What's in a name? KL Rahul was almost named after a cricketer's son, but a real life mix-up tossed up an alias | Details

Did you know Delhi Capitals' KL Rahul was supposed to be named after his father's favourite cricketer's son? But a mixup meant, the India batter ended up being ‘incorrectly’ named!

According to a report in English Jagran, Kannur Lokesh Rahul, or KL Rahul as we know him as, was supposed to be named after Sunil Gavaskar's son.

Rahul’s father, Dr. KN Lokesh - a professor & former director at the National Institute of Technology Karnataka (NITK) and big-time cricket fan - was a fan of the legendary former Indian batsman Gavaskar and wanted to name his son Rohan after his favourite cricketer's son.

Rohan Gavaskar himself was a well-known cricketer, having played for India in a few One Day Internationals.

Mistaken identity

However, Dr Lokesh wrongly assumed Gavaskar's son's name as Rahul and not Rohan, his actual name.

So, while doing the spadework for getting a birth certificate, Lokesh chose the name Rahul, and finalised the DC's star batsman's name as such.

So, KL Rahul is named after a cricketer who didn’t even ‘exist’.

The Shah Rukh Khan connection

Interestingly enough, KL Rahul's mother, Rajeshwari, who was a professor at Mangalore University, wanted to name him Rahul after Shah Rukh Khan's character names in movies.

SRK, who is the co-owner of Kolkata Knight Riders, has acted in a few movies where his character's name is Rahul, including hits such as Dil To Pagal Hai and Kuch Kuch Hota Hain.

KL Rahul IPL 2025

Rahul has been DC's star batter in this year's IPL and also the team's top run getter. He has scored 371 runs from 9 innings at an average of 53 and a strike rate of 146.06, and has 3 fifties.

So, even if the first celebrity link was a mix-up, KL Rahul still ended up with a name tied with another.

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