Category:Indonesian

From Namespedia - Names Meaning and Origins

The Indonesian language is an Austronesian language and furthermore it belongs to the Malayano-Polynesian branch (the Western Malayo-Polynesian subgroup).It seems that Indonesian is modelled after Riau Malay, a form of Old Malay originally spoken in Northeast Sumatra. “The language of Indonesia” actually means “Bahasa Indonesia” in the area, and seems to be a form of Malay language, a normative form to be more precise. It has been used as lingua franca in the Indonesian archipelago for a long time, we’re talking about centuries. In 1945 with the Indonesian declaration of independence the Bahasa Indonesian was elevated to the status of official language. It is to mention that Bahasa Indonesian is very similar to the official Malaysian form of the language, they’re actually mutually intelligible. The slightly differences between the two exist due to the Dutch and Javanese influences on Indonesian. Some of the words that show on the language the imprint of Dutch colonization are: polisi (police), kualitas (quality), telepon (telephone), bis (bus) and many others. There are also portuguese, chinese and hindu words imported into Indonesian such as sabun (soap), pisau (knife) or kaca (mirror). Indonesian language is spoken as a mother tongue by merely 7% of the Indonesian population, but worldwide the total number of speakers goes up to around 200 million, becoming one the most widely spoken languages in the world. All together it remains an essential means of communication in a region comprising over 300 native languages, used for educational, business, administrative and of course mass media purpose.

Indonesian names and naming customs reflect the polycultural, polyglot nature of a nation that is an archipelago of over 17,000 islands, only 6,000 of which are inhabited, that extends in an arc along the equator. It is the world's fourth most populous nation comprising about 365 tribal-ethnic groups, making it unrivaled in terms of ethnic, religious, and linguistic diversity.

Indonesians do not generally use the Western naming practice of a given first name and a family last name. The majority of Indonesians do not have family names as the West would understand them but, such names as are given, are geographically and culturally specific. Hence, names such as Supomo, Soeprapto, etc. beginning with "Su, Soe" and ending with an "o" are usually Javanese.

Until recently, most Indonesians did not have family names. Usually, men and women have a given name and take the name of their father. Some married Indonesian women take the last/family name of their husband, but not all, and this name is usually added after their own 'last' name. Therefore, it is not uncommon for married couples to have different last/family names.

Naming also differs around the country, with many Javanese having only one name; North Sumatrans have clan names instead of family names; and some Chinese Indonesians have Chinese-style names. It is interesting to note that Indonesian telephone directories names are listed under first/given names, not under family names.