현대 몽골인명(人名)의 민속학적 일고찰|RISS 상세보기

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Personal names in post-socialist Mongolia are not accessories attached to any human being but “names implicitly present their bearers by indirect references to social relationship and systems of classifications”(Barnes, 1982). Along the same line, Hamayon suggests that “a person's name is a privileged means of identification, encompassing two types of relationship s : with other people and with the bearer of the name himself/herself”(Hamayon, 1973). In this paper, I mainly focused on underlying motivations behind the choice of personal names in post-socialist Mongolia.
In Mongolia, children are given one personal name shortly after birch, either by their parents or in former times by a lama. In the countryside in particular its grandparents and sometimes senior kinsmen choose one name for a baby. Usually the patrilateral grandfather and the baby's father are involved in this event but quite often one of the most respected person among kinsmen or matrilateral grandfather endows the baby with name.
Mongolian names exhibit gender division. This has essentially two aspects. Firstly, both prefixes and suffixes of names connote strongly gender difference. Secondly, in the case of names with one component, male ones normally connote some such concept as “strong”, “big” and “wide”while female names usually involve ideas such as “pure”, “good” and “wise”. One of the interesting features is the component “Tumen”(thousand) which is used exclusively for female names while component “Huu”(son) is in use both male and female names.
Many Mongolians believe that a new born baby is very vulnerable to bad spirits and so it is necessary for them to disguise their identity for a certain time. After the hair cutting ritual Mongolian children are generally called by their proper names but sometimes the “odd” names are still in use for their whole life. In some cases, especially children who are very weak “odd” names become their names for both official and practical use. It is not difficult to find some adult Mongolians who are called by the “odd” names, such as “Terbish”(s/he is not), “Hunbish”(not human being), “Bas”(dung), etc.
Most Mongolians try to endow their children with proper names that have implications of modesty. Unlike those of male historical heroes and ancestors, names of female heroines and ancestors are considered suitable. As I mentioned above it is believed that names and bearers' destiny are interconnected with each other. Thus many Mongolian parents wish for a stable life for their children rather than a high risk and hard life, although the later may be rewarded with the appreciation of hero or heroine. Parents accept that the finding of proper names for children is as important as raising them.

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