As you may have noticed, Balinese are the ultimate family people, close to even their extended family, and even their own community are often referred to as family even though there is no blood line.
Not only are Balinese family people, they are also deeply proud of their children, to the point that parents are often known by the name(s) of their offspring. This is what the suffix ‘Pan’ or ‘Men’ refers to. It’s an abbreviation of Bapan and Memen respectively. Bapa in Balinese means father and meme means mother. The ‘n’ is added to show possession. After Pan or Men then follows the name of one of their children. My son’s name is Gede Semara, which means that I would most probably be nicknamed ‘Pan Semara’. Balinese normally choose the second name rather than the birth order name (e.g. Gede, Wayan, Made, Kadek, Nengah, Nyoman, Komang, Ketut, Agung, Gusti, Sang Ayu, Ida Ayu, Ida Bagus etc) so as not to confuse.
For me this demonstrates how a parent kind of loses some of their own adult identity as soon as they become a parent – focus is much more on their offspring (and therefore the future of their family) rather than themselves. Sociologically speaking, this is reflective of the anonymity of the individual in Balinese society and the importance of the group, or, in this case, an extension of the self.
Personally, I’ve noticed that these terms are more common in the villages these days than in the cities and tourism areas. In fact, in more modern families that are well known in society, particularly if they are celebrities, their children are sometimes given the ‘family name’ (actually it’s normally just their last name as Balinese don’t traditionally have a family name) of the famous parent. This is both an influence of Western culture on Balinese naming habits and also so that others know that their children have a famous parent or parents. I’d predict, that as with the adoption of Western names, more and more Balinese will pass on their last name to their offspring, copying again something from outside of their culture rather than continuing with their own tradition.
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