by Hla Min

Updated : September 2026

Pen Names

• Maung Ngwe Hlinne မောင်ငွေလှိုင်း — Saya U Thet Lwin (Registrar)

• Tekaktho Moe War တက္ကသိုလ်မိုးဝါ — Saya U Moe Aung (EE63)

• Kogyi Kaung ကိုကြီးကောင်း — Saya Dr. Koung Nyunt (A67, GBNF)

• Hlaing Phyo လှိုင်ဖြိုး / Lifelong Learner — U Hla Min (EC69)

• Yin Maung ရင်မောင် — Saya Dr. Taing Oke (ChE69)

• Chi Hte Nu Nu Kyaw ခြည်ထည်နုနုကျော် — U Kyaw Htin (T69)
• Mon Yu မွန် ယု — U Tin Htut (Harry, M69)
• Maung Hmut မောင်မှတ် — U Khin Maung Aye (M69)
• Maung Aw မောင်ဩ — Saya U Aung (C70)
• Maubin Ma Shwe Than မအူပင်မရွှေသန်း — Daw Than Yi (EP70)
• Ma Sandar မစန္ဒာ — Daw Cho Cho Tin (A71)
• Zinyawgyi ဇင်ယော်ကြီး — U Zaw Win (Min71)
• Okkpo Maung Yin Maung အုတ်ဖိုမောင်ရင်မောင် — Saya U Aung Myaing (ChE72)
• Ba Thein (Atlanta) ဘသိန်း — Dr. Myint Thein (M73)
• Maung Nyunt Htay (Ah Htet Min Hla) မောင်ညွန့်ဌေး အထက်မင်းလှ — Saya U Nyunt Htay (Met73)
• Ko Toe Hmit Che ကိုတိုး မြစ်ခြေ— U Toe Aung (C73)
• Maung Yit မောင်ရစ် — U Maung Maung Win (EC93)

Nick Names

U Seit To and Myauk Nyo ဦးစိတ်တို နဲ့ မျောက်ညို

• Cartoon characters
• According to Saya U Tin Myint (M80), the nicknames were given to two sayas by G-Hall Thu

Myauk Phyu မျောက်ဖြူ

• White monkey

Ah Yan Kan အရမ်းကန်

• Random kicking footballer

Bo Daw ဘိုးတော်

• Could be sarcastic

Saya Maung ဆရာမောင်

• Given by a girl to her teacher/boy friend

Tar Tay Gyi တာတေကြီး

• Reference to an actor for scary movies

Dauk Soe ဒေါက်စိုး

• Dr. Soe Myint Win (GNBF) was called Dauk Soe by some students

Nyi Nyi & Pho Nyi ညီညီ နဲ့ ဖိုးညီ

• Nyi Nyi may be used in a name
  e.g. Dr. Nyi Nyi
• Nyi Nyi & Pho Nyi are used as nicknames, e.g. Than Htut (M67, RUBC Gold)

Sonny ဆန်နီ

• May be used in a name, e.g. Sonny Yone Sein
• May also be used as a nickname, e.g. “Sonny” Aung Myint, “Sonny” Soe Naing

Lake or Leit လိပ်

U Win Maung (EE69er) represented RIT in Rowing, Swimming and Water Polo. He is a Back Stroke specialist. He swam the 2000 meters Cross-Lake with Back Stroke. He is known as “Lake” or “Leit” (Tortoise in reference to his Back Stroke swimming). U Htay Aung (M69, Burma Selected) and several others using Front Crawl finish quite ahead of Leit. Before graduation, he went to UK for license & training in air craft maintenance. He joined UBA/BAC. He is now an entrepreneur doing family business.

Khwet ခွက်

U Sein Myint (K K Wong, EP69) represented RIT in Rowing, Swimming & Water Polo. Someone transformed his name “Kwet” into “Khwet”. He is a major donor of the 69er Health Care Fund and the EE69er HCF. After retirement, he spends time in Singapore, Yangon and California.

Htaw Kyin ထော်ကြင်

U Htin Kyaw (Peter Wun, MEHS63) worked for the Institute of Economics and UCC before joining HIC and FERD. He was called “Htaw Kyin”. Some British could not pronounce his name. They called him “Ha Htin Coil”.

Kyein ကြိမ်း

U Kyaw Nyein (GBNF) taught Numerical Methods & Numerical Analysis at UCC. He played soccer and volley ball. He was fondly called “Kyein”.

Bo Shoke ဗိုလ်ရှုပ်

U Mya Thein (GBNF) taught at the Institute of Economics, UCC and ITMBU. He was originally called “Bogyoke” and later became known as “Bo Shoke”.

Ah Thay Lay အသေးလေး

U Thein Oo taught at the Institute of Economics and UCC. His friends called him “Ah Thay Lay”. He was good at volleyball, table tennis and cards.

Ah Pho Gyi အဖိုးကြီး

• Tin Maung Thant (son of UNSG U Thant) was called Ah Pho Gyee by his PPBRS classmates
• U Han Sein (C69, GBNF)

Shwee ရွှီး

U Kyaw Zan Hein (C69, GBNF) was admitted to the 2nd BE in 1964 as Roll Number 14. There were no word processors in those days; only the use of cyclostyle (Gestener). So, when the person who was admitted as Roll Number 14 did not join RIT, the Admin Office typed in Shwee’s name instead. Some would call him Kyaw Zan Shwee.

Ngu Yin Kong Kee

ငုယင်ကောင်ကီး

• Burmanized name of a Vietnamese General
• Saya U Win Kyaing (GBNF) is uncle of Maurice Chee (M75). He is often called Ngu Yin Kong Kee. He was also known as Wah Kyaing, younger brother of Wah Kyu.

Hna Khan Hmwe နှုတ်ခမ်းမွှေး

• Some have notable mustache
• One such person was Ko Khin Nyo, “Kyaung Tha Thadin Htauk (Student Reporter at RIT)”. According to Ko Zaw Min Nawaday (EP70), he met — several decades later — Ko Khin Nyi without mustache in New York, USA

Pauk Si ပေါက်စီ

U Hla Min (L T Gwan, SPHS64, EP70, GBNF) joined UCC as Chief Operator. He was called CO by his colleagues and “Pauk Si” by his close friends. His father loaned money to a Pauk Si vendor, who did not pay back the loan. At break time at SPHS, he would get Pauk Si from the vendor.

Pauk Pauk ပေါက်ပေါက်

Daw Aye Aye Than (ChE72) is the sister of Sayama Dr. Hla Hla Sein (Maths) and Ma Myint Myint Sein (Diana, M70). Her friends called her Pauk Pauk.

Bu ဘူး

U Myint Maung (EP69) is one of the young 69ers and one of the few Eligible Bachelors. He represented RIT EE Department in Volleyball along with Saw Edison, U Aye Thein & U Maung Maung. He was called “Bu” in reference to “Minbu” (his home town).

Shastri ရှပ်စတြီ

U Khin Maung Myint (C69, GBNF) was called Shastri (former Prime Minister of India).

Ohn Thee အုန်းသီး

U Ohn Thwin (PPFC, GBNF) attended classes at UCC & BARB. He was called “Ohn Thee” (Coconut) by his friends.

May Pa Le မေပုလဲ

• “မေပုလဲ” is a two-handed compliment given to selected female RIT students. e.g. Daw Yee Yee Aung (EP67, EC member of RIT EE Association)
• It means Miss Pearl (a belle who is Pearly White).
• It’s concoction “Mae Pa Le မဲပလေ” means “Wow. So dark [complexion]”.

Rocket ရော့ကက် ဒုံးပျံ

U Ko Gyi was a Lecturing Tutor in Maths. He is known for reciting the first 100 digits of PI (a constant which is 3.14159265 …). He used Rocket as an example in his classes. For some reason, he named Tin Tin Myint (Emma, ChE70) as “Rocket”. Classmates who witnessed the naming might provide details.

Emma is co-founder of Triple Gems Publication. She is also co-founder of Dana Sri Lanka (DSL). She is called Mae Daw Gyi မယ်တော်ကြီး by the young monks studying in Sri Lanka.

La La လာ လား

It is a form of “Kala” or “Kular” (Person of dark color).

Some young dark skinned kids (e.g. Aye Win Hlaing (Abel, EE72)) are given the nickname “La La”.

Ajala အာဂျလာ

He was a Nigerian student who led demonstrations in front of the US Embassy in Rangoon (in our younger days).

U Moe Hein (ChE69) represented RIT in swimming & water polo. He has a loud voice (which is very helpful in supporting RIT athletes in the Inter-Institute Tournaments). He is called Ajala by his close friends.

Maung Kabar မောင်ကမ္ဘာ

• Maung Kabar was an adorable Cartoon character.
• Those who have slightly round faces are called “Maung Kabar” or “Kabar”.
• Saya U Myint Soe (SPHS64, C68, GBNF) was named “Maung Kabar”.
• U Myint Thein (M69) is also known as “Maung Kabar”. It appeared in the Obituary.

Bagyi Aung ဘကြီးအောင်

• Fictional character from Min Thu Wun’s short story.
• U Hla Aung (EP68) wrote : May I share our time nick names. May Pa Le is Yee Yee Aung (EP67). Her friend is Nancy Hla Aung. My nick name is Ba Gyi Aung.

Three Sizes

• In Mechanical Drawing, we learned about scales.
• One student gave the nicknames “Half size, Full size and Double size” to three female students.
• Sayama Daw Mya Mya Than (EP68, GBNF) was “Full size”. Daw Nyunt Nyunt Zaw (T68, GBNF) was “Double Size”. Daw Cho (?) was “ Half Size”.

Sargalay & Lada စာကလေး နဲ့ လဒ

• Sargalay is a sparrow. Lada is a vulture.
• U Khin Maung Win (EP69, GBNF) was the training partner for Sai Kham Pan (EP69, Burma Selected in Badminton). Kham Pan would give him 10 – 12 points bonus to play a 15-point game.
• At a reunion, Daw Saw Yu Tint addressed Khin Maung Win as Sargalay. He replied, “I am now a Lada”. He gained a lot of height from 2nd BE to Final Year.
• The nickname allows 69ers to differentiate Khin Maung Wins — Sargalay, Roland Thein, Donald Ba Pe and ChE Kyet.
• Most 69ers might remember the cartoon by Kyant Ba Hone Aung Myint (Pet69).
  “Ah Ba. Kar Ku La Thin Char (Calculus) is very fascinating.
  If we differentiate a Lada, we get a Sargalay. If we integrate a Sargalay, we get a Lada.”

Kywei Gyi ကျွဲကြီး

• Kywei Gyi is a big, strong Buffalo.
• U Khin Maung Lay (Henry, T68) was Secretary of RIT Track & Field Association. He competed in 100m, 200m, 4 x 100m relay and Long Jump (emulating Jesse Owens at the 1936 Berlin Olympics). He represented RIT in Track & Field, Soccer and Rowing. He is called “Kywei Gyi” for his physical prowess. His elder brother Ko Khin Maung Latt (M63) represented the Faculty of Engineering in Rowing.

Mu Tu မူတူး

U Khin Maung Lay (M70) represented RIT in soccer. He was emcee (Master of Ceremonies) at the Reunion & Acariya Pu Zaw Pwe of the Combined 1st BE Intake of 64 and 65. He was a member of the Myanmar Human Rights Commission. He is the son of U Khin Maung Latt (AFPFL Minister) and younger brother of Saya U Khin Maung Gyi (English, GBNF).

Phone Gyi ဘုန်းကြီး

Several alumni are called “Phone Gyi” (Monk) by their friends.

• U Tin Tun (SPHS63, M69) was my classmate since Std. IV(D) at SPHS. His mother Daw Tin Tin would come and feed him at lunch break. He studied and taught Marine Engineering.

• U Tin Shein (M69) and I were classmates at the 2nd BE English class of Saya Des. He gave a talk on Chinlon. He represented RIT in Chinlon.
• U Soe Myint (M72, GBNF) volunteered as a Kappiya at the Kaba Aye Sun Lun Gu Kyaung. He helped with the maintenance. He retired as Pro-Rector of ICST.

Chauk Pay ခြောက်ပေ

• Some tall students are called Chauk Pay (Six Footer).
• U Htein Win (Richard, M70) represented RIT in Rowing, Swimming & Water Polo. He tended the goal at the Shallow End. He moved to Canada. He bought tickets for SPZP-2000, but could not attend due to a strike.

Ja Bu & Shorty ဂျပု နဲ့ ရှော်တီ

• Some short students are called Ja Bu (Midget) or Shorty.
• U Myint Sein (M70, GBNF) represented RIT in Soccer.
• There were two Bohmus named “Shorty” Tin Myint.

Japan Gyi ဂျပန်ကြီး

• Some who were born during the Japanese Occupation were given Japan Gyi as their nick name.
• U Hla Tun (T69, GBNF) would end most sentences with an expletive. He married Dolly Gale (my primary school classmate).

Cowboy ကောင်းဘွိုင်

• U Tin Nwe (C69, GBNF) was a jovial person and was called Cowboy by his friends.
• Three Paulians — Tin Nwe, Min Thaw (Gilbert) & Maung Maung Aye — were involved in a car accident after an OPA dinner gathering, but they were not hurt seriously. Sadly, they are now all GBNF.

Duwa ဒူးဝါး

• It is a title for a Kachin Leader.
• U Zau Lai (EP69) spends time in Myitkyina & Yangon. He is an entrepreneur & a Kachin Leader. He often drove a long way from Myitkyina to attend the 69er gatherings.

Bei Oo ဘဲဥ

• It is a “Duck Egg”. It may also stand for “Zero”.
• Daw Kyi Kyi Sein (T70) represented RIT in Badminton & Hiking. She is an organizer for the Combined 1st BE Intake of 64 and 65.

Kyet Taw ကြက်တော

I know some people named Kyet Taw. They may have “Taw” in their names.

• Harry Taw (MEHS57) was a friend of my older brother.
• Dr. Nyan Taw (Dicky, SPHS63) was my neighbor for some time. We jogged, biked and rowed. He worked at RASU, Pearl & Fishery before moving overseas for assignments. He invited me to the wedding receptions of his younger son and daughter.
• U Khin Maung Lwin is an organizer for the Class of 87 & 91. RIT was closed for three years. He organized the Golf Tournament for the alumni. He served as Secretary of the Swel Daw Yeik Foundation.

Saya San ဆရာစံ

• He is a revolutionary figure in the history of Burma.
• U Maung San studied his Masters in the UK. He often shopped in the “Junior” section. He taught Geology at RIT & Assumption University.
• I met U Aung Than (Saya San) at a meeting for the Combined 1st BE Intake of 64 and 65. He told me that he had to study for the last ever 7th Standard Government examination.

Gaing Gyi ဂိုင်ကြီး

• The Burmese sometimes pronounce “Kyaw” as “Gyaw”; “Kyee” as “Gyee” and “Khine” as “Gaing”.
• U Ohn Khine (M70) was named Ohn Gaing at St. Peter’s High School in Mandalay. He was called “Gaing Gyi” by some friends. He is the founder and moderator of the Google Group for the intake of 64 and 65. He volunteered for SPZP-2012, Shwe YaDu, SPZP-2016, SDYF, HMEE-2012 and HMEE-2016. He translated Section 1 and summarized Section 2 of the HMEE-2012 book. He and I compiled the CD supplement for the HMEE-2012 book.

Byte and R ဗိုက် နဲ့ အာ

• Byte may mean stomach or belly. R may mean “talkative”.
• U Tin Hlaing (M63) was called “Byte Tin Hlaing” and “R Tin Hlaing” by his friends to differentiate from the senior Saya U Tin Hlaing (M59, GBNF). He was later known as Dr. Tin Hlaing.

• U Kyaw Zin (EP69) was called “R Zin” by some of his friends.
• U Myint Soe (UCC) worked as Maintenance Technician in the Systems Division. He was called “Byte”.

Shwe Gaung Byaung ရွှေဂေါင်းပြောင်

It is the name of a cartoon character. It literally means “Golden, Bald Head”. Toe Nyunt (Ted Mya Maung) starred in a movie of that name.

U Wynn Htain Oo (M72) is a super fund raiser is fondly known as “Shwe Gaung Byaung”. He is also known as

• WHO (not World Health Organization)
• Hmaw Sayagyi မှော်ဆြာကြီး
• Mg Mar Ga မောင်မာဃ
• Bo Pu Cho ဗိုလ်ပုချို

Sa Yay စာရေး

• Sa Yay may mean a Clerk.
• Sa Yay Gyi စာရေးကြီး is a Senior Clerk.
• Sa Yay Lay စာရေးလေး is a Junior Clerk.
• U Khin Maung Zaw (EC76) was called “Sa Yay Lay” by his teacher Perrera (V Standard in St. Paul’s High School).

• In primary school, my spouse was told by her teacher that her hand writing looked like that of a “Sa Yay”. It motivated her to become a medical doctor.

Hanuman ဟာနုမန်

• It is an Indian Diety.
• U Han Tun Maung (GBNF) was a star athlete at SPHS. He excelled in Track & Field, and Soccer. He was called “Hanuman”. He was President of Old Paulians Association, Kokkine Swimming Club, Equestrian & Archery Associations. His family owned a Stable with “Sein Hlyan” as a Champion horse. The family opened Sein Hlyan Cafe. The Intake of 65 meets monthly as the Cafe.

Mote Seit မုတ်ဆိတ်

• It may mean “Beard”.
• U Myo Hein (69er) is called Mote Seit by his friends.
• Reverend Frederich Ludwig (Buddhist Archbishop of Latvia &!Lithuania) was called “Moke Seit Phone Gyi”. He later shaved his beard and ordained as a Theravada monk with the title Ashin Ananda. He is a Laureate Poet.

Papu ပါပူး

• Collegian Nay Win was called Papu by soccer team mates.

Po Htaung & Po Maung ဖိုးထောင် နဲ့ ဖိုးမောင်

• Sons of U Khin Maung San (Tommy San, PBRS, GBNF)
• U Nyunt Win (classmate of Tommy’s wife Lily at Darjeeling) liked the nicknames and used them in a movie.

Gyi ကြီး

• Japan Gyi ဂျပန်ကြီး — Hla Tun (T69)
• Kyaw Gyi ကျော်ကြီး — Kyi Win (EP69)
• Maw Gyi မော်ကြီး — U Myat Htoo (C68)

Not so nice

• Phaung Gyi Sin ဖေါင်ကြီးဆင်း
• Ba Lar Gyi ဗလာကြီး
• Chota ချိုတား၊ ချွတ်တား
• Mutta မွတ်တား
• Fatty ဖက်တီး
• Chee Pay

EE69ers

• U Thein Swe (EP69) described nicknames of the EE69ers in his post.
• Example : So Si စိုစိ

RIT English Sayas & Sayamas

• Saya Des described some nicknames in his article.
• Examples : Byaing Ma ဗျိုင်းမ Ya Khine Gyi ရခိုင်ကြီး