Malaysia--Culture Smart! by Culture Smart!

Author:Culture Smart!
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kuperard
Published: 2021-04-15T00:00:00+00:00

Malay (and Muslim Indian) personal names are mainly derived from Arabic, but the same name may be spelled in a variety of ways, for example, Mohamad, Mohammad, Muhammad, and Mohamed. In Malay society it is a person’s first name that should be used; for example, Rashid Abdullah or Rashid bin Abdullah is Rashid the son of Abdullah. He should be referred to and addressed as (Mr.) Rashid, or the equivalent in Malay, Encik Rashid, if a young man, and Tuan Rashid, if an older man.

A wife has her own name, and does not usually take her husband’s name, but this is changing. Rahmah Talib, or in its full form Rahmah binte/binti Talib, is Rahmah the daughter of Talib. She could be referred to as Puan (Mrs.) Rahmah. However, things are becoming a little more confusing now in that she might be married to a man called Talib, and using his name. She would then be referred to as Puan Talib. Careful questioning is needed to establish the exact status of the name she is using.

Nothing in the labyrinth of Malay names and titles is straightforward, and a further complication is that some Malays are referred to as Nik, Wan, and Megat, or Putri for a woman. Some Malays will use these as family names and would be addressed as Encik Nik, and so on. Others, however, use them as titles that have some connection to royalty through the maternal line, in which case it would be inappropriate to use Encik and one should address them instead by their title.

Among Chinese the first name in the sequence is the family name, so Tan Chee Beng is Mr. Tan, and his personal names are Chee Beng; he is not Mr Beng. His wife can be called Mrs. Tan, but she has her own family name: Tai Ching Ling, for example. She could be referred to as Madam Tai, her first names being Ching Ling. Christian Chinese will commonly have a Christian name and Chinese personal and family names, and may be referred to, for example, as Michael Chen. Chinese names may also be rendered differently according to dialect so that a Mr. Goh can also be Wu or Ngu.

Most Indians do not have surnames as such. For example, a man referred to as B. Siva or Siva B. would be Mr. Siva, this being his personal name. The B. stands for his father’s name, Bhaskaran. Officially he would be referred to as Siva s/o (son of) Bhaskaran. His wife Rajeswary could be referred to as Mrs. Siva, but she could also be called Madam Rajeswary. Some northern Indians do have family names, and use them, and there are Christian Indians who have Christian names. There are also those who under Portuguese influence in such places as Goa and Sri Lanka acquired such names as Da Cunha, De Alwis, Rozario, and Santa Maria.

Sikh names are very distinctive in that the gender indicator for a male is Singh, used with a personal name such as Ranjit, thus Ranjit Singh.

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