Naming in Bhutan

Names in Bhutan do not carry any family names. The person may add one by himself in the later part of his or her life or educated parents give part of their names while naming their children.

Although most of the names are given by lamas, from the temples, some are given by the astrologers and some by the parents themselves or by the grand parents. Those given from the temples can be associated with the name of the deity of the particular temple.

Children are usually given good names but sometimes the parents and grandparents often give bad names like Tsagay means stupid, it can because he had been a bad child or can be because he used to act stupid.

Names like Nala and Nado have reference to facial color of a person. Someone with dark complexioned is nick named Nala or Nado meaing dark.

Bhutanese in general have two names, but there are many who just have a single name.   Names can be grouped in genders. The first name would be same for both the gender of a person. There are specific names to differentiate men from women.  Wangmo can be only for women whereas Wangdi can be only for men.  Those with the single names, it is hard to know the gender of the person by names.

Naming in certain part of Bhutan are associated with certain beliefs, for example, if a child had a prematurebirth, he or she will be put in a copper pot and pretend to cook so that he or she is believed to get completely matured. Such child is called Zangla meaning copper.

And sometimes premature child is put in the measuring beam and weighed to make him or her matured, such child is called Sangla meaning measuring beam.

The twins are named Nima and Dawa (sun and Moon) and if it is triplet, the third is called Karma (star).