Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Thai name


Thai names follow the North Indian and Western European pattern in which the family name follows a first or given name. In this they differ from the family-name-first pattern of the East Asian tradition or the Patronymic traditions in South India and the Arab world.
Thai names, both given name and family, are often long and there are a great many of them. The diversity of family names is because they are required to be unique to a family, and they are a recent introduction. Further, Thai people change their family names relatively frequently (this practice being virtually unknown in many other countries outside of marriage).
Last names only became legally required of Thais in 1913:[1] before then, most Thais used only a first or individual name. The names generally convey positive attributes. Under Thai law, only one family can use any given surname: thus any two people of the same surname must be related, and it is very rare for two people to share the same full name.
Thai names are often long, particularly among those of upper-class families.
As a measure of the diversity of Thai names, in a sample of 45,665 names, 81% of family names were unique, and 35% of given names were unique: the people with shared family names are thus related, and the diversity of given names is conventional.[2]


Noble names

Descendants of the nobility, both hereditary and non-hereditary positions, generally take the noble name of their ancestor for a surname. For example, Field Marshal Plaek Pibulsonggramadopted the surname Pibulsonggram as it was his given noble rank. Descendants of royal princes in the Chakri dynasty are bound by royal traditions to adopt the name of their royal ancestor as a surname. For instance, Hugo Chakrabongse is a descendant of Prince Chakrabongse Bhuvanath. Some (far removed) descendants of royalty add the preposition "na" (ณ) to geographical names to create surnames, in exactly the same way that members of German noble families use "Von." Thus Mongkol Na Songkhla, a minister in the Surayud government, has a name which indicates he is a distant descendant of royalty or nobility in that geographical region (for instance the surname "Na Chiangmai" belonging to descendants of the rulers of Chiangmai, which was a vassal state of Siam). The name of Kasem Sanitwong Na Ayutthaya, another minister, indicates that he is related to the royal family, as it is also tradition for far-removed descendants to add "Na Ayutthaya" after their surnames. In this case, Sanitwong is the family name of Kasem. Sanitwong itself being a name of a royal consort of Rama V and the subsequent family name for her descendants.

Formal and informal names

In polite speech, Thais will address each other or refer to each other by their given name, preceded by the honorific "khun." This applies particularly to persons of public distinction. Thus, the ministers mentioned above would be addressed and referred to as "Khun Mongkol" and "Khun Kasem," especially since they are respected persons. There are some misunderstandings that "Khun" would be replaced with "Khunying" when a person to whom the speaker refers is a woman. In fact, “Khunying” is comparable to Lady in western culture. Please see Thai royal and noble titles for more details.
In less formal situations, Thais will address each other by nicknames (chue-len or Thaiชึ่อเล่น "play-name"). Given by parents or relatives in early childhood, these nicknames are typically one syllable (or worn down from two syllables to one). They may often be nonsense words or humorous, and usually have no relation to the person's actual name. All Thais have such a name, and they are freely used in everyday life regardless of how childish they may seem to non-Thais. The King's nickname, for example, is Ong Lek (TH: องค์เล็ก ; Ong is a numerative noun for kings, princes, princesses, priests, images of Buddha, gods, angels, palaces, pagodas; "Lek" means "little (one)", a common name for younger brothers). Former prime ministerThaksin Shinawatra's is Maew, the Thai name for the Hmong. In addition, some Thais may also have some additional nicknames given by their friends or colleagues especially during their school age or adolescence. These friend-given nicknames usually linked with notable physical feature or behavior of that person. For example, a boy with eyeglasses may be called by his friends “Waen” (Thaiแว่น "eyeglasses"). After the boy was frequently called by his friends as Waen, he may at some points accept that name as another nickname of himself even though he still uses his family-given nickname when he speak with other members in his family.
Westerners meeting Thais in everyday life will usually be introduced to the Thai person only by their nickname, and will not discover the person's real name unless they ask: Thais tend to assume (generally[citation needed] correctly) that Westerners[citation needed] cannot pronounce or remember long Thai names. Except in the most formal situations (meeting a government minister, for example), it is quite acceptable to address or refer to a Thai by their nickname. The nickname can be preceded by "khun". This will seem slightly comic to Thais, but will be understood as a gesture of respect.

extracted from : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thai_name

Monday, September 14, 2009

Vietnamese names

Vietnamese names

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



Vietnamese names generally consist of three parts: a family name, a middle name, and a given name, used in that order. Like their Chinese, Korean, and other counterparts, this is in accordance to the East Asian system of personal names. In a deviation from the East Asian naming system, a person will be referred to either by the whole name or by a given name in normal usage.



Due to the ubiquity of the major family names such as Tran and Nguyen, a person is often referred to by their middle name along with their given name in Vietnamese media and youth culture.



The Vietnamese language is tonal, and so are Vietnamese names. The same spelling with different tones are different names, which can confuse non-Vietnamese people when the diacritics are dropped when used outside of Vietnam.



Family name



The family name, positioned first, is passed on by the father to his children (patronymic naming system). It is estimated that there are around one hundred family names in common use, although some are far more common than others. The name Nguyễn is estimated to be used by almost 40% of the Vietnamese population. The top three names are so popular because people tended to take the family name of kings, to show their favor and loyalty. Over many generations, the family names became permanent.



The most popular family names among the Vietnamese are (the Chinese characters following each name are their Chinese equivalents):



1. Nguyễn 阮 (38.4%)

2. Trần 陳 (11%)

3. Lê 黎 (9.5%)

4. Phạm 范 (7.1%)

5. Huỳnh/Hoàng 黃 (5.1%)

6. Phan 潘 (4.5%)

7. Vũ/Võ 武 (3.9%)

8. Đặng 鄧(2.1%)

9. Bùi 裴 (2%)

10. Đỗ 杜 (1.4%)

11. Hồ 胡 (1.3%)

12. Ngô 吳 (1.3%)

13. Dương 楊 (1%)

14. Lý 李 (0.5%)





The following include some other less common surnames, in no particular order:



* Lâm 林

* Đinh: 丁

* Nghiêm: 嚴

* Đào: 陶

* Vương: 王

* Trịnh: 鄭 (almost exclusively a northern surname, based around Thanh Hóa)

* Phùng: 馮

* Chung: 鍾

* Triệu: 趙

* Đoàn: 段

* Hà: 何

* Trương: 張

* Tôn: 孫

* Liễu (in northern or central regions): 柳

* Lưu (in central or southern regions): 劉

* Mai: 梅

* La: 羅

* Văn: 文

* Tạ: 謝

* Lương: 梁

* Kim: 金

* Thạch: 石

* Lạc: 駱

* Thủy:水



In Vietnamese cultural practice, women almost always keep their family names once they marry, just as in other East Asian cultures, including Chinese culture, to the north and northeast.



Some Vietnamese have a dual family name. Usually it is a combination of the father's family name and the mother's family name. For example, "Nguyễn Phạm", "Nguyễn Lê".



Intercalary name



The middle name is selected by parents from a fairly narrow range. In the past, almost all women had Thị (氏) as their middle name, and many men had Văn (文). More recently, a broader range of names have been used, and people named Thị sometimes omit their middle name. The middles are used to judge the gender of the person[2]. So respectively, the name "Lee Thị Nguyễn", is a female name because of the "Thị". The same applies to the males with the Văn as their middle name.



Thị is by far the most common female middle name. Male middle names include Văn, Hữu (友), Đức, Công, Quang and many others.



Generally, the middle name has three usages:



1. To indicate a person's generation — brothers and sisters share the same middle name, which distinguish them from the generation before and after them (see generation name).

2. To separate branches of a big family. For example, "Nguyễn Hữu", "Nguyễn Sinh", "Trần Lâm". However, this usage is still controversial. Some people consider they are dual family names, not family name + middle name. Some families may, however, set up arbitrary rules about giving a different middle name to each generation.

3. To indicate a person's position in the family, also known as birth order. This usage is less common than others. It seems that just the Chinese still keep this convention.



Given name



The given name is the primary form of address for Vietnamese. It is chosen by parents, and usually has a literal meaning in the Vietnamese language. Names often represent beauty, such as bird or flower names, or attributes and characteristics that the parents want in their child, such as modesty (Khiem). Typical given names consists of two parts, the first is tên lót, which is just there to make it sound prettier, fancier, while the second is the one that most people go by.



Typically, Vietnamese will be addressed with their given name, even in formal situations, although an honorific equivalent to "Mr.", "Mrs.", etc. will be added when necessary. This contrasts with the situation in many other cultures, where the family name is used in formal situations. This practice is similar to Icelandic practice.



Addressing someone by his or her family name is rare, though not impossible to find. In the past, married women in the north have been called by their family name, with Thị 氏 as a suffix. In recent years, doctors are more likely to be addressed by their family name than any other group of society, though this form of reference is more common in the north than in the south. Some extremely well-known people are sometimes referred by their family names, such as Hồ Chí Minh ("Uncle Hồ") (however his real last name is Nguyễn), Trịnh Công Sơn ("Trịnh music"), and Hồ Xuân Hương ("the poetess with the family name Hồ"). In the old days, people in Vietnam, and particularly North Vietnam addressed parents using the first child's name for example Mr and Mrs Anh or Master Minh.



However, when being addressed within the family, the children are commonly referred to by their birth number, starting from one in the north but starting with two in the south.





Example



* Nguyễn Tấn Dũng is the current Prime Minister of Vietnam. Nguyễn is his family name, Tấn is his middle name, and Dũng is his given name. In formal usage, he is referred to by his given name ("Mr. Dũng"), not by his family name ("Mr. Nguyễn").

* Likewise, the famous general and military leader, Võ Nguyên Giáp, is referred to by his given name, eg, "General Giáp."
 
source: http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=163573248297

Myanmar, a well-known producer of gems in the world, boasts ruby, diamond, cat's eye, emerald, topaz, pearl, sapphire, coral and a variety of garnet tinged with yellow.

Myanmar, a well-known producer of gems in the world, boasts ruby, diamond, cat's eye, emerald, topaz, pearl, sapphire, coral and a variety of garnet tinged with yellow.

Myanmar cultures about 400,000 units of pearls every year from eight pearl farms in the country with investment from Australia, Japan, Indonesia, the Philippines, China and Thailand, according to report.

Myanmar's ruby, diamond, cat's eye, emerald, topaz, pearl, sapphire, coral and pearl gain reputation in the world market.

The government's Central Statistical Organization revealed that in the fiscal year 2008-09, Myanmar produced 32,921 tons of jade and 18,728 million carats of gems which include ruby, sapphire, spinel and peridot, as well as 201,081 mommis (754 kilograms) of pearl.

In March this year, an annual gems emporium, which was the 46th,was held in Yangon on the basis of competitive bidding. In the emporium, more than 5,000 jade lots were displayed and 191 million U.S. dollars worth gems and jewelry were sold out.

The event was attended by over 2,300 foreign traders mostly from China and China's Hong Kong.

The gem merchants attending the show are mainly from Asian countries of China, China's Hong Kong, China's Taiwan and Singapore.

In June this year, a special Myanmar gem emporium again attracted more than 3,000 foreign gem traders, registering the highest number of visitors compared with the last few years' and the proceeds from it amounted to 292 million dollars.

Myanmar's gem market in Asia seems to have not been much affected by the global economic downturn as seen by observers as the country's gems and jewelry stand high in demand among the Asian countries.

read more at http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-09/13/content_12045884.htm