Puthenkurish is a town in Ernakulam district in the Indian state of Kerala near Kolenchery town en route to Muvattupuzha.

The name Puthencruz is a Portuguesisation of the Malayalam word പുത്തൻകുരിശ് (puthan kuriśŭ), which means New Cross (the settlement was previously known as 'Pannikkuzhy kara'), and derives from the establishment of a new cross by the Syrian Christians who were the parishioners of Kolenchery St. Peter's & St. Paul's Syrian Jacobite Church in the year 1816.

The cross was to assist against smallpox, and since a procession of the main festival from the mother church of Kolenchery extended up to Pannikuzhy kara, the people started to tell that "the procession shall extend to the Puthen Kurisu".

"Puthankurisu", as it was called, was Portuguesised to Puthencruz.

[2] As of 2001[update] India census, Puthencruz had a population of 23878 with 12026 males and 11852 females.