ABSTRACT
The Uyghurs traditionally used only given names, with the use of surnames or family names remaining uncommon until the middle of the twentieth century. From the 1930s on, some intellectuals and individuals who had visited or been educated in the Central Asian republics of the former Soviet Union or in Turkey came under the influence of the New Culture Movement. Recognizing the need to utilize a surname alongside their personal name, some adopted Russified surname suffixes, while others adopted the Turkic patronymic form oghli or qizi. Yet though the Russified surname form gained popularity among some intellectuals in the Ili region during the Üch wilayät inqilawi [Three Districts Revolution, 1944−49], it failed to become the alternative for the majority of the Uyghur population. Other intellectuals had rejected the Russified surname style in the 1930s and instead adopted the Persian pseudonym -i, used by Turkic intellectuals since the Middle Ages. After 1949, the Uyghur people began to use the so-called ‘unstable surname’ form, in which the father’s given name is adopted as surname. They thus became accustomed to writing their father’s given name directly after their own when filling out official forms. Since the beginning of the new millennium, most Uyghur intellectuals have become keenly aware of problems relating to the standardization and Chinese transliteration of Uyghur names and surnames, and have begun to advocate reform. On 2 January 2001, Ablät Abdureshit, former president of the regional government of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), for the first time called a forum to discuss Uyghur surname problems. Since then, the reformation of Uyghur names and surnames has become a key issue in wider Uyghur society. This chapter seeks to review the problems connected to current Uyghur name and surname practices, and considers the various viewpoints and disputes within the debate surrounding their reform.
