Wikipedia:Naming conventions (Mongolian)

This page documents the current usage of Mongolian language names, and romanization of those names in Wikipedia. It complements the general guidelines given by Naming conventions and more specifically Naming conventions (Cyrillic), as well as subject specific naming conventions

Discuss proposed changes at Wikipedia talk:Naming conventions (Mongolian).

Use conventional names
When something has a conventional name in English, use that name instead of transliterating. The most prominent examples include:


 * Khan (= ruler) instead of Khaan
 * Genghis Khan instead of Chingis Khaan
 * Gobi (Gobi Desert) instead of Govi.
 * Urga (old name of Ulaanbaatar) instead of Örgöö (depending on historical time and context)
 * Any person of Mongolian origin who became famous in a different country under a local spelling.

If a name is a composite where one part has a common English version, then all parts get transliterated anyway to maintain consistency (e.g. Dundgovi or Govi-Altai instead of Dundgobi or Gobi-Altai).

Names of Tibetan origin
Some Mongolian names, especially in a religious context, are originally Tibetan. Those may need a case-by-case decision about which original language to use as a basis for romanization.

Historic names
For historic names (before 1936), it may not always be appropriate to transcribe from the modern Cyrillic Mongolian version. Such names can be more common in transcription from the classical Mongolian script, or from other languages (Turkic, Tungusic, Persian, Chinese, etc.). In general, historic names will be subject to a case-by-case decision about which original version to transcribe.

People
There are no family names in Mongolia. In conversation, a person is addressed by the given name. Today, the full name consists of the father's name and the given name, in that sequence. The father's name is in genitive form, usually ending in -iin or -yn (e.g. Peljidiin Genden). In cases where readers are likely to find this confusing (e.g. with sportspeople), the template Family name hatnote can be placed at the top of the article to explain the system.

For historic figures (before the 20th century), only the given name is common, for rulers usually with the title Khan.

There are also "clan names" (e.g. Borjigin for Genghis Khan), but those have only symbolic significance and are not used to address or name a person.

Modified BGN/PCGN romanization
The following table describes a method to derive romanization of Mongolian names into the Latin alphabet, suitable for English-speakers.

We use a modification of the BGN/PCGN romanization system for Mongolian. The modifications have been chosen to make it simpler and more intuitive for native English speakers, and to match Romanization_of_Russian as closely as reasonable.

The result is very similar to the Mongolian national standard MNS 5217:2012.

Differences to BGN/PCGN

 * Е (е) becomes Ye (ye)
 * З (з) becomes Z (z)
 * Й (й) becomes I (i)
 * Х (х) becomes Kh (kh)
 * hard sign Ъ (ъ) is omitted
 * Ы (ы) becomes Y (y)
 * soft sign Ь (ь) becomes I (i), (with (&#x27;) given as an alternative)
 * Ю (ю) becomes Yu (yu)

Differences from Romanization of Russian

 * Extra characters Ө (ө) and Ү (ү)
 * Е (е) always becomes Ye (ye), except for foreign loanwords (e.g. Супермаркет)
 * Й (й) becomes I (i)
 * Ж (ж) becomes J (j), following BGN/PCGN
 * soft sign Ь (ь) always becomes I (i), (with (&#x27;) given as an alternative)

Differences to MNS 5217:2012

 * Щ (щ) becomes Shch (shch)
 * hard sign Ъ (ъ) is omitted
 * soft sign Ь (ь) remains I (i), but (&#x27;) is also given as an alternative

Romanization table
Remarks:
 * The ъ (hard-sign) is rarely used in Mongolian. Sometimes it is incorrectly written as a ь (soft-sign) instead.
 * The ь (soft-sign) only appears after consonants at the end of a syllable. It palatalizes the preceding consonant, and is not pronounced itself. For the article name it gets transliterated with an i, the transliteration with an apostrophe should be given as an alternative (use &amp;#x27; to avoid conflicts with wiki formatting).
 * The ь and ъ only appear as lower case characters in normal Text. The uppercase forms are given here for reference, e.g. when comparing all-caps text.

Typography
As generally with Cyrillic, original language text is not written in italics, but enclosed in the ...  or  ...  templates (the latter includes a Mongolian: prefix).

Examples:
 * The Soyombo script (Соёмбо бичиг, soyombo bichig)...


 * Dariganga (Дарьганга; also: Dar&#x27;ganga)...

Syntax:
 * The Soyombo script (Соёмбо бичиг, soyombo bichig)...


 * Dariganga (Дарьганга; also: Dar&amp;#x27;ganga)...

As a side effect, use of those two templates will place the article in the hidden category Articles containing Mongolian language text, which is useful for maintenance purposes.