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Bengali surnames have evolved over centuries and are derived mainly on the basis of either lineage (gotra) or caste based on profession. Many honorific titles given to individuals during the British Raj were incorporated as surnames that are prevalent even today..

Brahmin
Brahmins were the highest caste in Bengal, and were responsible for acquiring Vedic knowledge as well as performing priestly duites. Bengali Brahmins are classified as Kulin (high-ranking) and non-Kulin. Kulin Brahmin surnames are Bandyopadhyay (Banerjee),, Bhattacharyya (Bhattacharjee), Chattopadhyay (Chatterjee), Gangopadhyay (Ganguly), Mukhopadhyay (Mukherjee). The Varendra Brahmins have many surnames derived from the village of origin, some of which are - Bagchi, Ghoshal, Lahiri, Maitra, Sanyal, etc.

Other Brahmin surnames include Goswami, Chakraborty, Tribedi, Mishra, Acharya, Ghatak, etc.

Kayastha
Kayasthas were regarded as the highest caste in Bengal along with the Brahmins, who were the literate class involved in secular endeavours such as civil administration in courts, literature, law, as well as keeping public accounts and managing stately affairs. Initially, members of any caste could take up the role of a Kayastha, thereby many Brahmins and Baidyas were absorbed into this caste as well. Like the Brahmins, the Kayasthas are classified as Kulin and non-Kulin. Some Kayastha surnames are - Bose (Basu), Ghosh, Mitra, Guha, Dutta (Datta), Sinha (Singh), Dey (De), Gayen (Gain), Purkayastha, Pal (Paul), Kar, Das, etc. However, most of these surnames are also used by other castes such as Baidya (physicians), Mahishya (land-owning caste), Gandhabanik (perfume merchants), etc.

Baidyas
Baidyas were also regarded as one of the highest castes along with Brahmins and Kayasthas, and historically performed the profession of a Vedic physician. They were masters of the Ayurveda, and often claimed Brahmin status which was not recognised by the Brahmins, thus reducing them to an Ambastha sub-caste of Brahmin status. Some Baidya surnames are Dasgupta, Sengupta, Sen, Duttagupta, Sensharma, Gupta, Vaidya, etc. They often share concatenated surnames with the Kayasthas.

Titles
During the British Raj, many individuals were given titles based on their deeds or rank, mostly to Zamindars. The Zamindars could belong to any caste, and the titles were thereby caste-neutral. Some Bengali titles are Roy (Ray), Choudhury, Bahadur, Bhuniya, Roychowdhury, etc.

Others
There are many commonly used Bengali surnames that belong to the carious other middle castes based on profession such as Mahishya, Banik, Aguri, Poundra-Kshatriya, Jele Kaibartta, Rajbonshi, Namasudra, Bagdi, etc.