How does one address a Buddhist nun? What are the names or terms of address for Buddhist nuns in different languages?  How do Buddhist nuns address each other? What do these names or terms of address mean? How and where are they used? What are the underlying assumptions and rationale for these terms of address? How do people, Buddhists or non-Buddhists, native or non-native speakers, perceive these names? How do the nuns perceive these names themselves? How and why do names matter at all? This study begins with a series of questions and attempts to engage the readers in considering the possibility of promoting the use of “inclusive language” for true equality among Buddhists in this global community.

The title of the paper is inspired more by the famous novel, “The Name of the Rose,” by a famous linguist/semiotician,  Umberto Eco, than by the passage from the scene in Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”.  In this paper I will re-examine  terms of address for Buddhist nuns with the awareness of the nature and the power of language.  Through language, we will find the source of the terms of nuns’ identification and identity which are used, consciously or unconsciously, as a tool to depreciate the contributions, current or potential. I will examine terms of address for nuns such as “anila” in the Tibetan community, “Dharma brothers” or “nuns”, to address each other in the Chinese sangha, and the use of the pronoun “he” to refer to a Buddhist nun. We will also share observed perceptions of these terms both by the “insiders” (nuns, Buddhists, native speakers) and “outsiders” (monks, non Buddhists, non-native speakers and other community members in general). In the end, we hope to increase awareness about the use of these existing terms and hopefully to encourage the use of “inclusive language” in order to be closer to, as well as to contribute to, the making of a peaceful global community that realizes the ideal of true equality in Buddha’s teachings.