Sherpa (Tibetan: "eastern people", from shar "east" and pa "people") are an ethnic group from the most mountainous region of Nepal, high in the Himalayas. Sherpa as a surname appears to be the result of the Nepalese government census takers. Not recognizing that some people only have one name, they wrote the word on census forms in the space for last name. In some cases the clan name was written and in others the ethnicity, i.e. Sherpa. These have then been adopted or forced to be used as last names, last names not being a part of Sherpa culture.