Wikipedia:Naming conventions (Burmese)
This consensus. When in doubt, discuss first on this guideline's talk page. |
In naming Myanmar or Burmese-related topics and article titles, please follow these conventions.
Spelling
Because there is no standardized romanization system for Burmese, spellings for the names of people and places often vary widely depending on the source. When a certain spelling is widely predominant in English sources, that spelling should be used. For place names, An Introduction to the Toponymy of Burma, published by The Permanent Committee on Geographical Names for British Official Use, is a useful source; however, its spellings are not based on usage, but largely on the official spellings of the present Burmese Government.
Use full names
Polysyllabic names
Longer, polysyllabic personal names have become increasingly common among the Burmese (3 syllables for males, 4 for females). Unless the name contains Sanskrit or Pali loan words, each syllable should be separated with a space. Examples:
- Htet Htet Moe Oo (ထက်ထက်မိုးဦး)
- All are native Burmese words
- Yadanar Khin (ရတနာခင်)
- Yadanar is a Burmese loan of Pali ratana, "jewel"
- Khin is a native Burmese word
- Khin Sandar Win(ခင်စန္ဒာဝင်း)
- Sandar is a Burmese loan of Pali chanda, "moon"
- Khin and Win are native Burmese words
- Tayza (တေဇ) (also spelled Tay Za or Teza by media)
- Tayza is a Burmese loan of Pali teja, "glory"
Honorifics
Although the
Please use {{Burmese name}} to indicate which part of a name is honorific.
Below are some common honorifics used in Burmese names:
Honorific | Burmese | Translation | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Ashin | အရှင် | Lord | Used by monks, nobles, and rarely, for women |
Bo/Bogyoke | ဗိုလ်/ဗိုလ်ချုပ် | Commander/General | Used for military officers (e.g., Bogyoke Aung San) |
Daw | ဒေါ် | Aunt/Ms | Used for mature women or women in a senior position (e.g. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi) |
Duwa | ဒူးဝါး | Chief | Used for Kachin chiefs |
Ko | ကို | Brother (older) | Used for men of similar age (e.g. Ko Mya Aye) |
Ma | မ | Sister/Ms | Used for young women or women of similar age |
Mahn | မန်း | - | Used by Kayin men (e.g., Mahn Win Maung) |
Mai/Me | မယ် | Used by some young women in lieu of မ, but exceedingly rare | |
Maung (abbr. Mg) | မောင် | Brother (younger) for boys | Sometimes used as part of given name |
Mi | မိ | Ms | Used by some young women, usually as a nickname (e.g., Mi Swe) |
Used by Mon women | |||
Min | မင်း | Lord | Used as a suffix for rulers, aristocrats (e.g. Mindon Min , Min Maha Giri) |
Minn | မင်း | A common Burmese Boy name derived from Min | |
Minh | မင်း | Used by Mon boys; equivalent to Maung | |
Nai | နိုင် | Mr | Used by Mon men; equivalent to U (e.g., Nai Shwe Kyin) |
Nang | နန်း | Ms | Used by Shan women |
Naw | နော် | Ms | Used by Kayin women |
Sai | စိုင်း | Mr | Used by Shan men (e.g., Sai Htee Saing) |
Salai | ဆလိုင်း | Used by Chin men (e.g., Salai Than Tun) | |
Sao | စဝ် | Used by Shan royalty (e.g., Sao Shwe Thaik) | |
Saw | စော | Mr | Used by Karen men (e.g., Saw Bo Mya) Archaic royal stytle meaning "lord"; also a common Burmese name |
Sawbwa |
စော်ဘွား | Chief | Burmese approximation of Shan 'saopha', used as a suffix for Shan chiefs (e.g., Nyaungshwe Sawbwa Sao Shwe Thaik) |
Saya | ဆရာ | Teacher | Used for males of senior rank or age |
Sayadaw | ဆရာတော် | Royal Teacher | Used for senior monks (e.g., Sayadaw U Pandita) |
Sayama | ဆရာမ | Teacher | Used for females of senior rank or age |
Shin | ရှင် | Lord | Used by monks and noble women (e.g. Shin Arahan, Yawei Shin Htwe) |
Tekkatho | တက္ကသိုလ် | University | Used by writers (increasingly rare, e.g., Tekkatho Phone Naing) |
Thakin | သခင် | Master | Used by the members of Dobama Asiayone (e.g., Thakin Kodaw Hmaing )
|
Theippan | သိပ္ပံ | Science | Used by writers (rarely used now, e.g., Theippan Maung Wa) |
U | ဦး | Uncle/Mr | Used for mature men or men in a senior position and monks (e.g., U Thant, U Ottama) |