Malaysian Name

Personal names in Malaysia strictly define a person's cultural background as Malaysia comprises many cultures and races, and each has a distinctive system of naming. Personal names are somewhat restricted by government administration, especially since the introduction of the MyKad identity card. Malaysian Chinese are the only major ethnic group in Malaysiato use family names. Most other groups, including the dominant Malays, use a personal name followed by a patronym.

Malay names

Malay names are often drawn from Arabic and follow some Arabic naming customs, although some names have Malay, Javanese or Sanskrit origin. A Malay's name consists of a personal name, which is used to address him or her in all circumstances, followed by a patronym. Most Malays do not use family names. For men, the patronym consists of the word bin (from Arabic بن, meaning 'son of') followed by his father's personal name. Thus, if Osman has a son called Musa, Musa will be known as Musa bin Osman. For women, the patronym consists of the word binti (from Arabic بنت, meaning 'daughter of') followed by her father's name. Thus, if Musa has a daughter called Aisyah, Aisyah will be known as Aisyah binti Musa. Upon marriage, a woman does not change her name, as is done in some cultures.

Sometimes the first part of the patronym, bin or binti, is reduced to B. for men, or to Bt., Bte. or Bint. for women. This sometimes leads to it being taken as a middle initial in Western cultures. In general practice, however, most Malays omit the word bin or bint from their names. Thus, the two examples from the paragraph above would be known as Musa Osman and Aisyah Musa. When presented in this way, the second part of the name is often mistaken for a family name. However, when someone is referred to using only one name, the first name is always used, never the second (because you would be calling someone by his or her father's name). Thus, Musa Osman is Mr Musa (or Encik Musa in Malay), and Aisyah Musa is Mrs/Ms/Miss Aisyah (or Puan/Cik Aisyah in Malay).

A few Malay families do use surnames, such as Merican, which are passed down patrilineally, and usually indicate an Arab or Indian Muslim ancestor. Hence, if Musa's full name is Musa Merican, his daughter would be Aisyah Merican or Aisyah Musa Merican. The former Prime Minister of Malaysia, Abdullah bin Haji Ahmad Badawi (or, more simply, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi), has the Arab surname Badawi.

[edit]Addenda to names

Often the straightforward system of naming among Malays is complicated by addenda. This is where a double name is used in place of one. The addendum is always the first part of such double names. Addenda are easily spotted as they are drawn from a restricted pool of possible names. These addenda rarely form a complete name on their own, but are almost always followed by another personal name.

The popular addenda in the Malay male names are:

• Muhammad / Mohammad / Mohammed (often abbreviated to Mohd., Muhd., Md. or simply M.)
• Mat (the Malay variant of Muhammad. Mat is also the casual spoken form of names ending with -mad or -mat such as Ahmad, Rahmat, Samad, etc.)
• Ahmad
• Abdul (as in Arabic, Abdul is not a complete name in itself, but, meaning 'servant of', must be followed by one of the Names of God in the Qur'an; for example, Abdul Haqq — 'servant of the Truth')

The most common addenda in the Malay female names are:

• Nor / Noor / Nur / Nurul
• Siti

Thus, Osman may have another son called Abdul Haqq, who is known as Abdul Haqq bin Osman, or Abdul Haqq Osman. Then he, in turn, may have a daughter called Nor Mawar, who is known as Nor Mawar binti Abdul Haqq, or Nor Mawar Abdul Haqq.

If someone has been on the Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca, they may be called Haji. Thus, if Musa bin Osman went on the Hajj, he could be called Haji Musa bin Osman, and his daughter Aisyah might be called Aisyah binti Haji Musa.

Some addenda are inherited Malay titles (from the paternal side of the family). These exclusively involve the aristocrats, or even the royals, and their descendants. However, some families have these addenda even though they may not be royals or aristocrats.

The examples of inherited addenda are:

• Raja
• Tengku
• Wan
• Nik
• Che
• Tuan
• Syed / Sharifah (for male and female, respectively)
• Meor
• Megat / Puteri (for male and female, respectively)
• Awang (Abang) / Dayang (popular in Sarawak, for male and female, respectively)

For example, the current Prime Minister of Malaysia has the full name Dato' Seri Mohd Najib bin Tun Haji Abdul Razak, where 'Dato' Seri' is a Malay title of honour, 'Mohd Najib' is his personal name (often further abbreviated to 'Najib'), 'bin' introduces his father's titles and names, 'Tun' is a higher honour, 'Haji' denotes his father as a pilgrim to Mecca, and 'Abdul Razak' is his father's personal name (often abbreviated to 'Razak'). The entire name has various shorter forms, like 'Mohd Najib Tun Abdul Razak', 'Najib Tun Razak' and 'Najib Razak').

[edit]Arguments to definition

It has been argued^[where?] before that although many Malaysians categorize the naming conventions in Malaysia, particularly among Peninsular Malaysians, by their 3 major ethnic groups (Malay, Chinese and Indian), it is false to consider Arabic names as being Malay names. The Malay moslem majority takes on Arabic names in the spirit of their religion.

It has been reported^[where?] that true malay names do exist but has largely been forgotten. Examples of them however are evident in old films depicting pre-modern civilisation and old literature from those times.^{[dubious – discuss]}

Some that may be considered as true malay names are Kasturi, Melor, Kemboja, Cempaka, Bawang, Pandir, Tuah, Jebat, Lekir, Badang and perhaps even Puteri. Many of these names do come from Malay language vocabulary like the names of flowers but some however, may not be represented in the language.^{[citation needed]}

Proponents^[who?] argue that if Arabic names continue to be confused as Malay names and no further historical research is done, true Malay names would become extinct and forgotten by future generations.

[edit]Chinese names

Traditional Chinese names are used among Malaysian Chinese. These names are usually represented as three words, for example Foo Li Leen or Tan Ai Lin. The first name is the Chinese family name, which is passed down from a father to all his children. The two other parts of the name form an indivisible Chinese given name, which may contain a generation name. In Western settings, the family name is sometimes shifted to the end of the name (for example, Li Leen Foo).

Some Chinese also take a Western personal name (for example, Denise Foo), and some use this in preference to a Chinese given name and most of these are used by Chinese Malaysian Christians. On official documents, this name is either written in the order Western name - Surname - Chinese given name (e.g. Denise Foo Li Leen), or Surname - Chinese name - Western name (e.g. Foo Li Leen Denise), or Western name - Chinese name - Surname (e.g. Denise Li Leen Foo). In general practice, only either the Western name or the Chinese name will be used. For the Chinese Malaysian Muslims, they even use Arabic given names while some use Arabic-derived Chinese names.

[edit]Indian names

Officially, Malaysian Indians use a patronymic naming system combining their traditional Indian names with some Malay words, while others use Sanskrit names. A man's name would consist of his personal name followed by the Malay phrase anak lelaki, meaning 'son of', and then his father's name. A woman's name would consist of her personal name followed by the Malay phrase anak perempuan, meaning 'daughter of', and then her father's name. The Malay patronymic phrase is often abbreviated to a/l ('son of') or a/p ('daughter of') and then their father's name. In many circumstances, the intervening Malay is omitted, and the father's name follows immediately after a person's given name. Following traditional practice from South India, the father's name is sometimes abbreviated to an initial and placed before the personal name. Thus, a man called Anbuselvan whose father is called Ramanan may be called Anbuselvan anak lelaki Ramanan (formal), Anbuselvan a/l Ramanan (as on his government identification card), Anbuselvan Ramanan or R. Anbuselvan. Whereas, his daughter Mathuram would be called Mathuram anak perempuan Anbuselvan (formal), Mathuram a/p Anbuselvan (as on her government identification card), Mathuram Anbuselvan or A. Mathuram. Although not recorded officially, an Indian woman may use her husband's personal name instead of her father's name after marriage.

For the Indian Malaysian Muslims, like ethnic Malays, they use Arabic names or names of their own languages, while Arabic-derived Christian names for the Indian Malaysian Christians

[edit]Names of members of other groups

Orang Asli and other non-Malay bumiputra use the Malay word anak ('child of') to form their patronymics regardless of an individual's sex. For example, Aziz anak Ramlan.

Kristang people usually have Portuguese, or, at least, more European-sounding names, including inherited family names. In fact, Arabs and Portuguese have common denominator in influence in names: Fatima, Omar, and Soraya. These names are common in Portugal given by Arab influence.

read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysian_names

Philippine name

In the Philippines, Filipinos follow the conventional American form: Given name-Middle name-Family name. However, given that the Spanish system of naming was first introduced, most Filipinos still follow the older system to some degree. For the most part, most Filipinos do not have middle names in the North American sense but, rather, adopted the dual first name-last name Spanish system. An example would be John Paul Reyes y Mercado becoming John Paul Mercado Reyes. The "y" is dropped and the father's last name moved to the appropriate part of the full name. The mother's last name is then used as a middle name. It is surmised that this was done to preserve the mother's maiden name. It must be remembered though that the middle name in its natural sense would have been the second name if the person had one. John Paul would simply become John Paul Reyes or John Reyes if he did not have a second name to begin with. The construct of having several names in the middle name convention is common to all systems however.

Almost all Filipinos have Spanish or Spanish-sounding surnames, imposed on them for taxing reasons (See: Alphabetical Catalog of Surnames) and a number of them have indigenous Filipino surnames. The newer generation of Filipinos, for the most part, now have English Christian first names, but some still have Spanish or indigenous Filipino names. Most of the newer generation have English Christian names because most Filipinos never speak Spanish. Derivatives are also common but these have no formal indigenous sources. For example, a man named Rafael (Spanish name) would be given a Filipino nickname of Paeng, coming from a local rendering of the last two syllables of Rafael.

Many modern-day Chinese Filipinos have traditional last names with one syllable like Lim, Tan, and Sy. However, early Chinese Filipino families took on the complete name of their patriarch, thus their names had three syllables. These were adopted into the mainstream Filipino surnames and don't exist anywhere else in the world. Their names were transcribed using Spanish orthography in effect during the 19th century.

Of particular interest is the convention of Chinese surnames ending in -co or -ko. This is an honorific in the Chinese language retained in the surname. However, it must be remembered that "co" by itself is also a valid surname. In general, if it is at the end it is an honorific. An example of this is Cojuangco. Their patriarch was Co Chi Kuan, who was addressed respectfully as Co Kuan Co (one given name dropped). Co Kuan Co eventually became Cojuangco to better adapt to the social norms dictated in the Spanish era.

The use of Arabic names is prominent among the Filipino Muslims. They are Islamic influence from Arabs, Persians, Malays, Indonesians, and Indian Muslims. Both Arabs and Spaniards gave names in common: Fatima, Omar, and Soraya. This is because these names are common in Spain by Arab influence.

The Spanish surname category provides the most common surnames in the Philippines. These include García, (de la) Cruz, (de los) Reyes, (de los) Santos, González/Gonzales, andLópez.^[1]

read more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippine_name

Indonesian names

read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesian_names

Thai name

Thai names follow the North Indian and Western European pattern in which the family name follows a first or given name. In this they differ from the family-name-first pattern of the East Asian tradition or the Patronymic traditions in South India and the Arab world.

Thai names, both given name and family, are often long and there are a great many of them. The diversity of family names is because they are required to be unique to a family, and they are a recent introduction. Further, Thai people change their family names relatively frequently (this practice being virtually unknown in many other countries outside of marriage).

Last names only became legally required of Thais in 1913:^[1] before then, most Thais used only a first or individual name. The names generally convey positive attributes. Under Thai law, only one family can use any given surname: thus any two people of the same surname must be related, and it is very rare for two people to share the same full name.

Thai names are often long, particularly among those of upper-class families.

As a measure of the diversity of Thai names, in a sample of 45,665 names, 81% of family names were unique, and 35% of given names were unique: the people with shared family names are thus related, and the diversity of given names is conventional.^[2]

Noble names

Descendants of the nobility, both hereditary and non-hereditary positions, generally take the noble name of their ancestor for a surname. For example, Field Marshal Plaek Pibulsonggramadopted the surname Pibulsonggram as it was his given noble rank. Descendants of royal princes in the Chakri dynasty are bound by royal traditions to adopt the name of their royal ancestor as a surname. For instance, Hugo Chakrabongse is a descendant of Prince Chakrabongse Bhuvanath. Some (far removed) descendants of royalty add the preposition "na" (ณ) to geographical names to create surnames, in exactly the same way that members of German noble families use "Von." Thus Mongkol Na Songkhla, a minister in the Surayud government, has a name which indicates he is a distant descendant of royalty or nobility in that geographical region (for instance the surname "Na Chiangmai" belonging to descendants of the rulers of Chiangmai, which was a vassal state of Siam). The name of Kasem Sanitwong Na Ayutthaya, another minister, indicates that he is related to the royal family, as it is also tradition for far-removed descendants to add "Na Ayutthaya" after their surnames. In this case, Sanitwong is the family name of Kasem. Sanitwong itself being a name of a royal consort of Rama V and the subsequent family name for her descendants.

Formal and informal names

In polite speech, Thais will address each other or refer to each other by their given name, preceded by the honorific "khun." This applies particularly to persons of public distinction. Thus, the ministers mentioned above would be addressed and referred to as "Khun Mongkol" and "Khun Kasem," especially since they are respected persons. There are some misunderstandings that "Khun" would be replaced with "Khunying" when a person to whom the speaker refers is a woman. In fact, “Khunying” is comparable to Lady in western culture. Please see Thai royal and noble titles for more details.

In less formal situations, Thais will address each other by nicknames (chue-len or Thai: ชึ่อเล่น "play-name"). Given by parents or relatives in early childhood, these nicknames are typically one syllable (or worn down from two syllables to one). They may often be nonsense words or humorous, and usually have no relation to the person's actual name. All Thais have such a name, and they are freely used in everyday life regardless of how childish they may seem to non-Thais. The King's nickname, for example, is Ong Lek (TH: องค์เล็ก ; Ong is a numerative noun for kings, princes, princesses, priests, images of Buddha, gods, angels, palaces, pagodas; "Lek" means "little (one)", a common name for younger brothers). Former prime ministerThaksin Shinawatra's is Maew, the Thai name for the Hmong. In addition, some Thais may also have some additional nicknames given by their friends or colleagues especially during their school age or adolescence. These friend-given nicknames usually linked with notable physical feature or behavior of that person. For example, a boy with eyeglasses may be called by his friends “Waen” (Thai: แว่น "eyeglasses"). After the boy was frequently called by his friends as Waen, he may at some points accept that name as another nickname of himself even though he still uses his family-given nickname when he speak with other members in his family.

Westerners meeting Thais in everyday life will usually be introduced to the Thai person only by their nickname, and will not discover the person's real name unless they ask: Thais tend to assume (generally^{[citation needed]} correctly) that Westerners^{[citation needed]} cannot pronounce or remember long Thai names. Except in the most formal situations (meeting a government minister, for example), it is quite acceptable to address or refer to a Thai by their nickname. The nickname can be preceded by "khun". This will seem slightly comic to Thais, but will be understood as a gesture of respect.

extracted from : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thai_name

Vietnamese names

Vietnamese names

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



Vietnamese names generally consist of three parts: a family name, a middle name, and a given name, used in that order. Like their Chinese, Korean, and other counterparts, this is in accordance to the East Asian system of personal names. In a deviation from the East Asian naming system, a person will be referred to either by the whole name or by a given name in normal usage.



Due to the ubiquity of the major family names such as Tran and Nguyen, a person is often referred to by their middle name along with their given name in Vietnamese media and youth culture.



The Vietnamese language is tonal, and so are Vietnamese names. The same spelling with different tones are different names, which can confuse non-Vietnamese people when the diacritics are dropped when used outside of Vietnam.



Family name



The family name, positioned first, is passed on by the father to his children (patronymic naming system). It is estimated that there are around one hundred family names in common use, although some are far more common than others. The name Nguyễn is estimated to be used by almost 40% of the Vietnamese population. The top three names are so popular because people tended to take the family name of kings, to show their favor and loyalty. Over many generations, the family names became permanent.



The most popular family names among the Vietnamese are (the Chinese characters following each name are their Chinese equivalents):



1. Nguyễn 阮 (38.4%)

2. Trần 陳 (11%)

3. Lê 黎 (9.5%)

4. Phạm 范 (7.1%)

5. Huỳnh/Hoàng 黃 (5.1%)

6. Phan 潘 (4.5%)

7. Vũ/Võ 武 (3.9%)

8. Đặng 鄧(2.1%)

9. Bùi 裴 (2%)

10. Đỗ 杜 (1.4%)

11. Hồ 胡 (1.3%)

12. Ngô 吳 (1.3%)

13. Dương 楊 (1%)

14. Lý 李 (0.5%)





The following include some other less common surnames, in no particular order:



* Lâm 林

* Đinh: 丁

* Nghiêm: 嚴

* Đào: 陶

* Vương: 王

* Trịnh: 鄭 (almost exclusively a northern surname, based around Thanh Hóa)

* Phùng: 馮

* Chung: 鍾

* Triệu: 趙

* Đoàn: 段

* Hà: 何

* Trương: 張

* Tôn: 孫

* Liễu (in northern or central regions): 柳

* Lưu (in central or southern regions): 劉

* Mai: 梅

* La: 羅

* Văn: 文

* Tạ: 謝

* Lương: 梁

* Kim: 金

* Thạch: 石

* Lạc: 駱

* Thủy:水



In Vietnamese cultural practice, women almost always keep their family names once they marry, just as in other East Asian cultures, including Chinese culture, to the north and northeast.



Some Vietnamese have a dual family name. Usually it is a combination of the father's family name and the mother's family name. For example, "Nguyễn Phạm", "Nguyễn Lê".



Intercalary name



The middle name is selected by parents from a fairly narrow range. In the past, almost all women had Thị (氏) as their middle name, and many men had Văn (文). More recently, a broader range of names have been used, and people named Thị sometimes omit their middle name. The middles are used to judge the gender of the person[2]. So respectively, the name "Lee Thị Nguyễn", is a female name because of the "Thị". The same applies to the males with the Văn as their middle name.



Thị is by far the most common female middle name. Male middle names include Văn, Hữu (友), Đức, Công, Quang and many others.



Generally, the middle name has three usages:



1. To indicate a person's generation — brothers and sisters share the same middle name, which distinguish them from the generation before and after them (see generation name).

2. To separate branches of a big family. For example, "Nguyễn Hữu", "Nguyễn Sinh", "Trần Lâm". However, this usage is still controversial. Some people consider they are dual family names, not family name + middle name. Some families may, however, set up arbitrary rules about giving a different middle name to each generation.

3. To indicate a person's position in the family, also known as birth order. This usage is less common than others. It seems that just the Chinese still keep this convention.



Given name



The given name is the primary form of address for Vietnamese. It is chosen by parents, and usually has a literal meaning in the Vietnamese language. Names often represent beauty, such as bird or flower names, or attributes and characteristics that the parents want in their child, such as modesty (Khiem). Typical given names consists of two parts, the first is tên lót, which is just there to make it sound prettier, fancier, while the second is the one that most people go by.



Typically, Vietnamese will be addressed with their given name, even in formal situations, although an honorific equivalent to "Mr.", "Mrs.", etc. will be added when necessary. This contrasts with the situation in many other cultures, where the family name is used in formal situations. This practice is similar to Icelandic practice.



Addressing someone by his or her family name is rare, though not impossible to find. In the past, married women in the north have been called by their family name, with Thị 氏 as a suffix. In recent years, doctors are more likely to be addressed by their family name than any other group of society, though this form of reference is more common in the north than in the south. Some extremely well-known people are sometimes referred by their family names, such as Hồ Chí Minh ("Uncle Hồ") (however his real last name is Nguyễn), Trịnh Công Sơn ("Trịnh music"), and Hồ Xuân Hương ("the poetess with the family name Hồ"). In the old days, people in Vietnam, and particularly North Vietnam addressed parents using the first child's name for example Mr and Mrs Anh or Master Minh.



However, when being addressed within the family, the children are commonly referred to by their birth number, starting from one in the north but starting with two in the south.





Example



* Nguyễn Tấn Dũng is the current Prime Minister of Vietnam. Nguyễn is his family name, Tấn is his middle name, and Dũng is his given name. In formal usage, he is referred to by his given name ("Mr. Dũng"), not by his family name ("Mr. Nguyễn").

* Likewise, the famous general and military leader, Võ Nguyên Giáp, is referred to by his given name, eg, "General Giáp."
 
source: http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=163573248297

Myanmar, a well-known producer of gems in the world, boasts ruby, diamond, cat's eye, emerald, topaz, pearl, sapphire, coral and a variety of garnet tinged with yellow.

Myanmar, a well-known producer of gems in the world, boasts ruby, diamond, cat's eye, emerald, topaz, pearl, sapphire, coral and a variety of garnet tinged with yellow.

Myanmar cultures about 400,000 units of pearls every year from eight pearl farms in the country with investment from Australia, Japan, Indonesia, the Philippines, China and Thailand, according to report.

Myanmar's ruby, diamond, cat's eye, emerald, topaz, pearl, sapphire, coral and pearl gain reputation in the world market.

The government's Central Statistical Organization revealed that in the fiscal year 2008-09, Myanmar produced 32,921 tons of jade and 18,728 million carats of gems which include ruby, sapphire, spinel and peridot, as well as 201,081 mommis (754 kilograms) of pearl.

In March this year, an annual gems emporium, which was the 46th,was held in Yangon on the basis of competitive bidding. In the emporium, more than 5,000 jade lots were displayed and 191 million U.S. dollars worth gems and jewelry were sold out.

The event was attended by over 2,300 foreign traders mostly from China and China's Hong Kong.

The gem merchants attending the show are mainly from Asian countries of China, China's Hong Kong, China's Taiwan and Singapore.

In June this year, a special Myanmar gem emporium again attracted more than 3,000 foreign gem traders, registering the highest number of visitors compared with the last few years' and the proceeds from it amounted to 292 million dollars.

Myanmar's gem market in Asia seems to have not been much affected by the global economic downturn as seen by observers as the country's gems and jewelry stand high in demand among the Asian countries.

read more at http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-09/13/content_12045884.htm

Solution for Myammar

Aung San Suu Kyi should be make the symbolic leader of Myammar for her effort and her father contribution to the country.

Than Shwe should be the actual leader since he got the military backing!!

With two of them nominated, and out of the election, I believe Myammar will have a smooth election and transition to democratic.

The symbolic leader and actual leader election can be held later after a term or two when the democratic system run smoothly!!