Over time, especially under social and political pressure during the New Order era, most Chinese Indonesians have adopted names that better match the local language.
The administrators recorded the names using the nearest Dutch spelling derived from Hokkien words, which was simplified into Ejaan Lama (lit.
The spelling convention survived through the Japanese occupation (1942–1945) well into Indonesian independence (1945) and sovereignty acknowledgment by the Dutch government (1949).
Since the independent Indonesian government inherited the Dutch legal system, it also survived until 1965 in Sukarno's presidential era.
The Indonesian government later began changing Indonesian spelling to harmonize it with the spelling used for Malay in Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei,[3] first under the Ejaan Suwandi introduced in 1947, and again under Ejaan Yang Disempurnakan (lit.
Despite the Indonesianization, the Hokkien surnames are still used today by the Chinese-Indonesian diaspora overseas (mostly in the Netherlands, Germany, and the United States)—usually by Chinese-Indonesians courageous enough during Suharto's regime to keep their Chinese names (e.g. Kwik Kian Gie; 郭建義)—or by those who couldn't afford to process the name change through Indonesia's civil bureaucracy.
[4][5] Individuals who retain their Indonesian names do it because they remain concerned about the persistence of racial issues, they believe non-Chinese speakers might struggle with pronunciations, it has become a habit from the New Order era, their family no longer speaks Chinese, they believe Chinese names are better when written in Hanzi, or they have never given it much thought.
[6] Presently, Chinese Indonesians born in the vicinity of the New Order era, particularly between 2000 and 2003, predominantly adopt Western-sounding names.
While some of these names may be associated with religions like Christianity,[7] others choose Western names because they find them appealing and meaningful, they align with current trends, offer a diverse range of choices, are inspired by Western celebrities, reflect family traditions, showcase their exposure to Western cultures, symbolize aspirations for international recognition, or simply because they prefer names that don't sound Indonesian.
Other individuals who used this approach include Clara Ng, Felix Siauw, Stephen Tong, and Warren Hue.
This process includes the addition of Indonesian-sounding names through paragoge, prosthesis, and epentheses between two syllables.
[9] It's important to note that this method does not entail any spelling alterations in their names, ensuring that the surname remains unchanged.
[11] Similar to incorporating Indonesian-sounding names directly to their Chinese surnames, epentheses are employed.
[1] Illustrating this method is Eka Tjipta Widjaja, who constructed his surname by phonetically incorporating Oei (黃), represented as Wi- as a paragoge, and appending the suffix -djaja, meaning "victory".
This approach is frequently employed by individuals with the surname Oei (黃) and Wei (魏), leading to the emergence of various names with the suffix Wi-, including Wijaya, Winata, and Wiyoko.
[15] Initially exclusive to individuals of the Tanimbarese ethnic group native to the Maluku, this surname has recently been identified among Chinese Indonesians with Hokkien ancestry.
For example, Sofjan Wanandi translated his surname Liem (林), which meant "forest", to the old Javanese word "wana".
It is important to highlight that the table includes only spellings based on the currently-used Ejaan Bahasa Indonesia yang Disempurnakan.