What’s in a name,

What’s in a name one may ask? Well, a name once given (by your parents) will be there for life, yes your life. Unless you decide to change it, which really then you become quite ungrateful to your parents. And in many culture, being ungrateful to your parents is a taboo.

I shall only confine my write-up to Malay names. Actually today there is no such a thing as a Malay name, most Malay names are derived from some Arabic words, names of prophet are chosen normally. Or some other Arabic words which has a meaning, good meaning really, something positive, a word that does not make you a ridicule when some Arabic speaking persons call you. For a normal Malay Muslim man, there may always be Ahmad or Muhammad at the beginning of his names, spelt in any fashion, in the short forms or in the real long form, and sometime pronounced as in Arabic when written in the Arabic alphabet, but when written in the Romanised Malay the name may sound quite different. To the best of my knowledge there is no real rule when giving names to Malay Muslim females, but of course the name must have Arabic sounding with a positive meaning. And the names given can be a combination of one word or two words or even three words, which now becomes first name, middle name and last name or to some similar effect.

But Malay names can also be meaningless some time. I dare not give examples here, but some couple use derivatives of their names and combining them and in addition some may even have some short spellings of their fathers or mothers names even grandfathers and grandmothers names including. So the child grows up with a name that may be quite meaningless really in any language but a name that he or she be called.

Nowadays it is not a problem anymore to have your new child’s name given and registered, you are educated and you can spell the name the way you want it, normally in Romanised Malay for a Malay Muslim. Then you have the name registered at the Government Registration Department and your new child will be issued with the correct name that you wish him or her to have. But in the old days in Malaya or even in the Borneo Island then, when you want to register your child’s name you go the Village Headman or the nearest Police Station to report the birth (in those days birth almost always take place at home) and to inform the Village Headman or the Policeman in charge of the station what you want your child to be called and registered. Mind you the Village Headman or even the Head of the Police Station was only half educated (or even not properly educated in the Western sense) and may spell the name of the child like what he likes to spell the name as, even adding the spelling according to his local slang. You will end up with your child with a funny name, or even wrongly spelt. It had been known in the Borneo Island that you may have a child named Beruk (which literally means a short tailed monkey) instead of Brooke.

One superstition among the rural Malays then, names can be wrongly given to the child. As a result the child may fall ill, so they believed, when the name was wrongly given. There was no real remedy really once the name was officially is registered, but these rural Malays had always managed to overcome this. The child may then be known as A name in the village whereas his or her registered name is B. When he or she goes out of the village then he or she will always be known as B outside the village circle, but in the village circle he or she known as A. So if you go to rural village (even now) where you know you B friend lives, and you ask the rural village folk for B, no one may know. But you do not know that B is now A in the village. And you will never locate that friend, unless by accident.

How did the Malays change the name? It’s quite ingenious really. The family gathered and wrote names (in Jawi, using localised Arabic alphabets, used not in the Arabic sense but pronounced in Malay) on say half a dozen green bettle leave. Then they put the child near the bettle leaves of which each had the written name, and when the child picked up a leave then the child will be known by what was written on that leave. He or she will grow up with that name in the rural village. His or her registered name will only be used for official papers only. What if that new name did not suit him or her again? Simple, have another name picking session and forget the old name. Ingenious really, but very confusing when the child grows up and leave the village. He will now go about with a new ‘official’ identity.

So what is it in names?

http://www.ummah.net/family/masc.html

http://www.ummah.net/family/fem.html

http://www.babynology.com/malaysian_babynames.html

http://www.funtrivia.com/en/subtopics/Malay-Names-And-Meanings-55702.html