I am Tipok

This had been running in my mind since I review back my previous post titled 'The Story of Our English Name' and reading through the comments. Going through my own post and also the comments in a third person perspective, I was kinda amused. Then becomes thoughtful.


Bidayuh to outsiders are known as simple minded people with simple wants and needs. Though I seriously doubt it; I prefer the terms different wants and needs yet basically being human still the same. But that’s another story and shall be told another time.

When come to English name, mentioned in my previous post, we are downright creative. Just recently, I got to know two more Bidayuh babies with a rather interesting name; Haniel and Nolan. Not that I’m a bit surprised because one of the parents happened to have interesting names too.

But I wonder, will this trend continues in the future? What had happened to our Bidayuh name?

For those who doesn’t know, let me tell you a little bit about Bidayuh names. Heck, I’m not an expert in this but I write what I know.

First of all, Bidayuh must not have the same name as their close relatives. It was considered as bad luck. Let say if you are named Teddy then your cousins and even distant cousins are not allowed to be named Teddy. I don’t know why but names are considered sacred as far as I can remembers from my own family. If two people in the same family circle are named Teddy, the life are deemed divided. One would suck the other spirit; so one would carry all the bad luck. Sickness, poverty and as such.

So during my parents and ancestor times, we got names like Miar, Gunjiu, Sikiem, Nyatoi, Linyai, Pidien, Limieng, Ginjos, Samat and etcetra. Now you got an idea what an actual Bidayuh name reads like. But the pronunciation were trickier. As far as I know, it depends on the division or even villages. The ‘L’ and the ‘K’ are more prominent in Bau.

Let just say the name spelled as Ridek. The pronunciation would not be ‘Ree-Dayk’; it would be ‘Lee-Dayctk’ plus there would be a roll on the tongue on ‘L’.

So we got some rather interesting situations here. When a child was given an English name, the older generations would pronounce them in the Bidayuh tongue resulting it into becoming somewhat a Bidayuh name.

For instance, Irene would become Alin, Zainal (okay, not an English but he’s a real person) becomes Jenal, Richard becomes Lichat, Michael becomes Mikar, Eliza becomes Lija, Vincent becomes Bincen. Those with a rather long, strange and maybe over creative names would end up with another Bidayuh name cooked up by some more down to Earth Bidayuh.

So somehow I am Jacqueline and I am also Tipok. And that would be pronounced as ‘Tee-Pock’. Yep, just have to add Spock the Star Trek Vulcan there. Now, my wayward brain just goes “I am Tipok. I came in peace.”

And don’t be surprised too if I say I have gone where I’ve never gone before by putting my Bidayuh name officially on cyberspace.

I have no shame in my Bidayuh (maybe a bit embarrassed caused I’ve found out it’s a male name) but the reason I’ve never told almost anybody outside my own family and villagers is because I think the name is special. Sacred even.

It’s a family name. It’s a name I hold dear to me because not many knew about it.

But then, I realized also, maybe the new generations didn’t have Bidayuh name because nobody talked about it. It was just not popular anymore. Maybe to some it was just not an important aspect of being Bidayuh anymore. And maybe, just maybe, just like me, secretly believe that Bidayuh name should stay within the Bidayuh community.

But as time progresses and Bidayuh also progresses from padi planters to scientists, engineers and business peoples; the mindset should progress too. There was a proverb I read somewhere, you can’t pick the diamond if your hands are filled with rocks. Something just gotta go.

I’m not talking about letting go our Bidayuh name, I’m talking about picking that diamond which are the Bidayuh names and letting the world know about it. Kinda like saying ‘Hey I got a diamond here.’ And don’t go cheekily telling me somebody gonna steal that diamond.

But won’t it be kinda awesome that someday an English guy would call their kids ‘Joss Jolieng’ or ‘Alice Litin’. That would be a total win.

Then again, it would be ‘interestingly weird’ if an English man named Miding come face to face with a Bidayuh man named Michaelangelo.

I have nothing against English name or those Bidayuh who name their kids the strangest name (heck my nephew is Garryvino); just named those cute babies whatever you think is best.

But right now, I want to say, I am a Bidayuh and I am Tipok.


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