Do Indonesians Have Naming Traditions?



Hello, Good Readers :D
Meet me again, uh? How's life? I hope you all are fine now because I've got a little flu here and it's not really good for a person who rarely get sick as me, um.. you know, just type of a strong one, lol.  Actually, it's not good at all but, still, I'm grateful because at least I'm still allowed to be alive today. Besides, I know I'm just going to be fine. So, um, alright, just ignore me and go back to our topic.

Anyway, this is my second post in my blog, and just like my first post before, here I would like to review an article and add a little information that is relevant to the article. I got today's article from my reading lecturer, Mrs.Yuna, as a part of our lessons two days ago. The article was taken from Multicultural Manners that is titled Naming Traditions.


The article was begun with the information about American 42nd President, Bill Clinton, who traveled to South Korea in July, 1993. He visited Kim Young Sam, who was a new 14th President of South Korea at that time, to offer a cooperation for South Korea (The New York Times, 1993).

Based on the article above, Mr.Clinton had an error comprehension about Korea's naming traditions. He thought that Korea had the same naming traditions with Japan. He called Mr.Kim's wife as Mrs.Kim which was not right because in Korea, a woman who had been married didn't take the surname of her husband as in America and Japan. Since the name of Mr.Kim's wife was Shon Myong Suk, therefore, her correct name was Mrs.Shon and was not Mrs.Kim.

The article also explain some other countries who do not share husbands and wives' surnames, such as Chinese, Cambodians, Vietnamese, and Hmong. Besides, it also told us a little information about Mexican naming customs which was a bit complicated and made a confussion for many Americans. At last, this article gave some tips for avoiding embarrassment or offense from calling someone's name wrong.

In addition to the article, here's I would like to give an information about Indonesian naming traditions. Why did I choose Indonesia? Because, I'm an Indonesian! Hooray! Are you an Indonesian, too? If you are, let's continue reading this post! And even if you're not, just continue reading this post, OK? Please?

Indonesian's Naming Traditions

In Indonesia, naming traditions differ depending on the region the person is from. As an example, in Bali, the Balinese children names are distinguished by the birth order and the caste. The Balinese first child will be name "Wayan, Putu, or Gede", the second child be "Made, Kadek, or Nengah", the third child be "Nyoman or Komang", the fourth child be "Ketut", and the fifth child will be named "Wayan Balik", which "Balik" means "return, again, repeat". By the caste, Balinese have known four castes included Sudra, Wesya, Ksatria, and Brahmana.
Balinese

Indonesians, especially the Javanese, commonly only have one name and the names are only the name that their parents gave for them (the given name), without surname. For example, Warjono, Suryono, etc. Most of Indonesians indeed don't have surnames. However, there are few ethnic groups who has "Marga". It is similar with family name or surname. As an example, the Bataknese. Bataknese's marga is patrilineal, which means the children will inherit the marga from their father. In addition, marriage in the same marga is rigidly forbidden in Bataknese's culture. A few examples of Bataknese's marga are Hutapea, Simanjuntak, Simatupang, Nasution and Siregar.
Prisia Nasution, Indonesian Actress and Model.

Another Indonesian's naming tradition is husbands and wives usually have different surnames. However, women often will adopt their husbands surname but not to legally change it. Yet, sometimes men may take the wife's surname. Finally, the last naming traditions in Indonesia is to have two or more name without adapting a family name. For example, Umi Urmilah, Halyasmina Amira, and Eka Ananda Putri. Which were on those names, "Urmilah", "Amira", and "Putri" are not family names.

And, that's all from me today! I hope it can be useful for those of you who has read this article. Thanks for reading my posts! Please, leave a comment about my post! I really appreciate it! See you on my next posts! Much Love.




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