Why Is Kerala Changing Its Official Name To ‘Keralam’?

The Union Cabinet on Tuesday approved Kerela’s proposal to rename the state from ‘Kerala’ to ‘Keralam’, bringing the official name in line with its ancient linguistic. The resolution was introduced by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and was unanimously approved by the Kerala Legislative Assembly in June 2024.

The principal reason for the name change is to align it with the linguistic identity. “Keralam” is the correct form of the name in the Malayalam language and other Dravidian languages, where the nouns are generally suffixed with the “-am” suffix, while the name “Kerala” was developed as an English version.

The Kerala State government stated that the constitutional name of the State should retain its native linguistic identity, since the States were reorganized on a linguistic basis in 1956, and therefore called upon the Centre to make changes to the First Schedule of Article 3 of the Constitution to change the name of the State.

As a part of the constitutional process, the President will refer the Kerala (Alteration of Name) Bill, 2026, to the State Legislature for its views as per the provision of Article 3, before the legislation is introduced in Parliament.

Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor gave a witty response to the move, asking what would happen to words like “Keralite” and “Keralan” referring to the people of the newly named “Keralam.”