Andrianampoinimerina, Rainivoninahitriniony, Andriantsimitoviaminandriandrazaka... Have you ever come across a Malagasy name ? If you have, your reaction was probably something like : "Damn, that's a long name !". When Malagasy President Rajaonarimampianina went to France in 2017, French President Emmanuel Macron called him by his first name, Hery. More convenient and easier to pronounce, for sure.
As you can certainly imagine, these long names have a meaning. But let's forget that for a moment and go back in history. Traditionally, Malagasy names are mononymous, which means they only have a single name. When Madagascar became an English, and later a French colony, colonial laws were made to encourage the locals to adopt binomial names : a given name and a surname. But this was never made mandatory. To this day, it is still legal in Madagascar to only have one single name. But it has become rather uncommon.
Since surnames are not mandatory, there is no such thing as family names or patronymic names. In fact, some families do follow the Western way to transmit a family name, but it remains a minority of the population. As a result, the parents of a newborn child are totally free to chose his or her first name, middle name, last name and even more !
And this is were the meaning and the reason of the long names arrive. The family of the newborn child (usually the parents and/or the grand-parents) makes up a new name that should serve as good omen, wished fate and family heritage. So, one could easily come up with something like : "The Noble Grand-Children of John Who Will Be A Force Of Nature", which becomes RANDRIAZAFINJAONA Heriniaina. If you had a "God-Given Little Girl You Awaited For So Long", just call her RASOANANDRASANA Fanomezantsoa. And so on.
There are some particles that may help you find the pattern of a name. Ra- is an honorific particle. If your name if Mike, people greeting you with respect will say : "Hello, Ra-Mike !". Andria- comes from Andriana, which is Malagasy for "noble". Rakoto- basically refers to a man, while Rasoa- is reserved for women. Though, some women may be named Rakoto-something and some men may be named Rasoa-something if, at some point, their families stating using a family name transmitted from a generation to another.
Another very common thing is to use a French, sometimes English name as a middle name. Malagasy names are given in the following order : SURNAME, First Name, Second Name, Third Name... SALOHY Tolojanahary Francine Jessica is totally acceptable as a Malagasy name. Also, since there is no masculine or feminine words in Malagasy, so parents sometimes attributes them in a way we would consider inappropriate. I've met boys named Brenda and girls named Hervé.
If you are not bored yet, you may want to know how preferred named are chosen. And, well, it's a bit complicated. Almost every children in Madagascar has a nickname (if not several). Sometimes, one of his or her nickname will be used as usual name. Or sometimes it's just one part of his or her legal name that will be used. Thus, it's very common that one person is called differently, depending on the people who are calling him or her.
If you want to know the meaning of a Malagasy name, tell me and I will try to figure it out.
tldr : Last names are not mandatory, so the parents can just make up anything they want. Most of the time it's some sort of a short phrase which contains will of good fate and personal heritage.
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