“What is in a name?”, thats a famous quote from Shakespeare but you can not asks Balinese people juts like that using that quote. What is in a name (of Balinese people?) There is a lot of rules and meaning deep inside a Balinese name. Balinese naming system consist of specific rules and meaning that generally shows what clan they are, what gender they are, what hierarchy they are (first born, second born etc), what they expect to be (by their parents) and so on. Balinese people will name their baby in the specific day which is considered as the ‘best day’ according to their traditional calendar system. Balinese people can not just name the baby right away, they need to wait for the best day and give the name to the baby with, of course, a Balinese Hindu ritual. Yes, it sounds complicated but indeed it is complicated and sometimes it sounds s*ck from outsider point of view but hey it is the way of Balinese naming system that they must follow no matter what. Huh!

The rules first. Just like blogging world, Balinese naming system use such templates that can modify later according to the clan and genders. The four templates of Balinese naming system are:

1. Wayan/Putu/Gede/Nengah, these templates are used for the first born baby

2. Made/Kadek, these are used for the second born baby

3. Nyoman/Komang, these are used for the third born baby

4. Ketut, this is used for the fourth born baby.

What happen then to the fifth born and so on? back to the first born templates again. So in Bali there will million of name using the same template such as Made A, Made B etc, Ketut D, Ketut E etc. Other rule that follows those templates are as follows

1. a Balinese male name will start with I (pronounce as ‘e’) and a Balinese female name will start with Ni. So you will find I Made Bagus (indicating : male and second born). Other example is Ni Wayan Asih (indicating: female and first born)

2. Those templates must be followed by other ‘templates’ for those Balinese who belong to certain clan such Ida Bagus Made Arta (Ida Bagus is the hihgest clan in Bali, indicating : male and second born). Other example is Ida Ayu Komang (Ida Ayu is a template for the highest female clan in Bali, while KOmang indicating the third born)

Back to the old time, couple years ago, Balinese people used to name their baby according to the situation/what was happening during the birth. For example, if there is a thunder (bad weather) when a mother is giving a birth, the will name the baby like : I Made Kerug (kerug means thunder). If the mother is giving a birth on Sunday, they will name the baby as I Wayan Redite (redite means Sunday). However Balinese modern family is not following that tradition anymore. It just does not fit anymore.

For Balinese people, there is no such last name or family name. Every name is an independent name, a stand alone name. When a Balinese woman married to a Balinese man, she has no obligation to carry her husband name. Also, Balinese kids does not have to carry his/her father name. This is little bit tricky especially when Balinese people dealing with international documents such as passport. I have an experience in an international airport when I traveled with my wife. The officer asked if she is my wife, of course I said YES but then they asked why there is no my name after my wife’s name. Agh, hell yes, there was a lot of explanation.