name, noun ·3 syllables ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   In west and south India, a native official in charge of a district, often held by heredity; a petty chief. India, historical

Proper Noun

1. 1
   A surname from Gujarati.

Etymology

Borrowed from Marathi देसाई (desāī, “leader of a village”), or from Gujarati દેસાઈ (desāī). This surname is mostly found in Maharashtra and Gujarat.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.