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Burmese names (Burmese:မြန်မာ အမည်) lack the serial structure of most Western names. Like otherMainland Southeast Asian people (exceptVietnamese), the people ofMyanmar have no customarymatronymic orpatronymic naming system and no tradition ofsurnames. Although other Mainland Southeast Asian countries such asThailand,Laos,Cambodia, andMalaysia introduced the use of surnames or patronyms in the early 20th century, Myanmar never introduced the use of surnames and lacks surnames in the modern day. Instead, Burmese names use anhonorific prefix to reflect the person's stage in life and position in society.[1]
Burmese names were originally one syllable, as in the cases ofU Nu andU Thant ("U" being an honorific). In the mid-20th century, many Burmese started using two syllables, albeit without any formal structure. In the late 1890s, British scholars observed thatArakanese commonly adopted three-syllable names whereasBurmans were still using one or two at most.[2] As they become more familiar with Western culture, Burmese people are gradually increasing the number of syllables in their children's names, by use of various structures. Today, names with up to four syllables are common for men and up to five for women.
Scholars such asThant Myint-U have argued that the rise of complex Burmese personal names resulted from the collapse of the Burmese monarchy, which ended the sophisticated system of Pali-Burmese styles, crown service and gentry titles, leaving the majority of Burmese with single-syllable names.[3] Former titles, such asmin (မင်း; "leader") were re-appropriated as part of personal names.[3]
For example, Burmese nationalistAung San's parents were named Pha (ဖာ) and Suu (စု), both of which are single-syllable names. His birth name was Htain Lin (ထိန်လင်း), but he changed his name to Aung San (အောင်ဆန်း) later in life. His child is namedAung San Suu Kyi (အောင်ဆန်းစုကြည်). The first part of her name, "Aung San", is from her father's name at the time of her birth. "Suu" comes from her grandmother. "Kyi" comes from her mother, Khin Kyi (ခင်ကြည်). The addition of the father or mother's name in a person's name is now quite frequent, although it does not denote the development of a family name. Other nomenclature systems are used as well.
The use of the names of one's parents and relatives in personal nameshas been criticized as an un-Burmese adoption ofseriality[citation needed], although it differs from historical Western practices.
Burman names commonly includePali-derived words combined with nativeBurmese words, including:
Burmese people who marry foreigners or move to countries that use surnames may use their name as if part of it represented afamily name. For example, Tun Myint's wife changed her last name to Myint, but Myint is part of his personal name.
Honorifics are additions to a given name, commonly used both in written and spoken communication, especially with shorter names comprising one or two syllables. The practice of using honorifics is widespread across all cultures in the Burmese region. While certain ethnic groups may have unique honorifics, these terms are typically recognized and adopted by other groups rather than being translated.
For instance, Aung San's parents are commonly referred to as U Pha and Daw Suu. While these could be translated as "Mr. Pha" and "Ms. Suu", they are often used in a more informal manner.
Some of the common honorifics used in Burmese culture include:
According toThe Chicago Manual of Style, Burmese names areindexed by the first element unless this element is an honorific. Honorifics are mentioned after the other elements of the name, separated by a comma, or are not stated at all.[4]
ManyBurmese Buddhists also useastrology (which is determined by the child's day of birth in the traditional eight-day calendar) to name their children. For instance, a Monday-born child may have a name beginning with the letter "k" (က). The following is a traditional chart that corresponds the day of birth with the first letter used in a child's name, although this naming scheme is not universally used today:
| Day | Letters |
|---|---|
| Monday (တနင်္လာ) | က (ka),ခ (kha),ဂ (ga),ဃ (ga, gha),င (nga) |
| Tuesday (အင်္ဂါ) | စ (sa),ဆ (sa, hsa),ဇ (za),ဈ (za, zha),ည (nya) |
| Wednesday morning (ဗုဒ္ဓဟူး) | လ (la),ဝ (wa) |
| Wednesday afternoon (ရာဟု) | ယ (ya),ရ (ya, ra) |
| Thursday (ကြာသာပတေး) | ပ (pa),ဖ (hpa, pha),ဗ (ba),ဘ (ba, bha),မ (ma) |
| Friday (သောကြာ) | သ (tha),ဟ (ha) |
| Saturday (စနေ) | တ (ta),ထ (hta),ဒ (da),ဓ (da, dha),န (na) |
| Sunday (တနင်္ဂနွေ) | အ (a) |
