Ramanathan is a South India

South India

South India is the area encompassing India's states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu as well as the union territories of Lakshadweep and Pondicherry, occupying 19.31% of India's area...

n name. The name is derived from Rama

Rama

Rama or full name Ramachandra is considered to be the seventh avatar of Vishnu in Hinduism, and a king of Ayodhya in ancient Indian...

 (a Hindu

Hinduism

Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...

 god) and the Sanskrit

Sanskrit

Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...

 word nath

Nath

The Sanskrit word nāthá or नाथ, is the proper name of a Hindu initiatory tradition and the word itself literally means "lord, protector, refuge"...

, meaning "lord."
The name Ramanathan is given to the Hindu god Shiva

Shiva

Shiva is a major Hindu deity, and is the destroyer god or transformer among the Trimurti, the Hindu Trinity of the primary aspects of the divine. God Shiva is a yogi who has notice of everything that happens in the world and is the main aspect of life. Yet one with great power lives a life of a...

 at Rameshwaram, one of the southernmost towns in India. Hindus believe that Lord Rama worshipped Shiva before beginning his journey to Lanka

Lanka

Sri Lanka is the name given in Hindu mythology to the island fortress capital of the legendary king Ravana in the great Hindu epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata...

; hence "Lord of Rama."

Individuals with this name include:

• Ramanathan Krishnan
  Ramanathan Krishnan
  Ramanathan Krishnan is a retired tennis player from India who was among the world's leading players in the 1950s and 1960s.-Career:Krishnan honed his skills under his father, T.K. Ramanathan...
  
  , Indian tennis player
• Annamalai Ramanathan
  Annamalai Ramanathan
  Annamalai Ramanathan is an Indian mathematician working in algebraic geometry, who introduced the notion of Frobenius splitting of algebraic varieties in...
  
  , Indian mathematician working in algebraic geometry
• Kollagunta Gopalaiyer Ramanathan
  Kollagunta Gopalaiyer Ramanathan
  Kollagunta Gopalaiyer Ramanathan was an Indian mathematician known for his work in number theory. His contributions are also to the general development of mathematical research and teaching in India....
  
  , Indian mathematician working in analytic number theory
• Leelawathy Ramanathan
  Leelawathy Ramanathan
  Leelawathy Ramanathan was the Australia-born wife of Ponnambalam Ramanathan.-Hinduism:She studied Hindu scriptures, and converted to Hinduism upon marrying Ponnambalam Ramanathan in 1906. She wrote many Hindu books, including a version of the Ramayana in English. She also published many of...
  
  , Australia-born writer and wife of Ponnambalam Ramanathan
• M. D. Ramanathan
  M. D. Ramanathan
  Manjapara Devesa Ramanathan affectionately called MDR was a Carnatic music composer and vocalist.-Early life:...
  
  , Indian Carnatic composer and vocalist
• S. Ramanathan
  S. Ramanathan
  S. Ramanathan was a Carnatic music singer and musicologist.He learned music from Tiger Varadachariar, Sabesa Iyer, Ponniah Pillai, and Sathur Krishna Iyengar. He received a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, where he also taught.He had disciples who have...
  
  , Indian Carnatic singer and musicologist
• Sellapan Ramanathan, president of Singapore
• Ponnambalam Ramanathan
  Ponnambalam Ramanathan
  Sir Ponnambalam Ramanathan, KCMG, KC was a Solicitor-General and Tamil political leader in Sri Lanka.-Early life:...
  
  , Solicitor-General and Tamil political leader in Sri Lanka
• Veerabhadran Ramanathan
  Veerabhadran Ramanathan
  Veerabhadran Ramanathan is Victor Alderson Professor of Applied Ocean Sciences and director of the Center for Atmospheric Sciences at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego. He has contributed to many areas of the atmospheric sciences including developments to...
  
  , Indian climatologist