Dozens of sites offer "kundli matching by name": type two names, get a score out of 36. It feels like astrology. It is actually a naming custom run backwards — and when the stakes are a marriage decision, the difference matters.
How the trick works
Tradition suggests naming a child with a syllable linked to their birth nakshatra. Name-based matching assumes this custom was followed, maps the first syllable of each name back to a nakshatra, and scores those two guessed nakshatras. Every point in the result rests on the assumption that both families named their children by pada syllable — decades ago, in an era of nicknames, anglicised spellings and names chosen for their sound.
What the guess gets wrong
If either mapped nakshatra is wrong, everything downstream is wrong: gana, yoni, tara, nadi — and through the implied moon sign, bhakoot and maitri too. The scale of error is not a point or two; it is a different row of the table entirely. A couple can be handed nadi dosha they don't have, or spared a bhakoot conversation they should be having. And because one in three of all pairings has nadi dosha anyway, a wrong guess has excellent odds of producing a scary, salable result.
What real matching needs
Date, time and place of birth for both partners — from which the actual moon positions, nakshatras, padas and signs are computed with an ephemeris. That is the entire input. It takes one minute more than typing names, and it replaces an assumption about naming customs with astronomy. If a birth time is genuinely unknown, an honest reader says so and works within the limits — the moon sign and nakshatra usually survive a few hours of uncertainty; the lagna doesn't.
Check your own charts — free, honestly
Everything above is general. Your answer lives in two specific charts. Our free matching tool computes both with a real ephemeris, scores all eight kootas, and shows the cancellations instead of hiding them. One minute, no fear-selling, no gemstone pitch — by written policy.