Compiled by Jarod Lim, Yang Jiao, Sira Habibu and R. Aravinthan
AT least 74 individuals carry the name Malaysia, according to Sinar Harian.
The National Registration Department confirmed that the first baby to have the name was born on March 22,1962, before Malaysia was officially formed. As of Sept 12 this year, the last baby to be named Malaysia was born in August 2017.
Among those named Malaysia are history teacher Mohd Malaysia Ismail as well as retired teachers Nor Malaysia Rose and Malaysiawati Asha’ari.Malaysiawati, 55, said the name had made it easy for her to get jobs in the past.
“I was never under pressure during job interviews because the interviewers were more interested in my name, ” she said.
Nor Malaysia, 56, said her father initially wanted to name her Normala but changed his mind after a chat with policemen on the history of Tanah Melayu before registering her birth at the police station.
Meanwhile, Nor Malaysia Anwar said she was accidentally given the name because of a communication breakdown when her father went to register her birth at a police station in Kluang, Johor. But she said she was proud of the name.
Malasiah Alwi, 56, said her late grandfather proudly named her to commemorate Malaysia Day, but the name was misspelt.
Malasiah said her name was registered as Malaysia when she enrolled in school because her family had misplaced her birth certificate and they were unaware of the spelling error in the certificate.
They only realised it years later when they recovered her birth certificate.
The above articles are compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a >, it denotes a separate news item.
