Being a student studying at MPEI (TU), I have the opportunity to make friends from different countries and am exposed to many different traditions, cultures and customs. When we talk about names, I notice that we Myanmar, unlike any other people, have so many strange things in naming system.
Every time when we fill up official forms or when we explain our naming system to our teachers and friends, they are very surprised to know that it is not compulsory in our country to take paternal or family name. I think every person in this world has family name to inherit, except Myanmar. A married woman doesn't need to take her husband's name. No Myanmar lady needs to change her name although she is married or not. Therefore, when I get married, my wife won't take my name in her life. Her name will be always the same since she was born.
Let me elaborate our naming system. When a child was born, the name is given to him or her by the parents what they please according to the day of birth. In a sample way, Sunday born will have the name starting with vowel , " a, e, i, o , u", for example, Aye Min (Эй Мин), Aung Naing ( Аунг Найнг). Monday born with" k, kh, ch, ng", for example, Ko Ko Htway (Ко Ко Хтвей), Kyaw Swar Min (Кье Свар Мин). In the same way, for Tuesday born with the sound "Sa, Hsa, Za, Nya", for example, I was born on Tuesday and my name is Sein Htoo (Сейн Хту). Therefore, we can easily know which day a person was born on by hearing or seeing his or her name. Obviously, there are three or four words in a name, but all the words belong to the person, not to the father or family.
The most interesting thing in Myanmar names is that every word has its own meaning and gender. For example, one of the most famous actresses is named Ma Pan Phyu ( Ms White Flower ). Precious stones like pearl, diamond, coral can also serve as names, for example, Ma Pale`Win ( Ms. bright Pearl), Ma Thandar ( Ms. Coral), Ko Sein Htoo (Сейн Хту) (Mr. Exdraordinary Diamond). We also have the name such as U Kyaw Thu ( Mr. Famous), Ko Zarni ( Mr. Martyr), Daw Sandar ( Mrs. Moon), Mg Akar ( Master Sky). So, believe me, everything can be transformed into name if you like the sense of the word.
The repeated words can also be used like "Ko Ko Htway", "Kyaw Kyaw Oo", "War War Aung" and "Mote Mote Myint Aung". We can use this repetition technique for both man and woman. Although there is only one word in the name we can repeat it to sound nice or to reflect our affection to that person. However, since some words have more than one meaning, parents should be very careful in choosing a word for a name. For example, "Cho" means "Sweet" but when we make repetition, "Cho Cho" can also mean "breast". Be careful!
Most of the time, a foreigner can be confused with the variation of the person's name. For example, a lady named Ma Su Nandar Soe can be addressed with all the following names depending on the circumstances: Su Su, Ma Su, Nandar, Ma Soe, Soe Soe, Ma Ma Su, Ma Ma Soe and Ma Nandar. She can also choose the name in which way she could be addressed. As she has three words in her name she can choose one or two of them and leave the word she dislike.
There are some special addressing titles in our naming system. When we call our elder brother in respectful way, we address him as " Ko", for example " Ko Zar Ni", while our elder sister as "Ma", for example, "Ma Nandar". So we can easily know who is elder or younger. "Ko" and "Ma" are used to address in a polite way as well. There are also some polite titles such as U, Daw, Maung. If a boy is under 18, he is addressed as "Maung'' which means "Master" in English. After 18, he is addressed as "U" or "Ko" which means " Mr" until he dies. Girls are addressed as "Ma" which means "Ms", while women are addressed as "Daw". We don't have no discriminated names for Myanmar women regarding their marital status.
I think calling a person by the name he/she dislikes is very annoying. When I was young I felt uneasy for the word “Burma” or “Burmese”. The sound was strange to my ears when I heard it for the first time in English lesson. Whenever I spell my name, my parents’ names and all the other proper nouns, I don’t need to change the pronunciation. We have to find the same sound of our language in English words to get the correct spelling. Why only for the country, do I have to change the sound? I asked my teacher why and he explained that our country was colonized by the British and they introduced our country to the world by the name. At that time I don’t understand that a sovereign state had a right to choose its own name and through out the history there were many countries in the world which changed the name for different reasons. However, in the case of our country, it does not have fair treatment from certain countries of the world giving reason on political grounds. For me, “Naming is apolitical”. In 1989, the present government officially changed the English translations of many colonial-era names, including the name of the country to its original one "Myanmar".
Being conscious on the fact that every country has its own culture, customs and traditions to be respected and preserved, I never feel any embarrassment for the lack of family or paternal name. I am even grateful to our ancestors who decided boldly to make us more individual.
Every time when we fill up official forms or when we explain our naming system to our teachers and friends, they are very surprised to know that it is not compulsory in our country to take paternal or family name. I think every person in this world has family name to inherit, except Myanmar. A married woman doesn't need to take her husband's name. No Myanmar lady needs to change her name although she is married or not. Therefore, when I get married, my wife won't take my name in her life. Her name will be always the same since she was born.
Let me elaborate our naming system. When a child was born, the name is given to him or her by the parents what they please according to the day of birth. In a sample way, Sunday born will have the name starting with vowel , " a, e, i, o , u", for example, Aye Min (Эй Мин), Aung Naing ( Аунг Найнг). Monday born with" k, kh, ch, ng", for example, Ko Ko Htway (Ко Ко Хтвей), Kyaw Swar Min (Кье Свар Мин). In the same way, for Tuesday born with the sound "Sa, Hsa, Za, Nya", for example, I was born on Tuesday and my name is Sein Htoo (Сейн Хту). Therefore, we can easily know which day a person was born on by hearing or seeing his or her name. Obviously, there are three or four words in a name, but all the words belong to the person, not to the father or family.
The most interesting thing in Myanmar names is that every word has its own meaning and gender. For example, one of the most famous actresses is named Ma Pan Phyu ( Ms White Flower ). Precious stones like pearl, diamond, coral can also serve as names, for example, Ma Pale`Win ( Ms. bright Pearl), Ma Thandar ( Ms. Coral), Ko Sein Htoo (Сейн Хту) (Mr. Exdraordinary Diamond). We also have the name such as U Kyaw Thu ( Mr. Famous), Ko Zarni ( Mr. Martyr), Daw Sandar ( Mrs. Moon), Mg Akar ( Master Sky). So, believe me, everything can be transformed into name if you like the sense of the word.
The repeated words can also be used like "Ko Ko Htway", "Kyaw Kyaw Oo", "War War Aung" and "Mote Mote Myint Aung". We can use this repetition technique for both man and woman. Although there is only one word in the name we can repeat it to sound nice or to reflect our affection to that person. However, since some words have more than one meaning, parents should be very careful in choosing a word for a name. For example, "Cho" means "Sweet" but when we make repetition, "Cho Cho" can also mean "breast". Be careful!
Most of the time, a foreigner can be confused with the variation of the person's name. For example, a lady named Ma Su Nandar Soe can be addressed with all the following names depending on the circumstances: Su Su, Ma Su, Nandar, Ma Soe, Soe Soe, Ma Ma Su, Ma Ma Soe and Ma Nandar. She can also choose the name in which way she could be addressed. As she has three words in her name she can choose one or two of them and leave the word she dislike.
Normally, we might think that we own our name and it is for use to be called by others and we never use it for ourselves. It is not true for Myanmar people. They use their name to refer to themselves. For example, the girl named Ma Su Nandar Soe will say, “Soe Soe doesn’t know” meaning “ I don’t know”. Although we have first person pronoun (in fact we have many even for a person: kyundaw for male: kyunma for female: kyun-naok in written form for more formality: nga for both male and female when we talk to very closed friends or juniors: dapyidaw or dapyidawma when we talk to the monks or nuns), the usage of her own name is cute and polite.
Pyu is believed to be ancestor of present Myanmar people. In the ancient Pyu period, they had the tradition of taking the father’s name (not family name or grandfather’s name) for the son. After Pyu king “Yin Min Pike” his son “Pike Thelai” succeeded and then “Thelai Gyaung” and “Gyaung Durit”. However, when Pyu became Myanmar they don’t even have such a practice of taking the immediate father’s name. Every child is born as an individual and the parents have to build up their child’s name. There are some special addressing titles in our naming system. When we call our elder brother in respectful way, we address him as " Ko", for example " Ko Zar Ni", while our elder sister as "Ma", for example, "Ma Nandar". So we can easily know who is elder or younger. "Ko" and "Ma" are used to address in a polite way as well. There are also some polite titles such as U, Daw, Maung. If a boy is under 18, he is addressed as "Maung'' which means "Master" in English. After 18, he is addressed as "U" or "Ko" which means " Mr" until he dies. Girls are addressed as "Ma" which means "Ms", while women are addressed as "Daw". We don't have no discriminated names for Myanmar women regarding their marital status.
I think calling a person by the name he/she dislikes is very annoying. When I was young I felt uneasy for the word “Burma” or “Burmese”. The sound was strange to my ears when I heard it for the first time in English lesson. Whenever I spell my name, my parents’ names and all the other proper nouns, I don’t need to change the pronunciation. We have to find the same sound of our language in English words to get the correct spelling. Why only for the country, do I have to change the sound? I asked my teacher why and he explained that our country was colonized by the British and they introduced our country to the world by the name. At that time I don’t understand that a sovereign state had a right to choose its own name and through out the history there were many countries in the world which changed the name for different reasons. However, in the case of our country, it does not have fair treatment from certain countries of the world giving reason on political grounds. For me, “Naming is apolitical”. In 1989, the present government officially changed the English translations of many colonial-era names, including the name of the country to its original one "Myanmar".
Being conscious on the fact that every country has its own culture, customs and traditions to be respected and preserved, I never feel any embarrassment for the lack of family or paternal name. I am even grateful to our ancestors who decided boldly to make us more individual.
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