Learn Hardcore Malay: Keluarga saya menamakan kucing baru itu "Oren".

Putting saya before the noun (saya keluarga) is ungrammatical in standard Malay for possession. So you should always say NOUN + saya, not saya + NOUN, to mean my NOUN.

What exactly does menamakan mean, and how is it formed?

Menamakan means “to name (something), to give a name to”.

Morphology:

Root: nama = name
Prefix: meN- (a common verb-forming prefix)
Suffix: -kan (often makes it “to cause / to give / to apply X to something”)

So: meN- + nama + -kan → menamakan
Literally: to cause/give a name (to something) → to name.

It is a transitive verb: you must name something and usually say what name you give:

menamakan kucing itu Oren = to name the cat Oren
menamakan syarikat itu Sinar = to name the company Sinar

Why is the pattern menamakan [thing] [name] and not [name] [thing] like in English titles?

Malay keeps the object first, then its name:

menamakan kucing baru itu Oren
= to name [the new cat] [Oren]

English can sometimes flip the order (“We named him Oren”), but in Malay, after menamakan, the natural order is:

menamakan + [person/thing being named] + [name]

You wouldn’t say ✗ menamakan Oren kucing baru itu to mean “name the new cat Oren”; that sounds like you are naming Oren as the new cat, which is odd.

Is there a difference between menamakan and just nama as a verb?

Yes.

nama by itself is primarily a noun: nama = name.
Using nama directly as a verb (e.g. kami nama kucing itu Oren) is not standard in Malay; it sounds wrong or very non‑standard.

To say “to name / to call (by name)”, you should use:

menamakan – to name, to give a name to
sometimes menamai exists (more Indonesian; much less common in Malay)

So for proper Malay, prefer menamakan:

Keluarga saya menamakan kucing baru itu Oren. ✅
Keluarga saya nama kucing baru itu Oren. ❌ (ungrammatical)

Could I say this in another natural way without menamakan?

Yes, a very common alternative is:

Nama kucing baru itu ialah Oren.
= The new cat’s name is Oren.

Or more casually:

Kucing baru itu nama dia Oren. (colloquial)
Nama kucing baru itu Oren.

But note the nuance:

Keluarga saya menamakan kucing baru itu Oren.
focuses on the act of naming (we chose this name).
Nama kucing baru itu Oren.
just states the fact of its name.

What does itu do in kucing baru itu and why is it at the end?

Itu is a demonstrative, usually meaning that, but very often functioning like an English definite article “the” when referring to something known in context.

Position:

In standard Malay, itu typically comes after the noun phrase:
- kucing baru itu = that new cat / the new cat
- budak itu = that child
- buku merah itu = that red book

So kucing baru itu is the normal word order.

Putting itu before the noun (e.g. itu kucing baru) is possible but is more marked, often used for emphasis or in specific styles, and is less neutral than kucing baru itu.

Is there any difference between kucing baru itu and kucing itu yang baru?

Yes, there’s a nuance:

kucing baru itu
= the new cat (a specific new cat; typical, simple phrase)
kucing itu yang baru
literally “the cat that is the one which is new”
→ more like “that cat, the one that’s new”
→ sounds more contrastive or explanatory, e.g. distinguishing it from another older cat.

In everyday speech, for simply saying “the new cat”, kucing baru itu is the natural choice.

Do I have to put quotation marks around Oren?

No, you don’t have to.

You can write:

Keluarga saya menamakan kucing baru itu Oren.
or
Keluarga saya menamakan kucing baru itu “Oren”.

Both are acceptable. Quotation marks just make it visually clearer that Oren is a name. In normal running text, it’s common to write pet names without quotes, relying on capitalization to show that it’s a proper name.

Why is Oren capitalized?

In Malay, as in English, proper names are capitalized:

Ali, Siti, Malaysia, Oren (as the cat’s name)

Even though oren (lowercase) can be a common‑noun/loanword meaning orange (colour/fruit) in some usage, here it functions as a proper name, so it is capitalized: Oren.

Can I replace keluarga saya with kami or kita?

It depends on what you want to say:

keluarga saya = my family (as a unit)
kami = we / us (exclusive: not including the listener)
kita = we / us (inclusive: including the listener)

Grammatically, you could say:

Kami menamakan kucing baru itu Oren.
= We (not including you) named the new cat Oren.

This is fine if you mean we as the subject, not specifically “my family”.
But keluarga saya highlights that it’s my family that did the naming, not just any “we”. So the original is more specific and natural if the focus is on “my family”.

Can I drop saya and just say Keluarga menamakan kucing baru itu Oren?

Normally, no. Keluarga alone just means family in general, not clearly “my family”.

keluarga saya = my family
keluarga kami = our family
keluarga Ali = Ali’s family

If you remove saya, you lose the possessor. So unless the context has already made it extremely clear whose family you mean (and even then it’s unusual), you should include saya (or another possessor).

Is the verb always menamakan, or can I drop -kan and say menama?

You should not say menama in standard Malay; it’s not a normal form.

The correct, dictionary verb is:

menamakan = to name

So:

Keluarga saya menamakan kucing baru itu Oren. ✅
Keluarga saya menama kucing baru itu Oren. ❌ (not standard)

The -kan part is an integral part of the verb form here.