| Mongolian Names |  |
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Mongols have just one given name(ner)which serves as both forename and surname.Short or familiar forms of the
given name are used within the family or among close friends.Wives do not adopt their husband's name on marriage. Mongolian names for men often denote "manly"qualities,like Bat(strong),Bold(steel),Chuluun(stone) or Sukh(axe). Women may be named after flowers,like Narantsetseg(sunflower),Udval(chrysanthemum) or Khongorzul(thhistle). Some personal names are of Tibetan origin or have come from Sanskrit via Lamaism,including Dorjpalam(diamond) and Ochir and Bazar(both meaning vajra or thunderbolt),while Lianhua(lotus) or Loohuuz(old man with a beard)are Chinese.In modern times Mongols have sometimes been given Russian names like Vladimir,Sasha,Oktiabr(October), Olya and Seseer(USSR).The name Chingghis(Genghis Khan)is not used,however. To distinguish themselves from others with the same given name,Mongols precede it with their father's name plus a possessive suffox-Bat-yn Dorj,Dorj-iin Dulmaa etc.,where Dorj's father name is Bat and Dulmaa's father's name is Dorj.The Mongols call their father's name(patronymic)ovog,which originally meant'clan"(since 1999).It is often reduced to the initial letter-B.Dorj,D.Dulmaa,etc.When they write their patronymics in Englsih some Mongols omit the possessive suffix-Bat Dorj,Dorj Dulmaa.Mongols from Russia have adopted full Russian name forms-given name, patronymic and inherited surname(Shagdar-yn Tsengel=Tsengel Shagdarov(a)). cairo976@yahoo.com |
