Where names carry numbers

In the Lisu dialect, Ayu means ‘seventh, while Agey means ‘eighth. Apart from the sequence of their birth, their names reveal that they have at least six male siblings, with the eldest named Apu, followed by Adu, Akhi, Achi, Ati, and Apshi.

Ayu and Agey are familiar names among explorers of the 1,985 sq. km Namdapha, India’s easternmost tiger reserve bordering Myanmar. But for members of their Lisu or Yobin community, inhabiting pockets of the Miao subdivision in Arunachal Pradesh’s Changlang district, the names of the two ‘birding’ brothers are also clear indicators of the order they were born into their family.

In the Lisu dialect, Ayu means ‘seventh, while Agey means ‘eighth. Apart from the sequence of their birth, their names reveal that they have at least six male siblings, with the eldest named Apu, followed by Adu, Akhi, Achi, Ati, and Apshi.

“I do not write ‘Ayu’, but members of my family, clan, and tribe call me by that name. Numbering our names is a tradition we generally adhere to,” said Yolisa Yobin of Gandhigram aka Shidi, about 120 km from Miao. An organiser of birding expeditions in Namdapha, he was among six birdwatchers who recorded the Lisu wren babbler as a new species in 2022.

Lisu boys and girls have separate sets of numbered names to indicate the order of their birth. The eldest girl in a family has Ana in her name, and the ones after her are called Angyi, Acha, Ado, Achhi, Ata, Akhu, Agu, Aju, and Apshi, for a tenth daughter.

“We have a mechanism for clearing the numerical confusion in cases where two or more families may have an equal or almost equal number of boys and girls. This is done by prefixing or suffixing the given names to the number assigned after birth,” Tifusa Yobin, the president of the Yobin Welfare Society told The Hindu.

His name, for instance, is derived from Ati, or the fifth male child in the family. Akhila, his brother, carries Akhi, or the number ‘three’ in his name. “I should ideally have used Atifusa but I dropped the ‘A’ from my name,” he said.

He added that Lisu names may also reflect the names of their clans, such as Ngwazah, Jeazah, Zali, Michey, Heizah, Lameh, Womeh, Fuchey, and Lawoh.