Kulkarni Family History

Indian (Maharashtra Karnataka): Brahmin name from Marathi kuḷkərṇi ‘village clerk’ (from Sanskrit kula ‘family community’ + karaṇa ‘writer’ or karṇī ‘helmsman’).

The kulkarni was a village official under the patel (village headman); he kept the accounts of the cultivators for the government and also for public records.

The office of kulkarni was hereditary.