Why is Harish-Chandra's last name never used? This is only barely a math question but I don't know where else to ask. I've always wondered about Harish-Chandra's name. The Wikipedia article seems to mention "Mehrotra" as a last name but only in passing, and it's not even used in the page's title. Did he simply not use a last name? 
 A: A link to a biography by Roger Howe now shows up on Wikipedia, and it has this to say:

about the name harish-chandra: indian names do not  necessarily follow
  the western two-part pattern of given name,  family name. a person may
  often have only one name, and  this was the case with harish-chandra,
  who in his youth was  called  harishchandra.  the hyphen was bestowed
  on him  by the copy editor of his first scientific papers, and he kept
  it.  later he adopted “chandra” as a family name for his  daughters.
  given names in india are often those of gods or  ancient heroes, and
  “harishchandra” was a king, legendary  for his truthfulness already at
  the time of the mahabharata.  i once saw an indian comic book whose cover featured
  “harishchandra—whose name is synonymous with truth.”

A: During the independence movement, Harish-Chandra's father under the influence of Mahatma Gandhi decided to do away with using the caste name 'Mehrotra' as also started using Khadi attire. As for the hyphen it was a mistake by a sub-editor publishing his first paper but Harishchandra decided to retain it.
