When my dad died a few weeks ago the mortuary staff asked me, “what’s his bin?”
I was like, “Bin? What bin, recycle bin? Trash bin?” But I didn’t say it out loud.
He had to explain to me what he meant because he needed my grandpa’s name to write on my dad’s death certificate. Had he instead asked me what his dad’s name was I’d have understood immediately.
Because my dad was Muslim it’s required practice to state his name as [his name] bin [his dad’s name] on death certificates.
In almost any other occasion it’s not legal practice in Indonesia — as it is in many Muslim countries, of which Indonesia is not — to incorporate ancestry in our government name and most of our legal documents don’t have that. Even our birth certificates don’t format it in that specific way.
I guess when my mom goes they’ll ask me what’s her binti (daughter of).