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Cambodian names (or Khmer names; ) are names used or originating in
Cambodia Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailand t ...
which usually consist of two elements including a
patronymic A patronymic, or patronym, is a component of a personal name based on the given name of one's father, grandfather (avonymic), or an earlier male ancestor. Patronymics are still in use, including mandatory use, in many countries worldwide, alt ...
, which serves as a common
family name In some cultures, a surname, family name, or last name is the portion of one's personal name that indicates one's family, tribe or community. Practices vary by culture. The family name may be placed at either the start of a person's full name ...
for siblings, followed by a
given name A given name (also known as a forename or first name) is the part of a personal name quoted in that identifies a person, potentially with a middle name as well, and differentiates that person from the other members of a group (typically a fa ...
(i.e. following the
Eastern name order A personal name, or full name, in onomastic terminology also known as prosoponym (from Ancient Greek πρόσωπον / ''prósōpon'' - person, and ὄνομα / ''onoma'' - name), is the set of names by which an individual person is known ...
)."Naming systems of the world"
(self-published). Citing Huffman, Franklin Eugene
''Cambodian names and titles''
Institute of Far Eastern Languages,
Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...
(1968).
OCLC OCLC, Inc., doing business as OCLC, See also: is an American nonprofit cooperative organization "that provides shared technology services, original research, and community programs for its membership and the library community at large". It was ...
20035170.
An example is singer
Sinn Sisamouth Sinn Sisamouth; (c. 1932 – c. 1976) was a Cambodian singer-songwriter active from the 1950s to the 1970s. Widely considered the "King of Khmer Music", Sisamouth, along with Ros Serey Sothea, Pen Ran, Mao Sareth, and other Cambodian artist ...
, his surname (last name) is ''Sinn'' and his given name (first name) is ''Sisamouth'' (in
Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...
sources, the two are sometimes reversed). The use of surnames in Cambodia is relatively recent and was not mandated by law until imposed by the French in 1910. Surnames are typically derived from the father's given name. Other
Austroasiatic The Austroasiatic languages , , are a large language family A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ''ancestral language'' or ''parental language'', called the proto-language of that family. The te ...
indigenous people groups within Cambodia have similar naming customs, while the
Sino-Khmer Chinese Cambodians (or Sino-Khmers) are Cambodian citizens of Chinese ancestry or Chinese of full or partial Khmer ancestry. The Khmer term ''Khmer Kat Chen'' () is used for people of mixed Chinese and Khmer descent; ''Chen Khmer'' () means Cambo ...
and Viet-Khmer may follow
Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...
and
Vietnamese Vietnamese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia ** A citizen of Vietnam. See Demographics of Vietnam. * Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam ** Overse ...
naming patterns, respectively.
Chams The Cham ( Cham: ''Čaṃ'') or Champa people ( Cham: , ''Urang Campa''; vi, Người Chăm or ; km, ជនជាតិចាម, ) are an Austronesian ethnic group. From the 2nd century to 1832 the Cham populated Champa, a contiguous territ ...
in Cambodia may have either Khmer or Cham names or a combination of both. Cham name order is the reverse of the Khmer; the given name is followed by the father's given name.


Given names

Generally, women are given names relating to beauty, while men are given names of virtues.Valerie Ooka Pang & Li-Rong Lilly Cheng. ''Struggling to Be Heard: The Unmet Needs of Asian Pacific American Children''.
SUNY Press The State University of New York (SUNY, , ) is a system of public colleges and universities in the State of New York. It is one of the largest comprehensive system of universities, colleges, and community colleges in the United States. Led by c ...
(1998)
p51
.
Some Khmer given names are
unisex names A unisex name (also known as an epicene name, a gender-neutral name or an androgynous name) is a given name that is not gender-specific. Unisex names are common in the English-speaking world, especially in the United States. By contrast, some c ...
.


Surnames

Historically, Khmer practiced cognatic kinship and reckoned descent bilaterally, and surnames were not used to trace descent. Surnames became mandatory only by legal decree during the French colonial era in 1910, but was rarely used outside of legal and administrative matters. After the passage of the law, parents often gave their children the father, grandfather or great-grandfather's given name as a surname. Some Khmer may also have surnames from the mother or two given names with one used as a surname. This heterogeneous naming practice continued into the 1970s and 1980s. When they were used, they were usually taken from the father's given name and are generally monosyllabic.Mary Fong & Rueyling Chuang. ''Communicating Ethnic and Cultural Identity''. Rowman & Littlefield (2003)
p40
.
Khmer surnames are sometimes identical to
Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...
or
Vietnamese Vietnamese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia ** A citizen of Vietnam. See Demographics of Vietnam. * Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam ** Overse ...
surnames. Women keep their
maiden name When a person (traditionally the wife in many cultures) assumes the family name of their spouse, in some countries that name replaces the person's previous surname, which in the case of the wife is called the maiden name ("birth name" is also use ...
s after marriage.


Origin and meanings

The earliest attested names among Khmer either have indigenous origins or were drawn from Sanskrit. The use of Sanskrit and Indic words as names continues to the present. The meanings of Khmer names are generally very simple and reference positive attributes. Cambodian people are called by their given names without a title (informal) or by their given names with a title (formal); the full name, including both family name and given name is often used Short, Philip. ''Pol Pot: Anatomy of a Nightmare.'' Macmillan (2006)
p xv
.
(Surnames are used as a form of address, however, in the case of names that originated as revolutionary aliases). Different naming traditions exist among ethnic groups other than the Khmer majority. The Cambodian population is 90%
Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...
and names are often taken from
Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...
. Among the
Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...
minority,
Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
names are often used as family names.


Pronunciation

Khmer names are usually pronounced with the stress (emphasis) placed on the last syllable. Khmer uses a
glottal stop The glottal plosive or stop is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages, produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract or, more precisely, the glottis. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents thi ...
(the brief stop in uh-oh) and other stops: ', ', ' and ' which may or may not occur with aspiration. In romanizations of
Khmer script Khmer script ( km, អក្សរខ្មែរ, )Huffman, Franklin. 1970. ''Cambodian System of Writing and Beginning Reader''. Yale University Press. . is an abugida (alphasyllabary) script used to write the Khmer language, the official la ...
, aspiration (i.e., a breath sound) is usually marked with an ''h''. Final ''r'', ''d'', ''g'', ''s'', ''b'', and ''z'' sounds are not heard: Ngor is pronounced ''Ngow''. Some final consonants are written but not pronounced.


List of some family names

Although historically, surnames were chosen from the father, grandfather, or great-grandfather's given name, in modern practice, surnames are now usually transmitted from father to children. Other ethnic groups, particularly Chinese-Cambodians and Vietnamese-Cambodians, may have a family name that is taken by each generation, in which case the name is pronounced similarly to the language of origin but within the bounds of Khmer phonology. Below is a list of some common family names, some of which are also found as given names.


List of given names

Unlike Khmer family names, given names may have multiple syllables and differ greatly. Given names were influenced greatly by Sanskrit.


Compound names

At times, many families combine shorter names to create a longer name. This happens often among the wealthier class of Cambodians. *Sovanna (Combined "So" and "
Vanna Vanna () is a given name that first appeared in recorded European history circa 1294. The Italian medieval feminine name originated in Tuscany, and is particular to Florence, Italy. Though similar in pronunciation to the Italian name Giovanna, an ...
") means gold in Sanskrit *Somally (Combined "So" and "Maly") *Chandarith (Combined "Chanda" and "Rith")


See also


Khmer Names
Asian name pronunciation guide


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cambodian Name Names by culture Cambodian culture