Saturday, October 03, 2009

The Malays of former times had personal names like Bagus, Bintan, Kicil
and Kasūma which may still be borne by the older generation. Such names are
not without meaning. For instance, Kicil means ‘small’, Bagus ‘fine’ and
Bintan ‘star’. One also still comes across typical Malay female names like
Kartini, Hartini and Melāti. Even nowadays there are said to be those Malay
parents who give their children Malay names like Azehari and Prawira for boys
and Melati and Suratni for girls 4, but this does not hold true for the vast
majority who still prefer names of Arabic origin. These include names like
Akīl, Salīm and Taslim in the case of males and Hafsa, Zīnat and Raihāna in
the case of females.
In Malaysia and to some extent in Indonesia today, the system of surnaming
is derived from the Arab tradition of naming individuals as the sons or
daughters of their fathers. This practice however does not exist among Sri
Lankan Malays who bear patronymics passed down from generation to
generation. Among the prominent Malay patronymics may be cited Ālif, Anif,
Ahlip, Asan, Amat, Amit, Amidon, Ajumain, Akbar, Azūr, Bahar, Bakman,
Bongso, Būrah, Būso, Bangsajayah, Cunci, Cuncīr, Cunkīr, Dīn, Dēn, Dōl, Dūl,
Drahman, Dulapandan, Gunavijāyā, Hamit, Hamidon, Jāyah, Jaldin, Jumat,
Jaimon, Jūnus, Jungkīr, Jamalon, Jumadin, Jurangpati, Kambal, Kutilan,
Kicilan, Lye, Lantra, Laksana, Mīdin, Miskin, Mantārā, Musafar, Mutalif,
Nalawangsa, Raban, Rājon, Sāle, Sāmat, Saban, Saldin, Sampan, Samahon,
Samidon, Sourjah, Suhūd, Sinhawangsa, Singalaksana, Tālif, Wīrabangsa and
Yusuf 5. Those patronymics such as Wīrabangsa, Nalawangsa, Sinhawangsa
and Bangsajayah are of Sanskrit origin, the constituent terms wangsa and
bangsa occurring here having their origins in the Sanskrit vaṁśa ‘family’,
‘clan’, ‘lineage’. Thus Wīrabangsa would signify ‘heroic clan’ and
Sinhawangsa ‘lion clan’.
3 Such names not uncommonly occur in Saldin (2003). The Malay term nōnā also used in Sinhala in the
sense of ‘lady, ‘wife’ seems to have originally denoted a woman of European or Chinese descent or a
woman married to an European or Chinaman as attested in Malay dialects such as Achenese, Javanese and
Sundanese. It was evidently in later times that it came to be adopted by Malay women as a titular prefix
having the sense of ‘lady’ or ‘madam’. The term seems to have arisen from the Portuguese dona ‘lady’ and
the contact of dona and senhora ‘madam’ and their mutual influence (Influencia do Vocabulario Portugues
em Linguas Asiaticas. Rudolfo Dalgado.1913. Trans.with notes, additions and comments by Anthony
Soares.1936).
4 Saldin (2003)
5 Many such Malay patronymics could be gathered from the Directory of Malays found in the Jubilee Book
(1924). A substantial list of Malay patronymics is also provided in Saldin (2003).

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