Why was Kerala renamed Keralam?

Kerala was renamed Keralam to align the state’s official name with its name in Malayalam, the language spoken by most of the state’s population. When the states of India were reorganized along linguistic lines in 1956, the Constitution of India recorded the state’s name as Kerala, although it is called Keralam in Malayalam. In 2024 the state’s government unanimously requested that the central government change the state’s name from Kerala to Keralam. The Government of India officially enacted the name change in August 2026.