Your cousin's child is your first cousin once removed. You and your first cousin share grandparents; their child is one generation further from those grandparents than you are, and that one-generation gap is what "once removed" means. In everyday Indian usage the answer is simpler: if the cousin is a cousin brother or cousin sister, their child is your nephew or niece.
Below: the English cousin system, a chart to work out how any two people are related, and the Indian layer on top, from cousin brothers to cross cousins.
- First cousins share grandparents. Second cousins share great-grandparents. Third cousins share great-great-grandparents.
- "Removed" means a generation gap. Your cousin's child is your first cousin once removed; so is your parent's first cousin.
- Cousin brother and cousin sister are Indian English for a male or female first cousin (Oxford Learner's Dictionaries).
- Parallel cousins come through same-sex siblings (father's brother, mother's sister). Cross cousins come through opposite-sex siblings (father's sister, mother's brother).
- In the Dravidian kinship system of South India, parallel cousins are called brothers and sisters, and cross cousins take the in-law words.
What is a first, second and third cousin?
The degree of cousin tells you which ancestor you share.
- First cousin: the child of your parent's sibling. Oxford defines it as "a child of your aunt or uncle". You share a set of grandparents.
- Second cousin: the child of your parent's first cousin. You share great-grandparents.
- Third cousin: the child of your parent's second cousin. You share great-great-grandparents, and so on up the tree.
An example. Priya in Chennai and Arun in Pune have the same Paati and Thatha, because their mothers are sisters. They are first cousins. Priya's daughter and Arun's son share only the great-grandparents, so they are second cousins.
What does "once removed" mean?
"Removed" describes a difference in generation. First cousins are in the same generation: both are grandchildren of the shared couple. When one person is a grandchild and the other is a great-grandchild, the relationship is first cousin once removed. Two generations apart is twice removed.
So, going back to Priya and Arun:
- Arun's son is Priya's first cousin once removed (one generation down).
- Priya is also the boy's first cousin once removed; the term works both ways. To him, she is his mother's first cousin, one generation up.
- Arun's grandchild is Priya's first cousin twice removed.
A quick test that always works: find the closest ancestor the two of you share. Count the generations from that ancestor down to each of you. The smaller count minus one is the cousin degree. The difference between the two counts is the removal.
How are we related? A chart
Find the closest ancestor you share in the left column, then read across.
| Closest shared ancestor | Same generation | One generation apart | Two generations apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parents | Siblings | Aunt or uncle, and nephew or niece | Grand-aunt or grand-uncle, and grand-nephew or grand-niece |
| Grandparents | First cousins | First cousins once removed | First cousins twice removed |
| Great-grandparents | Second cousins | Second cousins once removed | Second cousins twice removed |
| Great-great-grandparents | Third cousins | Third cousins once removed | Third cousins twice removed |
The chart is symmetrical: if she is your second cousin once removed, you are hers.
What is a cousin brother?
A cousin brother is a male first cousin, and a cousin sister is a female first cousin. Oxford Learner's Dictionaries lists both and labels them "Indian English, informal", defining cousin brother as "a son of your aunt or uncle; a male first cousin". Standard British or American English says only "cousin", so the phrase sounds odd elsewhere. It is not a mistake. It reflects how Indian families count kin.
In Tamil, Telugu and Kannada there is no everyday word for a parallel cousin. Your father's brother's son is simply your anna or thambi, your elder or younger brother. When precision is needed, Tamil says "ondru vitta annan", a brother one step removed. In English, "brother" feels wrong and "cousin" feels too distant, so "cousin brother" fills the gap. The same instinct is why so many Indians answer "what is my cousin's child to me?" with "my nephew".
What is the difference between cross cousins and parallel cousins?
Anthropologists split first cousins into two kinds by the sex of the connecting parents:
- Parallel cousins are the children of same-sex siblings: your father's brother's children and your mother's sister's children.
- Cross cousins are the children of opposite-sex siblings: your father's sister's children and your mother's brother's children.
In Hindi-speaking North India the split has a name but no social weight. Hindi names each cousin by the uncle or aunt in between (chachera via chacha, mausera via mausi, phuphera via bua, mamera via mama), and all four kinds are equally non-marriageable.
In the South the split is the whole system. Tamil, Telugu and Kannada kinship is what anthropologists call a Dravidian system. Parallel cousins are "brothers and sisters one step removed" (pangali in Tamil) and marriage with them is forbidden. Cross cousins are the "true" cousins and, traditionally, potential spouses. That is why one word covers father's sister and mother-in-law (அத்தை / అత్త / ಅತ್ತೆ), one word covers mother's brother and father-in-law (மாமா / మామ / ಮಾವ), and a male cross cousin (machchan, bava, bhava) shares his word with brother-in-law.
A careful note on the custom behind the vocabulary. The Tamil word முறை (murai) means "order, custom, the proper way", and in kinship, the proper relationship. In Tamil tradition, a girl's mother's brother's son (or father's sister's son) was considered the "proper" (murai) match, which is why the words for cross cousins and in-laws are the same. The custom is regional, declining, and legally permitted in South India under customary exceptions; it is not followed in North India, where all cousins are treated as siblings for marriage purposes. The Wikipedia article on cousin marriage, citing the National Family Health Survey of 2015 to 2016, gives cousin-marriage rates of 29.5% in Tamil Nadu, 25.9% in Andhra Pradesh, 23.8% in Karnataka and 22.0% in Telangana, against 3.6% in Kerala and about 10% nationally, and notes the practice is declining. Scholars disagree about how rigid the "rule" ever was, so read it as a traditional preference and a vocabulary, not a universal practice. Medical bodies recommend genetic counselling for any marriage between blood relatives, and there is no biological reason a cross-cousin match is preferable to a parallel-cousin one; the distinction is cultural.
How do Indian languages name cousins?
Hindi names the route; the southern languages reuse the sibling or in-law words. For uncles, aunts, grandparents and in-laws, see our family relationship names chart.
| Cousin type | Hindi | Tamil | Telugu | Kannada |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Father's brother's child (parallel) | चचेरा भाई / चचेरी बहन (chacherā bhāī / chacherī bahan) | அண்ணன் / தம்பி / அக்கா / தங்கை (brother, sister); ஒன்று விட்ட அண்ணன் when precise | అన్న / తమ్ముడు / అక్క / చెల్లి; వరసకి అన్నయ్య (varasaki annayya) | ಅಣ್ಣ / ತಮ್ಮ / ಅಕ್ಕ / ತಂಗಿ; ದೊಡ್ಡಪ್ಪನ / ಚಿಕ್ಕಪ್ಪನ ಮಗ(ಳು) |
| Mother's sister's child (parallel) | मौसेरा भाई / मौसेरी बहन (mauserā / mauserī) | same as above | same as above | same as above |
| Father's sister's child or mother's brother's child (cross) | फुफेरा भाई / बहन (phupherā, via bua); ममेरा भाई / बहन (mamerā, via mama) | மச்சான் (machchān) / மைத்துனன் (maittunan) for a male cousin; sister-in-law words such as மச்சினி (machchini) for a female cousin | బావ (bāva, male) / మరదలు (maradalu, younger female) / వదిన (vadina, elder female) | ಭಾವ (bhāva, male) / ನಾದಿನಿ (nādini, female); ಮೈದುನ (maiduna) also father's sister's son |
One consequence: in the South, a parallel cousin's child is your nephew or niece, just as a brother's child is.
How FamRoot works out the relationship for you
Charts work when you already know the shared ancestor. In a real family you often do not. You know the man at the wedding is "Lakshmi Chitti's son's wife's brother" and that is where it stops.
FamRoot stores the links, not the labels. In your family tree, every person is joined by parent, child and spouse connections across multiple generations, including adoptions and multiple marriages. From those connections FamRoot derives the relationship between you and any other person as a path: You, then Mother, then her sister, then her son, then his wife, labelled "Cousin's Wife" at Level 5. Each step is a relationship level, and relatives within seven relationship levels can see your tree. The tree is private, with no public link.
On Android, Smart Caller ID shows the same result when a relative calls: name and relationship ("Aunt", "Cousin's wife") on screen, with a tap to open the path. Only the phone number is sent to the server to look up the relationship; no call data leaves the device. So when your first cousin once removed calls, you know who she is before you answer, and can decide for yourself whether to call her niece.
Stop counting generations on your fingers. Add your grandparents, their children and grandchildren to a private tree, and FamRoot will tell you how everyone is related. Start building your family tree.