The 27 Nakshatras are the lunar mansions — each a 13°20′ slice of sky. Your birth Nakshatra and Pada decide your dasha sequence, marriage compatibility, and lucky syllables.
Each nakshatra is sub-divided into 4 padas (quarters) of 3°20′ each. That gives 27 × 4 = 108 padas total — the same 108 you’ll find on a mala. Your pada gives extra precision: same nakshatra, different pada = quite different personality.
Nakshatras give a finer-grained reading — 27 buckets vs 12. And the entire Vimshottari Dasha system (the most-used predictive system) is built off your birth nakshatra, not your sign.
Then your birth time really matters. The Moon moves ~13° per day; nakshatras are 13°20′ wide. An hour can put you on the other side of a boundary.
Sandhi means the junction between two nakshatras. Being born in the last/first few minutes is considered traditionally inauspicious and may call for a small puja — but most modern astrologers don’t make a big deal of it.
Yes — every pada has a set of starting syllables. Try our Baby Name by Nakshatra tool, it does the lookup automatically.