# Malay: proper names



## chimen

My problem is, I'm reading some Malaysian scholars' papers and decide to cite their works. However, I get confused with their proper names; in other words, I cannot distinguish between their last names and their first names, as many indigenous Malaysian didn't have last names. I hope you can help figure out last names and first names of these people: 
1 - Nurridan binti Abdul Han 
2 - Albert Chuan Gambang 
3 - Che Hamdan Che Mohd Razali 
4 - Annie Lim Pek Khiok (Chinese, maybe)  

Also, I'm not sure whether last name-first name order in these proper names follows English proper names rule (first name first) or not. Please show me too.
5 - Asri Salleh
6 - Kamaruzaman Jusoff
7 - Daud Awang 
8 - Osman Muda

Thank you very much


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## fdb

I studied Malay many decades ago, but I remember this much:

1 - Nurridan binti Abdul Han = N. daughter of A.H. (bint means “daughter” in Arabic).

2 - Albert Chuan Gambang = Chinese. The family name in Chuan.

3 - Che Hamdan Che Mohd Razali = che is a title. He is Hamdan son of M.R.

4 - Annie Lim Pek Khiok = Chinese. The family name is Lim.

5 - Asri Salleh = A. son of S.

6 - Kamaruzaman Jusoff = K. son of J.

7 - Daud Awang = D. son of A.

8 - Osman Muda = O. son of M.


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## chimen

Great! Thank you so much, fdb. You've saved my day.  About the third name, when I cite his work, should I write like this: 
Hamdan, Mohd Razali (2000). ______. _Journal of _____. _
or this
Hamdan, Che Mohd Razali (2000). ______. _Journal of _____._
or 
Che Hamdan, Che Mohd Razali (2000). ______. _Journal of _____._
I mean, should I leave out "Che"?


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## fdb

Maybe check how they call themselves when writing in English. (Look for self-citations in the bibliographies of their own papers). I think it is likely that (for example) Osman Muda uses his patronym "Muda" as a surname when writing in English. 

Che is a title, so you should ignore it for the purpose of alphabetisation.


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## chimen

After searching a bit, I've found a page about Albert Chuan Gambang that uses "Osman" as main citing unit and abbreviates Muda into M. I think it's meaningful, as you have pointed out that Osman is his given name and Muda is just his father's name so we call him Mr. Osman in real life, not Mr. Muda. Thank you for your detailed explanation helping me learn new things about Malaysian names.


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## Mauricet

Doesn't _muda_ mean _junior_ ? Osman Muda = the youger Mr. Osman, maybe ...


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