Recently, many people in the ethnic minority group of Co tu have changed their surnames, causing confusion amongst themselves and local authorities.
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| Co tu children will be victims of changing surnames |
Dozens of families living in Jo Ngay, Song Kon communes, Dong Giang District, Quang Nam Province, now have 3 surnames within one family.
For example, Alang R from Dao Hamlet, Song Kon Commune, Dong Giang District, has a first-born son carrying the surname Nguyen while his second son carries the surname Le. His surname is Alang.
A family at Ca Dang Commune has 3 sons but they carry 3 different surnames including Le, Cao and Alang. Alang is their original surname.
According to Co tu elderly people, the Co tu ethnic group traditionally has 13 major surnames. However, the number of their surnames has increased to 33. Alang is one of their major surnames. They have a rule that children have to carry the fathers surname and are not allowed to change it.
Briu P’s ram, who was former Chairman of the People’s Committee of Dong Giang District, said that changing surnames here started during the American war in a bid to protect people who joined the army. By that time it was normal when one person carried 5-6 surnames. He also shared that changing surnames now is absolutely unacceptable.
In fact, many Co tu people have difficulties because of changing their last names. Take Arat N as an example. All his family members carry the surname Alang however, he carries the surname Arat. He encountered much trouble when he applied for his children’s birth certificates or conducted other procedures which are related to his family.
Many 1st grade pupils have changed their surnames themselves after their friends convinced them to follow their surnames. After comparing information from their application forms with their original birth certificates, their teachers discovered these pupils did not declare their real surnames.
In addition, some people want to “modernise” their surnames by changing from Poloong to Phong.
Le Thi Thuy, Vice Chairman of the People’s Committee of Dong Giang District spoke about this issue, “Changing surnames of people here has caused a lot of difficulties and confusion for local authorities and schools in managing and collecting personal information of their people.”
“The main reason is that civilians lack awareness and knowledge about laws in addition to irresponsibility of several local justice officials,” explained Thuy.
She added, “We hold meetings every year to discuss and discover solutions to prevent and improve this issue to help people, local authorities and schools avoid troubles caused by the changing of surnames.”
Nguyen Quang Khoi, Vice Manager of Dong Giang District’s Department of Culture & Sports said that changing surnames of people here has seriously affected the culture and tradition of Co tu people.
“It poses a threat of incest marriages and losing major surnames of Co tu if this issue still continues,” shared Khoi.
