How do you enter an Indonesian with no surname?

Question

She has three "given" names and a "daughter of" designation: Tri Anantawati Nurhidayah binti (daughter of) Hadi Prajitno (her father's name). Indonesians have no "family name" or surname. I am inclined to put her surname as "binti Hadi Prajitno". Your thoughts? I want to get this right.

Comments

Indonesians aren't the only culture with only one name.

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Good observation, Rosemary!

I'm reminded of the constraints of our databse at the San Francisco Public Library when I worked there. A patron came in with one name which was "Kabala." Her IDs including her California driver's license said her name was Kabala. (No middle name, no last name.) I tried putting in a period (.) but the database wouldn't accept this. So...in the end we had to register her as "Kabala Kabala" which definitely was *not* her legal name.

So..back to the question. How *does* wikitree address the issue of a person with only one (legal) name?

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Exactly. Although in my question, the person doesn't exactly have only one legal name... she has six, although none of them can be called a "surname" or family name. Maybe that doesn't matter. Maybe it's enough that she is "binti Haji Prajitno". That makes genealogy a bit more difficult, but not impossible.

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It should probably be handeled the same way as "ferch" and "ap" in Welsh names. How doe they handle that?

 

Update: Your original proposal "binti Hadi Prajitno" seems to follow the usage for old Welsh names where "ferch" also means "daughter of". So, I would go ahead and use it that way since we have a project-sanctioned precedent.

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To answer how ap/ferch are handled - as part of LNAB. See the this section of the Cymru project page & more details here.

Answer 1

Hi All,

I'm a Malay from Singapore.  All Malay do not have surnames or family names.

I always use "bin Abu Bakar" as my family name since all my siblings use it, either as "bin Abu Bakar" for the sons or "binti Abu Bakar" for the daughters.  Even when I was living in the USA.  And now, all my sons will use "bin Ahmad Mazhar" and daughters "binti Ahmad Mazhar".

I am using this methods in wikitree.  FYI.

Comments

Thank you, Ahmad. That's what I am going with. :)

Answer 2

I'm just guessing that there is a genealogical "style manual" which creates uniformity from place to place. If this question invoving multiple names has not been addressed by the manual's orginators, it should be. Our world is shrinking! I do like your solution, James.

It's deconstruction would suggest that there could be a lot variables.."binti" meaning daughter of," :"Hadji" being an honorific title given to those who have completed the pilgrimage to Mecca, and  "Prajitno" probably being the name given to her father at his birth. (It's my understanding that Indonesian "given" names can vary according to the stages of one's life, but I can't remember exactly where I heard this.)

What name would she have on an Indonesian passport? Just curious.

Answer 3

I have slightly different solution to Ahmad Azhar bin Abu Bakar, that may be as useful.

I'm a Malay from Malaysia. My full name in official records is S.M.Sabri bin S.M.Ismail. I have problems using that full name in firstname lastname world, including Facebook. Two problems: one is the lastname, the other is the dots in the names. So my solution for Facebook is to use a form that is closest to firstname lastname without the dots. S M Sabri Ismail . The underlined lastname/surname is Ismail.

However, previously in Geni.com I chose to use the fuller S.M.Ismail as the surname for all my siblings. It has the advantage of having the same name for both male/female sibilings, in corntrast to having bin S.M.Ismail or binti S.M.Ismail for then respectively.

Currently, I'm using Ismail as my surname here.

 

 

Answer 4

The surname would be best "binti Haji Prajitno", as suggested. But what about names like the Balinese. Their system is extremely difficult. Firstly, because they are Hindu, they have a caste name. For the lowest caste (Jaba), it is I for men and Ni for women. Then they  have a position name. First child is Wayan or Putu, second child is Made/Kadek/Nengah, third child Nyoman/Komang and fourth child Ketut.  After that they have a personal name. As an 'adopted' balinese (because of my close ties with the community, not because of blood) I am Ni Made Susanti. That tells everyone I am lowest caste, second child and called, by my family, Susanti.

If I were the next caste up (Wesia), the caste names are I Gusti and Ni Gusti.

The Satria (nobles) have the title Anak Agung, Gusti Agung or Cokorda and they do not use the position names.

The Brahmana (priestly caste) are known by the titles Ida Bagus and Ida Ayu and do not use position names.

None of them have any hint of a surname, not even a hint at the identity of their parents, nor do they use a clan name, though they might know what clan they belong to.

Now that is a challenge for any genealogical site. LOL

Answer 5

As Susan has noted, one encounters varieties of naming conventions in this part of the world.  Many can follow precedents developed elsewhere in WikiTree.  The Cymru Project has helpfully pioneered in legitimizing patronymics with thier ap, ab and ferch constructions, which the Malay bin and binti would parallel.  Susan is pioneering other constructions.

While a paragraph ==Name== in the biography is superfluous for a number of English and American profiles, it becomes especially important for East Asian profiles, both to list the varieties of names the person used (in their proper order for Chinese names) and also to provide explanations when the logic for the name selected may not be obvious.