Prabhu means master or the supreme lord in 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...

 and many of the Indian languages; it is a name sometimes applied to God

God

God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....

.

The term is also used by male devotees of the hindu deity Lord Krishna/Vishnu as a title and form of address. If a man sees another male devotee whom he does not know, he will address him as "Prabhu". It is also appended after a devotee's name, for example "Madhava Prabhu".

Among Goud Saraswat Brahmins

It is also a common surname among Konkani

Konkani language

KonkaniKonkani is a name given to a group of several cognate dialects spoken along the narrow strip of land called Konkan, on the west coast of India. This is, however, somewhat an over-generalisation. Geographically, Konkan is defined roughly as the area between the river Damanganga to the north...

 speaking Saraswat Brahmins across the Konkan Coast

Konkan

The Konkan also called the Konkan Coast or Karavali is a rugged section of the western coastline of India from Raigad to Mangalore...

 in India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

, from Maharashtra

Maharashtra

Maharashtra is a state located in India. It is the second most populous after Uttar Pradesh and third largest state by area in India...

 to Kerala

Kerala

or Keralam is an Indian state located on the Malabar coast of south-west India. It was created on 1 November 1956 by the States Reorganisation Act by combining various Malayalam speaking regions....

. Among the Goud Saraswat Brahmins, feudal lords were called Prabhu. The name is also in use among some Konkani Catholics who trace their ancestry to the Goud Saraswat Brahmins of Goa

Goa

Goa , a former Portuguese colony, is India's smallest state by area and the fourth smallest by population. Located in South West India in the region known as the Konkan, it is bounded by the state of Maharashtra to the north, and by Karnataka to the east and south, while the Arabian Sea forms its...

.

Notable people with the name Prabhu

• Rajendra Prabhu
• Prabhu Kumar
• Prabu
• Allama Prabhu
  Allama Prabhu
  Allama Prabhu is a mystic-saint and Vachana poet of the Kannada language in the 12th century. Prabhu is the patron saint , the undisputed spiritual authority, and an integral part of the Lingayata movement that decisively shaped society in medieval Karnataka and...
  
  
• Prabu Ashokan @ Madura
• K. N. Prabhu
  K. N. Prabhu
  K. Niran Prabhu is a prominent Indian journalist who specialized in cricket.Most of his best work was done while working for the Times of India newspaper. He joined the ToI in 1948 and was the sports editor from 1959 to 1983. None of his works have been published as books.He was awarded the C. K...
  
  
• Lakshman Prabhu
  Lakshman Prabhu
  Lakshman Prabhu was a minister in the court of the Silhara dynasty that ruled the islands that today constitute the Indian city of Mumbai. He is known for overseeing the construction of the famous Walkeshwar Temple and the adjoining Banganga Tank in 1127 AD...
  
  
• Prabhu Bajpai
• Neeraj Prabhu
  Neeraj Prabhu
  Neeraj Vijay 'Mr. PEE-BOO' Prabhu is an Indian-born former English cricketer, born in Bombay . A right-handed batsman, he played for Warwickshire's Second XI between 1996 and 1998 before moving to play minor counties cricket for Herefordshire...
  
  
• Prabhu Chawla
  Prabhu Chawla
  Prabhu Chawla is the Editor-in-chief of the Chennai-based The New Indian Express newspaper in India. Before, he was the editor of Language publications in India Today, India's leading weekly newsmagazine India Today Group. Before holding this post he worked as the Editorial Director of the...
  
  
• Prabhu Deva
• Prabhu Ganesan
  Prabhu Ganesan
  Prabhu Ganesan is a Tamil film actor and producer. He is the son of veteran actor Sivaji Ganesan.-Personal life:A native of Tamil Nadu, Prabhu was born to Sivaji and Kamala Ganesan. He has an elder brother Ramkumar Ganesan who is a film producer, and two sisters, Shanthi and Thenmozhi. He did his...
  
  , South Indian actor
• Prabhu Ganesh Shivnetra, founder of Trident Entertainment
  Trident Entertainment
  Trident Entertainment is a Malaysian media company specializing in the distribution/production of recorded music encompassing primarily Jazz, World and Classical Music and is a major player in the Malaysian Music Scene....
  
  
• Prabhu varadarajan
• Prabhu Lal Bhatnagar
  Prabhu Lal Bhatnagar
  Prabhu Lal Bhatnagar , commonly addressed as P. L. Bhatnagar, was an Indian mathematician known for his contribution to the Bhatnagar-Gross-Krook collision model used in Lattice Boltzmann methods .-Early years:...
  
  
• R. Prabhu
  R. Prabhu
  R. Prabhu was an Indian National Congress member of Parliament in India, representing the Nilgiris constituency of Tamil Nadu, India.-Introduction:...
  
  
• Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu
  Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu
  Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu was a member of the 14th Lok Sabha of India. He is qualified as a Indian Chartered Accountant & member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India...
  
  
• Vasant K. Prabhu
• Prabhu Srinivasan
• Srihariharan Prabhu