Burmese names

Burmese names (Burmese: မြန်မာ အမည်) lack the serial structure of most Western names. Like other Mainland Southeast Asian people (except Vietnamese), the people of Myanmar have no customary matronymic or patronymic naming system and no tradition of surnames. Although other Mainland Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Malaysia introduced the use of surnames or patronyms in the early 20th century, Myanmar never introduced the use of surnames and lacks surnames in the modern day. Instead, Burmese names use an honorific prefix to reflect the person's stage in life and position in society. Traditional and Western-style names Burmese names were originally one syllable, as in the cases of U Nu and U Thant ("U" being an honorific). In the mid-20th century, many Burmese started using two syllables, albeit without any formal structure. In the late 1890s, British scholars observed that Arakanese commonly adopted three-syllable names whereas Burmans were still using one or two at most. As they become more familiar with Western culture, Burmese people are gradually increasing the number of syllables in their children's names, by use of various str