One Name

Indonesia’s first president is Soekarno. He was succeeded by Soeharto. Both Soekarno and Soeharto are the examples of Indonesian who only had one name. Most Indonesians, especially Javanese, only have one single word into their names. They don’t have first name and surename like people in other countries and cultures do. Their one single word is their name. Indonesians are not accustomed to used surename, except for some ethnic groups who live outside Java.
So, like our first two presidents did, many Indonesians lived and be recognized by others as only Suprapto, Handoko, Mulyono, Sunarti, or Santoso. This will result in much confusion when they go abroad as foreign people always ask for surename in all kind of business especially immigration.
One more unusual thing about person’s naming in Indonesia is that in some cultures, one’s name change constantly following his/her progress into maturity, adulthood, age, and even his/her position either in society or in career. In ancient times until the first half of the 20th century, Javanese used three levels of name: childhood name, adulthood name, and senior/veteran name. People from high social rank, such as kings, sultans, ministers, dukes, generals, religious leaders, or government officials, even had posthumous name, which used later when they have long passed away.
Such example is the great King Sri Rajasanagara of the Majapahit Kingdom who ruled from 1350 to 1389. Upon his birth into adolescence age, his name was Raden Tetep. He also known as Tirtarayu, Pager Antimun, and Janeswara. When he became crown prince in the age of 15, his name changed to Dyah Hayam Wuruk. Later on, when he crowned as the fourth leader of the Majapahit realm in 1350, he held the official king title as Prabu Sri Rajasanagara.
Other leaders in Indonesia’s history is known simply by their posthumous name. The second king of the Mataram dynasty, Panembahan Anyakrawati (1601-1613), is widely known as Panembahan Seda Krapyak. “Seda” is Javanese word which means dead, and Krapyak is the name of the village where he passed away.
His grandson, Sunan Amangkurat I (1645-1677), often mentioned as Sunan Tegalwangi. Both Amangkurat and Tegalwangi are his posthumous name. The title Sunan Amangkurat I was used after his death, and his original title is remain unknown to this day. Whereas Tegalwangi is the place where he passed away after he flew away from his palace due to Prince Trunajaya’s massive rebellion.
My grandfather (my mother’s father) also has more than one level of name during his lifetime from 1901 to 1974. In his childhood until his adulthood, his name was Tubingan. And then, right after he had grandchildren, he altered his name into Djojodihardjo, making him widely known as Mr Tubingan Djojodihardjo since then.
But the tradition is no longer used nowadays, except in the circle of the old royal family like in Yogyakarta, Surakarta, or Cirebon. By 1960s and 1970s, people started to name their babies with more than one word name. Recently, under the influence of European and American culture, most Indonesians even started to use their latter name as surename. For example, is one’s name is Bambang Purnomo, he will name all his children with Purnomo as their latter name with the hope that all of his descendants will use “Purnomo” as the name of his “dynasty”.
Since I haven’t got any children yet, I also had the idea of making my latter name (Wintarto) as the name of my glorious dynasty in the future, or perhaps naming my first son as Wintarto, Jr. or Wintarto II. Sounds wonderful, isn’t it?