Why do so many Mong people have the name Tua (Tuam/Tuov)?

The Mong people will perform the hu plig ceremony to call the tus plig soul back into the body of the baby lub cev early on the third morning after birth. During the hu plig ceremony, the celebrant will name the child with the consent of the baby's parents and the gods, ancestors puj koob yawm txwv thiab dab khuas. If for some reason the name is not suitable for the baby, the baby will be prone to illness, disease, and slow growth. Or, a person with a tus plig soul will go astray, be kidnapped by the other world, or be marked by a force such as the dragon king zaj laus. In both cases, the Mong people will change the name.

There are many ways to change one's name, either through a ua neeb ceremony, or through hiding in another house and accepting this homeowner as one's new parents niam txwv khuab, or by going on the main road along the village to find a predestined person - the first person one meets going in the opposite direction regardless of gender, ethnicity, and age - to accept as one's new parents niam txiv khuab.

When a new name is given, it means that the person's soul is considered to have been renewed and accepted by the gods through another hu plig soul-calling ceremony. At that time, the old name will be actively forgotten by the community and the person being named. If someone asks about the person's old name, even though we know it clearly, we still need to answer: "The person mentioned is dead, now we have another person named (the new name), please see if this is the person you want to meet - tus neeg ko twb tuag lawm, txhuab tus hua ua (lub npe tshaib) lawm xwb, koj saib puas yog tus koj nriav maj".

A Mong male student in Tuong Duong. Photo: Dinh Tuan

Thus, for the Mong people, the name is not only for the living to call but also for the gods and ancestors to manage and protect the soul. Therefore, no matter what the name is, naming a person is extremely important for the Mong people. And, for the Mong people, a person can have many names, but at a time, only one name will be considered official by the community and the gods. This official name will later be used to perform other related rituals.

So why is the name Tua - Tuam/Tuov so popular among the Mong people?

Firstly, Tua - Tuam/Tuov is the first word in the special ordinal number system of the Mong people: Tuam, Lwm, Xab, Xwm, ... Ntxawg. Many Mong families choose this system to name their sons, accordingly, the first son is named Tua - Tuam, the second son is named Lu - Lwm, the third son is named Xab - Sang, the fourth son is named Su - Swm,... the youngest son is named Ntxawg - Do. Of course, in reality, there are families that do not have enough children to name in this order, so according to common logic, the name Tuam - Tua will appear more than the remaining names.

Second, Tua - Tuam/Tuov is a word that refers to great and good things. For example, Tuam Coj Teb - Great nation. Tuam can also be used to refer to upright things: Tuam meej tuam pem - an idiom to talk about frankness, uprightness, transparency, clarity, having nothing to hide. Perhaps for this reason, the name Tua-Tuam/Tuov is often favored by the Mong people.

Third, literally and frequently used in everyday language, Tuam also means the act of pedaling something. For example: Tuam tsheb - pedaling; tuam taw - kicking. Sometimes, people want a lively baby and can also use the word Túa-Tuam/Tuôv to name the baby.

Of course, there is no official statistics on the most popular names among the Mong people, but for the three reasons above, Tua-Tuam/Tuov is definitely a name that is favored by the Mong community. If you have the opportunity to name someone, you can definitely consider this name.

A Mong child with a familiar game. Photo: Dinh Tuan

Here, the writer also shares a personal story because the writer's current official name is also Tua - Tuam, family name Khang - Khaab. Born and raised in the Mong Lenh community in Mu Cang Chai, Yen Bai. In the first hu plig soul calling ceremony of his life, the writer was presided over by his grandfather and named Tu - Tub (meaning son) because this was his first grandson. Most of his childhood, this child was always sick, even once fell into the mud of the field and half died, the family decided to change the child's name.

It was a mild sunny day in early spring sometime between 1999 or 2000, a man wearing a traditional ham thuam shirt, a cross-body bag with 3 threads of white, black, and red, a boiled chicken, and a sticky rice package, holding a 4-5 year old child along the main road in Che Cu Nha down the mountain to find “nam khuab - txwv khuab” - fated parents. After about 20 minutes of walking on the deserted road, they finally met a Mong Du merchant couple carrying on their backs a different size, each carrying a bag full of dried peanuts, linen, silk thread, and women's headscarves. This couple and child, according to belief, were fated to be together.

After taking the three threads that the man in the ham thuam shirt had brought along and tying them together and putting them on the child's left hand, the Mong Du merchant said something like: We Mong people are inherently farmers, combining animal husbandry with crop cultivation. We grow our own food, we sew our own clothes. We don't need and rarely need to go into business or sell. My wife and I are among the few Mong people following the new trend. Now that we are destined to be with this child, please let's name him Tua - Tuam/Tuov. Hopefully, the child will always be strong, talented, and grow up to contribute to positive changes in our Mong community. After that, a temporary meal with a handful of sticky rice, a chicken, and drops of fresh water from the nearby ditch officially marked the writer of this article saying goodbye to his old name and accepting a new one.

Khang A Tua