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[Attention: This naming convention is by no mean to be final. It will be updated when necessary]
The aim for this naming convention is to standardize the method to document name among the Geni users working on Malay profile. This will help us to collaborate and solving profile conflict much easier.
Please take note that this naming convention is only serve as a basic guideline. Due to certain naming tradition of certain family, country, timeline and culture there might be some contradiction with this naming convention.
This convention will focus more on the Malay Muslim from Malaysia. However it may also be applied by any other profile not only from Malaysia but also include Brunei, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, and any that practice the same naming system.
Malay Muslim names are generally follow Arabic patronymic naming convention :
Given Name + bin/binti + Father’s Name
The list below are all the name fields available in Geni. The main important fields to be filled are First Name and Last Name.
- Title: ...
- First name: Given/Self name
- Middle name: Empty
- Last name: Father's name
- Suffix: ...
- Birth Surname: (Optional) Father's name. Refer to Note.
- Display Name: ...
- Also Known As: ...
GENERAL RULES & NOTES
All the rules/notes stated below will supercede anything from the Coalition for the Standardization of Geni Naming Conventions project if there is any conflicting statement.
1. Always use Start Case. e.g. Abu Bakar, Abdul Halim.
2. Use First Name field for given name and Last Name field for father’s name.
3. Birth Surname is optional. It has become quiet common in modern online genealogy website where it help to keep the original last name of an individual during his/her birth. When a woman married, her last name can change to follow her husband’s last name. However this is not applicable to Malay Muslim Patronymic naming system. Their Last Name will never change and it is always using her father’s name. Thus it is redundant to use this field. One more concern that we have is that Geni was originally designed to follow the standard family names naming system for the Last Name. When exporting data to GEDCOM for back up, any name stored in Birth Surname for a man will never be used and stored in GEDCOM. It will assume that a man will never change his last name. Thus it is better that we utilise the Last Name field to store our father’s name instead.
4. Acquisition Name from events(e.g. Haji, Dr, Dato, Datin) : As this is not an original name of someones when he was bornt, it is preferred that we don't place this info in side the first/last name field. If needed, use Display Name or Title field.
5. Acquisition Name from heritage : There are 2 types of name that can be acquired from someone heritage. The first type is part of his own name. As an example Syed, Megat, Raja, Tengku, Mior, and Wan. This name information will be stored normally in First Name field. For the second type, it indicate the families name(e.g. Al-Jamalullail, Terawis, Wafa). It is not officially part of someone’s name. Thus it is preferred that this info is only specified in Display Name or Suffix field(or both).
6. Dual Name : On certain occasion, some individual will request legally to change his own name. In Malaysia registrar both old and new name will be stated in the system, joint by ”@” symbol. e.g. Halim@Bakar. Both name can be entered into First Name field. This will help the search utility to find profiles with either name.
7. Royal name changes : When a descendant from a king was bornt, their name will contain the standard prefix as such as “Raja”. Only when they are official made into official king, their name will officially be change to “Sultan”. E.g. Raja Mahmud change to Sultan Mahmud. It is preferred that this new name is specified in Display Name or Suffix field(or both).
REFERENCE
Coalition for the Standardization of Geni Naming Conventions
EXAMPLE
Abu Bakar bin Abdul Halim
- First Name : Abu Bakar
- Last Name : Abdul Halim
Syed Abu Bakar Al-Jamalullail bin Syed Abdul Halim Al-Jamalullail
- First Name : Syed Abu Bakar
- Last Name : Syed Abdul Halim
- Suffix: Al-Jamalullail
Dato’ Abu Bakar bin Hj Abdul Halim
- Title : Dato’
- First Name : Abu Bakar
- Last Name : Abdul Halim
- Display Name : Dato’ Abu Bakar Hj Abdul Halim.
Bakar@Sulaiman bin Halim
- First Name : Bakar@Sulaiman
- Last Name : Halim
Raja Mahmud bin Raja Iskandar(bornt), Sultan Mahmud bin Sultan Iskandar
- First Name : Raja Mahmud
- Last Name : Raja Iskandar
- Suffix : Sultan Mahmud
- Display Name : Sultan Mahmud bin Sultan Iskandar