The Development of Personal Names in Kudus, Central Java, Indonesia

The objective of the paper is to solve problems in the meanings of Javanese personal names. Javanese personal names are associated with knowledge, expectancy, prayers, particular occurrence, period and Javanese character in a complex cultural tradition frame. There are various meanings within Javanese personal names. Hence, it frequently causes hesitancy for researchers to find the midpoint between the name (signifier) and the represented reality concept (signified). The research method used is qualitative as it aims to comprehend the phenomenon of Javanese name meanings in detail. The data are a list of students’ names obtained from different elementary schools, junior high schools and senior high schools in 2005-2010 and some common people's names. Based on the analysis, it is identified that particular meaning characteristics of Javanese personal names are related to uniqueness, denotation and connotation, distinctive sounds, particular grammatical criteria, wording and the correlation between the meaning and its reference. The paper helps us understand the development of Javanese people over time based on their names.