Ayu and Agey are familiar names among explorers of the 1,985 sq. km Namdapha, India’s easternmost tiger reserve bordering Myanmar. But for members of their Lisu or Yobin community, inhabiting pockets of the Miao subdivision in Arunachal Pradesh’s Changlang district, the names of the two ‘birding’ brothers are also clear indicators of the order they were born into their family.
In the Lisu dialect, Ayu means ‘seventh, while Agey means ‘eighth. Apart from the sequence of their birth, their names reveal that they have at least six male siblings, with the eldest named Apu, followed by Adu, Akhi, Achi, Ati, and Apshi.
“I do not write ‘Ayu’, but members of my family, clan, and tribe call me by that name. Numbering our names is a tradition we generally adhere to,” said Yolisa Yobin of Gandhigram aka Shidi, about 120 km from Miao. An organiser of birding expeditions in Namdapha, he was among six birdwatchers who recorded the Lisu wren babbler as a new species in 2022.
Reflecting birth order
Lisu boys and girls have separate sets of numbered names to indicate the order of their birth. The eldest girl in a family has Ana in her name, and the ones after her are called Angyi, Acha, Ado, Achhi, Ata, Akhu, Agu, Aju, and Apshi, for a tenth daughter.
“We have a mechanism for clearing the numerical confusion in cases where two or more families may have an equal or almost equal number of boys and girls. This is done by prefixing or suffixing the given names to the number assigned after birth,” Tifusa Yobin, the president of the Yobin Welfare Society told The Hindu.
His name, for instance, is derived from Ati, or the fifth male child in the family. Akhila, his brother, carries Akhi, or the number ‘three’ in his name. “I should ideally have used Atifusa but I dropped the ‘A’ from my name,” he said.
He added that Lisu names may also reflect the names of their clans, such as Ngwazah, Jeazah, Zali, Michey, Heizah, Lameh, Womeh, Fuchey, and Lawoh.
Ethnic bonds
The Lisus belong to the Tibeto-Burman family and inhabit the contiguous hilly regions of Arunachal Pradesh, China, Myanmar, and Thailand. They number about 5,000 in India.
The tradition of numbered names is also prevalent among the Singphos, an ethnic group inhabiting 27 countries, including China’s Yunnan province. In India, they mostly inhabit the Changlang and Namsai districts of Arunachal Pradesh, and the Tinsukia district of Assam.
“The Lisus and Singphos have similar usage of numbers in their names, probably because we belong to the Wunpong group, which has four more communities in the Kachin State of Myanmar,” said Nitu Singpho, the president of the Miao unit of the Arunachal Pradesh Women Welfare Society.
Clan names
In a family of seven Singpho brothers, the eldest has Gam in his name followed by Nong, La, Du, Tang, Yong, and Yun. For seven Singpho sisters, the sequence is Ko, Lu, Roi, Thu, Kai, Kha, and Pi.
“Our names may also have the name of the clan or an ancestor. Within the community, I am Inao Nitu Singpho. Inao is the name of our clan,” Ms. Singpho explained.
Her husband, Inao Maila Singpho, is the third (La) among his brothers, while her elder son, pursuing a PhD at the Rajiv Gandhi University is Inao Zauseng. Zau is a variant of Gam, indicating that he is the first son in his family. Zau becomes feminine when ‘J’ replaces ‘Z’.
