October 23, 2004
NAME GAME:
Identity Issues in Mongolia: A nation that has been on a first-name basis for decades is going one better. Meet Cosmos, Lord God and the ubiquitous Borjigin. (Mark Magnier, October 23, 2004, LA Times)
School principal Baast chose the name "Nomad" in keeping with his wandering spirit. Defense Minister Gurragchaa — the only Mongolian to venture into space — settled on "Cosmos." And anthropology student Vanchigdash picked the Mongolian word for wisdom. "It makes me feel rather wise," he said. "I'm very proud of my new name."Mongolians, long used to using only first names, are reshaping their identities under a government-led initiative to add surnames.
For those who didn't give it much thought, and even some who did, the most obvious choice for a surname was, is and always will be Borjigin, the clan name of Genghis Khan, the 12th-century warrior and native son who put this north-central Asian nation on the map.
"It seems like half the population is named after Genghis," said Ganaa, a 30-year-old mother whose family initially considered Borjigin before settling on Aldar, after their ancestral village. "It's good we're adopting surnames, because there's been lots of confusion. But with everyone choosing Genghis' name, that's also confusing."
The new hereditary system of surnames promises to create more historic continuity than the use of one name. So far, however, most Mongolians don't use them, except on the most formal of occasions.
"To tell you the truth, I can't remember mine," said Odonbayar, a tanned, 24-year-old herder from southwestern Mongolia.
What does Korea have, five surnames or something like that? And isn't there a people in India who all took English tradenames--Cooper, Sawyer, Fletcher, etc.? Posted by Orrin Judd at October 23, 2004 10:08 AM
More like three ubiquitous surnames - Lee, Pak (or Park) and Min - though there are others. It sometimes seems as if half of Vietnam is surnamed Nguyen.
Posted by: Joe at October 23, 2004 11:33 AMJoe-- you forgot Gim/Kim. Ahn is pretty common too.
There's only about 250, and 13 cover over half the poplulation.
Posted by: John Thacker at October 23, 2004 12:37 PMMy girlfriend's eye doctor is an Iranian named Mossadegh. I asked her about it, and she said her father did know the famous Dr. Mohammad Mossadegh, but that they weren't related and that Iranians had done a similar process of surname adoption.
Also, about eight years ago I knew an Indian woman named Monica Kapur. I knew Kapur was a common Indian name, but didn't know that Monica was also very common. She claimed her name was the rough equivalent of "Jane Smith" in the US.
Posted by: PapayaSF at October 23, 2004 1:04 PMThe equivalent of John Doe in China is 'Old Hundred Names' because there are only 100 last names among Han Chinese. That phonebook must be a nightmare.
The Parsis in India all took English occupational names like Merchant or Engineer.
Posted by: Bart at October 23, 2004 2:24 PMA college roommate had the English last name Thacker.
Turned out, though, that in Hindi it was the same as Tagore (as in Rabindranath).
Tagore the poet was from the east coast, my roommate from the west coast.
Same written name, same signification, different pronunciation.
Posted by: Harry Eagar at October 24, 2004 2:43 PM