Month: June 2004

An article about Mongolians getting back surnames:

After seizing power in the early 1920s, the Mongolian Communists destroyed all family names in a campaign to eliminate the clan system, the hereditary aristocracy and the class structure.
Within a few decades, most Mongolians had forgotten their ancestral names. They used only a single given name — a system that eventually became confusing when 9,000 women ended up with the same name, Altantsetseg, meaning “golden flower.”
…
In 1997, a new law required everyone to have surnames…. Today, however, there are still 10,000 people without surnames.
…
Borjigin, the tribal name of Genghis Khan, has become the most popular name in the country. It means “master of the blue wolf,” a reference to Mongolia’s creation myth.

“Everyone wants the name Borjigin, as if they have some connection to Genghis Khan,” said Serjee Besud, director of Mongolia’s state library and a leading researcher on surnames.

“It’s like a fashion. But it has no meaning if everyone has the same name. It’s like having no name at all.”
Mr. Besud has spent years poring over the dusty archives of the state library to compile a book of possible surnames for the nameless. He obtained access to the highly secret archives of the country’s Communist Party, which included detailed lists of the names of noble families who were prohibited from party membership.

He discovered his own long-lost surname, Besud, by finding his grandfather’s name on a 1925 list of conscripts in a Communist army.

His book, called Advice on Mongolian Surnames, provides maps and lists of historically used surnames in each region of the country.

The book also suggests other ways to choose a surname. Some people choose the name of a mountain or river in their ancestral region.

Others prefer the name of an ancestral occupation: Blacksmith, Herdsman or Writer. Some names are linked to clans: White Camel or Black-and-White Horse.

And some names have more obscure origins. One surname listed in the book, perhaps less fashionable today, is Seven Drunk Men.

Seven Drunk Men, huh? Obviously named after the clan’s father(s)…
Maybe Tal can make some extra money as a surname consultant…