socialist politician in New York, his surname places him in the same broader civilisational story of the Indian mercantile community that includes the Ambanis and the Adanis. Though Mamdani diverges in profession, politics and ideology from the two Indian corporates, he converges with them in the cradle of greater Sindh region.
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