The star cluster Kṛttikā Sanskrit: कृत्तिका, pronounced [kr̩ttɪkaː], popularly transliterated Krittika), sometimes known as Kārtikā, corresponds to the open star cluster called Pleiades in western astronomy; it is one of the clusters which makes up the constellation Taurus.
In Indian astronomy and Jyotiṣa (Hindu astrology) the name literally translates to "the cutters".
[1][2] It is also the name of its goddess-personification, who is a daughter of Daksha[3] and Panchajani, and thus a half-sister to Khyati.
The six Krittikas who raised the Hindu God Kartikeya are Śiva, Sambhūti, Prīti, Sannati, Anasūya and Kṣamā.
Under the traditional Hindu principle of naming individuals according to their Ascendant/Lagna nakṣatra, the following Sanskrit syllables correspond with this nakṣatra, and would belong at the beginning of the first name of an individual born under it: A (अ), I (ई), U (उ) and E (ए).