Birth order name is a well known and unique characteristic of Balinese name. The birth order name is given to a baby at the instant of its birth, according to whether it is the first, second, third, fourth, etc., member of a sibling set. There is some local and status-group variation in usage here, but the most common system is to use Wayan for the first child, Made (or Nengah) for the second, Nyoman for the third, and Ketut for the fourth, beginning the cycle over again with Wayan for the fifth, Made for the sixth, and so on.

These birth order names are the most frequently used to address for children and for young men and women who have not yet produced offspring. Vocatively, they are usually used simply, that is, without the addition of the personal name: “Wayan, give me the hoe,” and so forth. Referentially, they may be supplemented by the personal name, especially when no other way is convenient to get across which of the dozens of Wayans or Mades in the hamlet is meant: “No, not Wayan Rugrug, Wayan Kepig,” and so on.

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A child bears his father or mother name is a common practice in most parts of the world. However, in Bali, the parents, grandparents, or even great grandparents bear their offspring’s name.

In Balinese culture someone personal name is treated as though it is a classified information – At birth, each Balinese is given a sex indicator, caste title, birth order name and a personal/ real name. It is forbidden for younger people to call their older with his personal or real name. For children and young adolescent birth order names is used to call each other. And kinship relation terms invoked at best sporadically, and then only for purposes of secondary specification. In this kind of situation, a question arises, how do most Balinese address and refer to one another? The answer is: by teknonyms.
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