Mongolian Surnames

The Mongols traditionally do not have a strict family name, but they do have clan and tribal names with that special pluralized suffix. The family name is used before the first name, but the tribal name is not directly linked to the individual's first name as a family name.

Mongolian Surnames

To prevent confusion among people with the same name, the Mongols also retained the custom of attaching a patronymic to a given name, and in most cases only the first letter of the patronymic is written, in accordance with modern usage.

From the Yuan Dynasty onwards, a number of Mongols switched to the use of Chinese characters with a single sex, and after the Ming Dynasty, there were gradually more Mongols changing to Chinese surnames.

The phenomenon of surnames from first names is also very common, for example, Uyun Dalai surnamed U, Bayin Hu surnamed Ba, etc..