Mongol's Adjusting To Identifying Themselve Differently

School principal Baast chose the name"Nomad" in keeping with his wandering spirit. Defense Minister Gurragchaa -- the only Mongolian to venture into space -- settled on"Cosmos." And anthropology student Vanchigdash picked the Mongolian word for wisdom."It makes me feel rather wise," he said."I'm very proud of my new name."

Mongolians, long used to using only first names, are reshaping their identities under a government-led initiative to add surnames.

For those who didn't give it much thought, and even some who did, the most obvious choice for a surname was, is and always will be Borjigin, the clan name of Genghis Khan, the 12th-century warrior and native son who put this north-central Asian nation on the map.

"It seems like half the population is named after Genghis," said Ganaa, a 30-year-old mother whose family initially considered Borjigin before settling on Aldar, after their ancestral village."It's good we're adopting surnames, because there's been lots of confusion. But with everyone choosing Genghis' name, that's also confusing."

The new hereditary system of surnames promises to create more historic continuity than the use of one name. So far, however, most Mongolians don't use them, except on the most formal of occasions.

"To tell you the truth, I can't remember mine," said Odonbayar, a tanned, 24-year-old herder from southwestern Mongolia.

First names worked reasonably well in an isolated, nomadic culture. But officials say surnames are now needed to avoid confusion in a more modern society, to help uncover long-buried roots as people delve into their clan histories and to prevent the inbreeding that occurs when you're not sure to whom you're related.

Mongolia did have family names once. Local historians claim that the country was among the first to adopt them and cite clan-name entries in"The Secret History of the Mongols," a 13th-century text.

This tradition was ended, however, when Mongolian Communists took power in the early 1920s. Clan names were initially banned to improve tax collection. So many people at the time shared the same last name, said Lonjid, a Mongolian State University historian, that using your first name -- and occasionally your father's for clarity -- was seen as a way to make names more distinct.

Once in place, however, the surname ban stuck, in part because it suited Mongolia's often-brutal regime, historians say. By wiping out old clan names and destroying historic baggage, the revolutionaries hoped to stifle resistance by the former aristocracy --"golden relative" clans that traced their lineage to Genghis.

Mongolia passed a law requiring surnames in 1997, but it was largely ignored until this year, when the names became necessary for a new government identity card. Now, more than 90% of Mongolia's 2.5 million people have adopted them, experts say. Holdouts tend to be herders and nomads in the country's more remote areas.