Rampersad, also spelt Ramprasad or Rampersaud, is a surname common in Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Suriname, the Caribbean, Fiji, South Africa, and Mauritius.
[2] The name derives from the Indian name Ramprasad, which is a common name among Bhojpuri (a Hindi dialect) speaking areas of the states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh of northern and eastern India.
Prasad in Sanskrit means refers to an offering of food given to the idol (murti) of a god.
Although the word is pronounced in Sanskrit as Prasad, the pronunciation changes in Bhojpuri to Parsad or Persad.
In India it is used as a first name, but the descendants of the indentured laborers in the European colonies used their fathers' first name as their surname.