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
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	Indestructable, 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, 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, Sajan Lama Ngarden.

References

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

• Archived version of article at www.tibetanworldmagazine.com