Honorifics
As above, honorifics supplement a given name, and can be the normal form of address used both in writing and in speech, especially with a name of one or two syllables. Widespread use of honorifics is found within all cultures in the Burmese region. Although some ethnic groups have special honorifics, these words are recognized and applied by other groups (rather than being translated).
For example, Aung San's parents are more generally known as U Pha and Daw Suu. These can be translated as "Mr. Pha" and "Ms. Suu" but are often used more informally.
Below are some common honorifics used in Burmese names:
| Honorific | Burmese | Translation | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ashin | အရှင် or အသျှင် | Lord | Used by monks, nobles, and rarely, for women |
| Binnya, Banya | ဗညား or ဗညာ | Used to indicate royalty and nobility, from Mon ဗညာ /pəɲɛ̀a/) | |
| Bo, Bogyoke | ဗိုလ်/ဗိုလ်ချုပ် | Commander/General/Leader | Used for military officers (e.g., Bogyoke Aung San) |
| Daw | ဒေါ် | Aunt/Ms | Used for mature women or women in a senior position (e.g. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi) |
| Duwa | ဒူးဝါး | Chief | Used for Kachin chiefs |
| Khun | ခွန် | Mr | Used by Shan men (of Kengtung ancestry; e.g., Khun Htun Oo) |
| Ko | ကို | Brother (older) | Used for men of similar age (e.g., Ko Mya Aye) |
| Ma | မ | Sister/Ms | Used for young women or women of similar age |
| Mahn | မန်း | - | Used by Karen men (e.g., Mahn Win Maung) |
| Mai, Me | မယ် | Used by some young women in lieu of မ, but exceedingly rare | |
| Maung (abbr. Mg) | မောင် | Brother (younger) for boys | Sometimes used as part of given name |
| Mi | မိ | Ms | Used by some young women, usually as a nickname (e.g., Mi Swe) |
| Mi | မိ | Ms | Used by Mon women |
| Min | မင်း | King | Used as a suffix (e.g., Mindon Min) |
| Minh | မင်း | Used by Mon boys; equivalent to Maung, from Mon မာံ (/mèm/) | |
| Nai | နိုင် | Mr | Used by Mon men; equivalent to U (e.g., Nai Shwe Kyin), from Mon နဲာ (/nài/) |
| Nang | နန်း | Ms | Used by Shan women, from Shan ၼၢင်း (/naaŋ/) |
| Naw | နော် | Ms | Used by Karen women |
| Sai | စိုင်း | Mr | Used by Shan men (e.g., Sai Htee Saing), from Shan ၸၢႆး (/tsaaj/ |
| Salai | ဆလိုင်း | Used by Chin men | |
| Sao | စဝ် | Lord | Used by Shan royalty (e.g., Sao Shwe Thaik), from Shan ၸဝ်ႈ (/tsaw/) |
| Saw | စော | Lord | Used by Shan royalty (Burmanized form of Sao) (e.g., Saw Mon Hla) |
| Saw | စော | Mr | Used by Karen men (e.g., Saw Bo Mya) |
| Sawbwa | စော်ဘွား | Chief | Burmese approximation of Shan 'saopha' (ၸဝ်ႈၽႃႉ, /tsaw pʰaa/), used as a suffix for Shan chiefs (e.g., Nyaungshwe Sawbwa Sao Shwe Thaik) |
| Saya | ဆရာ | Teacher | Used for males of senior rank or age |
| Sayadaw | ဆရာတော် | Royal Teacher | Used for senior monks (e.g., Sayadaw U Pandita) |
| Sayama | ဆရာမ | Teacher | Used for females of senior rank or age |
| Shin | ရှင် or သျှင် | Lord | Used by monks and noble men and women (Archaic; e.g., Shin Arahan, Shin Ye Htut, Yawei Shin Htwe) |
| Tekkatho | တက္ကသိုလ် | University | Used by writers (Archaic; e.g., Tekkatho Phone Naing) |
| Thakin | သခင် | Master | Used by the members of Dobama Asiayone (Archaic; e.g., Thakin Kodaw Hmaing) |
| Theippan | သိပ္ပံ | Science | Used by writers (Archaic; e.g., Theippan Maung Wa) |
| U | ဦး | Uncle/Mr | Used for mature men or men in a senior position and monks (e.g., U Thant, U Ottama) |
Read more about this topic: Burmese Name