Tibetan name

Tibetan names typically consist of two juxtaposed elements.

Family names are rare except among those of aristocratic ancestry and then come before the personal name (but diaspora Tibetans living in societies that expect a surname may adopt one). For example, in Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme, Ngapoi was his family name and Nga-Wang Jigmê his personal name.

Tibetan nomads (drokpa) also use clan names; in farming communities, they are now rare and may be replaced by household name.

Tibetan culture is patrilineal; descent is claimed from the four ancient clans that are said to have originally inhabited Ancient Tibet: Se, Rmu, Stong and Ldong. The ancient clan system of Tibet is called rus-ba (རུས་པ), meaning bone or bone lineage.[1] The four clans were further divided into branches which are Dbra, Vgru, Ldong, Lga, Dbas and Brdav. With inter-clan marriages, the subclans were divided into many sub-branches.

While Tibetans from Kham and Amdo use their clan names as surnames, most farming communities in Central Tibet stopped using their clan names centuries ago and instead use household names.

Traditionally, personal names are bestowed upon a child by lamas, who often incorporate an element of their own name. In the Tibetan diaspora, Tibetans often turn to the Dalai Lama for names for their children. As a result, the exile community has an overwhelming population of boys and girls whose first name is "Tenzin", the personal first name of the 14th Dalai Lama.

Personal names are in most cases composed of readily understood Tibetan words. Most personal names may be given to either males or females. Only a few are specifically male or female.

Meanings of some of the common names are listed below:

Tibetan | Wylie | ZWPY | Chinese | English Common
Spelling | Meaning | Reference

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བསྟན་འཛིན | bstan 'dzin | Dänzin | 丹增  | Tenzin, Tenzing  | Holder of Buddha Dharma  |
རྒྱ་མཚོ | rgya mtsho | Gyamco | 嘉措  | Gyatso | Ocean  |
སྐལ་བཟང | skal bzang | Gaisang  | 格桑  | Kelsang  | Good destiny, Good luck, Golden age, Flower |
ཉི་མ | nyi ma | Nyima | 尼玛  | Nyima  | Sun, Day, Sunday  |
རྡོ་རྗེ | rdo rje | Duo Jie  | 多吉，多杰  | Dorji | Indestructible, Invincible, Vajra |
དོན་གྲུབ | don grub | Dang Zhou  | 顿珠  | Dhondup  | Wish come true  |
མེ་ཏོག | me tog |  | 梅朵  | Medo  | Flower  |
ལྷ་མོ | lha mo |  | 拉姆，拉莫  | Lhamo  | Princess, Goddess, Tibetan opera  |
སྒྲོལ་མ | sgrol ma | Drölma | 卓玛  | Dolma  | Tara, Goddess  |
པད་མ | pad ma | Pema | 贝玛，白玛  | Pema | Lotus  |
ཚེ་རིང | tshe ring | Cering | 才仁  | Tsering  | Long life  |
རྒྱལ་མཚན | rgyal mtshan |  | 坚赞  | Gyaltsen  | Banner of victory, Dhvaja |
ཡེ་ཤེས | ye shes | Yêxê | 伊喜，益西  | Yeshe | Wisdom, Jnana | [2]
བསོད་ནམས | bsod nams | Soinam | 索南，索朗  | Sonam | Merit, Virtue  | [3]
བདེ་སྐྱིད | bde skyid | Têci | 德吉  | Diki | Happiness  |
ཟླ་བ | zla wa | Dawa | 达娃  | Dawa | Moon, Month, Monday  |
བཀྲ་ཤིས | bkra shis | Zhaxi | 扎西  | Tashi | Auspiciousness, Good fortune  |
བདེ་ལེགས | bde legs |  | 德勒  | Delek, Deleh  | Bliss, Happiness  |
རིན་ཆེན | rin chen |  | 仁钦  | Rinchen | Treasure, Precious Jewel, Gem  |
དབང་མོ | dbang mo | Wangmô | 旺姆  | Wangmo | Lady with wealth and luck  |
བདེ་ཆེན | bde chen | Dêqên | 德钦，德千  | Dechen | Great bliss  | [4][5]

Other common Tibetan names include Bhuti, Choedon, Choekyi, Chogden, Subash Lama, Chokphel, Damchoe, Dasel, Dema, Dhondup, Dolkar, Gyurmey, Jampa, Jangchup, Jungney, Kalden, Khando, Karma, Kunchok, Kunga, Lekhshey, Lhakpa, Lhakyi, Lhami, Lhawang, Lobsang, Metok, Namdak, Namdol, Namgyal, Ngonga, Norbu, Paljor, Pasang, Peldun, Phuntsok, Phurpa, Rabgang, Rabgyal, Rabten, Rangdol, Rigsang, Rigzin, Samdup, Sangyal, Thinley, Tsomo, Tsundue, Wangchuk, Wangyag, Woeser, Woeten, Yangdol, Yangkey, and Yonten.

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "How ancient Tibetan people combine different clans_News_History_China Tibet Online". eng.tibet.cn. Archived from the original on 2014-09-17.
2. ^ The Collected Works of Chögyam Trungpa. Vol. 6\. Shambhala Publications. 2010. p. 426\. ISBN 9780834821552.
3. ^ Buswell, Robert E. Jr.; Lopez, Donald S. Jr. (2013). The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism. Princeton University Press. p. 1232\. ISBN 9780691157863.
4. ^ 陈观胜 [Chen Guansheng] 安才旦 [An Caidan] (2004). 《汉英藏对照常见藏语人名地名词典》 [Dictionary of Common Tibetan Personal and Place Names]. Beijing: Foreign Languages Press. p. 74\. ISBN 7-119-03497-9.
5. ^ Payne, Richard Karl; Tanaka, Kenneth Kazuo (2004). Approaching the Land of Bliss: Religious Praxis in the Cult of Amitåabha. University of Hawaii Press. p. 49\. ISBN 0-824-82578-0.

* Tournadre, Nicolas & Sangda Dorje (2003). Manual of Standard Tibetan: Language and Civilization. trans. Ramble, Charles. Ithaca: Snow Lion Publications. ISBN 1-55939-189-8.

## External links

[edit]

* Archived version of article at www.tibetanworldmagazine.com

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Personal names and anthroponymy

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