Indonesian Fiance only has one name, how to fill out forms?

[chrislyse 0]

As suggested in the K1 forum, i'm reposting to my local region:

My fiance is from Indonesia and she legally only has one name...her passport just says: ELY

Should i put this under family name or first name? Wil this likely cause me problems? This is common in Indonesia.

Thanks.

[Melrose Plant 1]

Well, you learn something new every day. Here is some interesting reading, and it may even be helpful:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesian_name

We don't have too many Indonesian folks on this message board, but there are some, as I recall. I am curious to know the answer to this one myself.

[faryan 4]

Well, you learn something new every day. Here is some interesting reading, and it may even be helpful:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesian_name

We don't have too many Indonesian folks on this message board, but there are some, as I recall. I am curious to know the answer to this one myself.

Interesting read

I am Malay Malaysian and we also kinda have the same system as Indonesians. However, in IDs we have our name (single, multiples, according to what is "in" during the time we were born) will also followed by our father's name. Like xx daughter of yy... And in passport/internationally our father's name is taken to be our family/last name... This situation also will result in my family name and my father's family name to be different, coz essentially his family name is my grandpa's name.

But for Indonesians, I do indeed have friends who carry one name passport, or multiple names but non of it their family/last name. They usually put N/A in the family/last name portion on forms.

Edited February 8, 2009 by faryan

[tom&tata 2]

I agree with faryan's post. I am Indonesian but I always use a family name. I knew some people who does not usually have their family name but for passport, they added their family name using the father's last name on the birth certificate. Or I guess put "N/A" will work on the lack of last name on passport.

Edited February 8, 2009 by tom&tata

[chrislyse 0]

I agree with faryan's post. I am Indonesian but I always use a family name. I knew some people who does not usually have their family name but for passport, they added their family name using the father's last name on the birth certificate. Or I guess put "N/A" will work on the lack of last name on passport.

This is the answer i received from the Consulate in Jakarta. Thanks for everyone's replies.

You can write her name as follows:

First Name : FNU

Last Name : Ely

...as was mentioned in the K1 forum when I first asked as a possible suggestion...FNU i was told stands for "first name unknown"

Thanks.

[chrislyse 0]

Well, you learn something new every day. Here is some interesting reading, and it may even be helpful:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesian_name

We don't have too many Indonesian folks on this message board, but there are some, as I recall. I am curious to know the answer to this one myself.

Thanks for the link. It seems rediculous to us that they can have a passport/birth certificate/ID with a single common name and its ok

[tom&tata 2]

Well, you learn something new every day. Here is some interesting reading, and it may even be helpful:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesian_name

We don't have too many Indonesian folks on this message board, but there are some, as I recall. I am curious to know the answer to this one myself.

Thanks for the link. It seems rediculous to us that they can have a passport/birth certificate/ID with a single common name and its ok

Because it is the culture. What is so important about the last name anyway?

[chrislyse 0]

I dont know, i guess its similar to an american named john smith. It just seems like it would be hard to keep tabs on milllions of people with the same one name.

[Melrose Plant 1]

Hey, that's what a Social Security number (or other National ID number) is for! You know, you don't really exist until you've got that number. I've re-discovered that as of late. Thank God Mai finally got her SS card. Now she's a real person again. And she has four names.

[Jasman0717 9]

Wow, seems a bit confusing, how would you ever be able to look someone up

[ishack1956 0]

My wife is also Malaysian Malay, but we're using her name as Zainah binti Hashim (Zainah daughter of Hashim), because that is what is on her Malaysian Passport/IC/DL and such. Thus everyone here is treating the Binti as a middle name, which it is not. But in Indonesia (her family is originally from Sumatra) they only use the first name. You have to use what is on the Passport/BD, thus I would consider putting NONE down for the last name. I am sure this issue has come up before.

Of course knowing Islamic naming traditions this drives me nuts when people refer to Osama bin Laden as 'bin Laden', his name is OSAMA. The same is when people refer to my wife as Mrs. Hack is culturally incorrect as well. If you to call her Mrs Anything it's Mrs. Iskandar (Mrs. Hack under Islamic naming tradition would be my Mother (my father's wife)).

Another interesting thing is that in most Islamic cultures the wife does NOT take the husband's last name. That would not make any sense, because the husband's last name it his father's FIRST name. There is no family name as such since your father's last name is typically your grandfather's last name.

Just a little background on naming traditions in Islamic cultures.

Iskandar