My Name

Hello Everyone,

This time, the posting will be about my name. Well, what is my name? My full name, as stated in my Malaysian Identification Card (IC) is "MOHD SULHI BIN AZMAN".

Malay Muslim names usually contain "Bin" or "Binti". The word "Bin" means "son of", while "Binti" means "daughter of". Malay Muslims do not have a family surname. We are usually identified by our two names. So, in the case of my name, I am "Mohd Sulhi son of Azman". Therefore, in Malaysia, you may address me as "Mr Sulhi", instead of "Mr Azman". The former is myself while the latter is my father. It will be weird if you address me as "Mr Azman" in Malaysia. Somewhere out there, my father will choke should his name be wrongly addressed to his son. Not ;)

This however, is not the case in western countries, as they will address me as "Mr Azman", due to the complex nature of our name systems.

What's "MOHD"?

So, how do you pronounce "MOHD", you asked. Well, you pronounce it as either "Mohammad" or "Muhammad", depending on your preference of whether to pronounce it with a deep "O" sound or the cute "U" sound.

You see, Malaysian Muslims in the past like to abbreviate and shorten the name "Mohammad". They say that it is too long to spell the full "Mohammad" on paper, so they shorten it to "MOHD". I don't know why, but that seems to be the case.

This creates a lot of confusion especially to the foreigners as they will have a hard time on how to pronounce that four-letter word. Is it pronounced as "Mod" or "Moh-od" or "M -ohd", they wonder. Luckily the Malaysian government has disallowed the abbreviation of the name "Mohammad". Nowadays, all Malaysian Muslims are required to write the full spelling of each and every name. Imagine shortening the name "Peter" to "Pr". Now how would that sound? ;)

What is"SULHI" then?

"Sulhi" is my middle name. In Malaysia, people dont call me "Mohd", but they call me "Sulhi" because there are far too many "Mohd" in Malaysia.

"Sulhi" is an Arabic word, originating from the root word "Sulh", which means peace. Therefore, "Sulhi" would mean "my peace".

I also happen to know that in Islamic family law, there is this concept called "Sulh", which is about peaceful mediation. This peculiarly interesting concept is used to mediate married couple who are in a bad relationship which may lead to a divorce. And divorce is highly discouraged in Muslim, and it should be the only last resort if the relationship could not be saved. Hence, prior to getting a divorce, the couple should be sent for "Sulh", peaceful mediation.

So yeah, if you need someone to help you in peaceful mediation, do contact me. Errr, NOT!

"You have an interesting name."

So echoed one question from a Chinese friend of mine. Sure I do. My name is unique. Not many Malay use that name. Common Malay names include (the list is not intended to be exhaustive):-

* Syam (Syamsul, Shamsul - means "Sun")
* Zul (Zulkifli)
* Hafiz
* Rizal
* Anwar etc.

So, why Max?

Among selected group of friends, I am known as Max. And why Max? Well, that is interesting because apparently, some Malay friends of mine get mixed-up with the name "Sulhi". I am often called as "Sulihi" or "Suhil", and worst, "Sushi". From where did that name come from, I don't know.

And furthermore, for brevity and ease of communication among my friends, I come up with the name Max. That name is the result of rigorous research on the internet.

A lot of my Chinese friends use "English" name. Some of the names may  sound like "Danny Chan", "Vincent Tan", "Peter Chin" etc. So, I figure that if the Chinese can come up with English name, why not the Malay? So come the quest to find a suitable name.

I actually thought of using some fancy name as a "substitute" or "business" name, and that include:-

* David
* Daniel
* Kay
* Sam

But then, it will be weird because I am always known as "Mohd Sulhi" no matter how tongue twisting the name may be. And plus, the above names are far too fancy to be added along my nice name. So, instead of using those mouthful names, I decided to find easy names: easy to be pronounced and easy to be remembered.

So finally, I settle down with the name "Max". In a business occassion, I would often introduce myself as "Hi, I'm Max". Most Malaysians will frown when they hear that and the immediate reply that I will get is "Are you a Malay? What's your Malay name?".

Another remark that I sometimes get is that "Why don't you use your Malay name? Your mother had a hard time in finding you a good name, but you didn't use it". My reply is simple: "I get earache and feel pity everytime I see someguys having trouble to pronounce my name".

Oh well, I just dont bother and I will insist on using that name so as to make the business goes smoothly.

If I have faith that you can pronouce the name "Sulhi" correctly at 99% of the time, then surely I will introduce you with that name.

Well, Malay name can be interesting. And that, people, is the history of my name.