Very small choice of first names

As you can see, our parents have a lot of freedom in choosing our last names but when it comes to our first names, they have very little choice! Here, first name attributed according to the rank of birth; they are only for groups and most of them can be for either a boy or girl. The first child can only be named Wayan or Putu, or may be, but only if it’s a boy, Gede. Then the second child, boy or girl, is called either Made or kadek; the third child, Nyoman or Komang; and the fourth one, Ketut, and that’s it. And then what? Well you start all over again! Which means that the same family, they are of ten several of people who have the same first name. And it was worse in the days of our parents, when families had at least seven or eight children.

To make it easy to know if it’s a boy or girl when reading the name, you write NI before a girl’s name, and I before a boy’s name.