Local short name form

Official name

Area

Population

Capital

Currency

International telephone access code

ISO 3166 country codes

Car nationality plate code

Internet country code

GRC Country Code

   Note: This section last updated 2nd December 2020

   1,234.45

(where . indicates the decimal separator and , the thousands separator)

   Note: This section last updated 11th June 2021

   dd/mm/yyyy

   14:32

The Chinese form: yyyy年m月d日 - is also found.

The four official languages are English (227 000 speakers); Malay (396 000 speakers); Mandarin Chinese (201 000 speakers) and Tamil (90 000 speakers). 22 other languages are spoken. The main ones area Hakka Chinese (69 000 speakers); Min Nan Chinese (the most widely understood language in Singapore, with 1 170 000 speakers) and Yue Chinese (314 000 speakers).

Singapore is a melting-pot of a number of different cultures, and the naming conventions of each requires understanding.

Chinese

Chinese names are written in the order family name + given name + generational name and usually consists of three monosyllables:

   Ng Kiap Khee

In Singapore, some Chinese adopt Western names and add these to their existing Chinese names, giving Western name + family name + given name + generational name:

   Harry Ng Kiap Khee

Indian

Apart from Muslim Indians, most members of the Indian community order their names in the Western manner.

Tamil Hindus have very long names which may be found in abbreviated form. This makes matching between names rather difficult. For example,

   Subramaniam Damodara Pakirisamy

may also be found written

   Mr S.D.P. Samy

Each person may elect to shorten their names in different ways. For example:

   Gnaguru s/o Thamboo Mylvaganam
   M.G. Guru

   Kanapathi Pillai Nirumdan
   K.P. Niru

   Mangalam Rajahram
   Muru

and so on. The use of the shortened version is quite acceptable. Females do not have to take their husband’s name upon marriage, though they may choose to do so, and may choose which name or names to take.

Within the Sikh community, gender is easily determined from Sikh names. Every male has the name Singh (meaning “lion”) following his given name in this way:

   Bhai Ranjit Singh

Bhaimeans “brother” and Ranjit is the given name. Sardar may be used in place of Bhai.

Females have Kaur (meaning “princess”) after their given name, which may then be followed by a family name in this way:

   Ranjit Kaur Dhillon

She would be addressed as:

   Bibi Ranjit Kaur

where Bibi means “sister”. Sardarni may be used in place of Kaur.

The suffixes Singh and Kaur are given after baptism. Before that, an alternative “family name” exists. Some peope retain their faily name and add Singh or Kaur as middle names.

Given these naming conventions, a lot of people have the same names, and this makes database matching and de-duplication a major headache. Equally, each person in a household is likely to have a different name, making householding nigh-on impossible.

The given names themselves are used by both genders without distinction.

Malay

Muslims use Islamic naming conventions. Often they do not have family names. Bin indicates “son of”, and binti “daughter of”. If Ahmad bin Yusef (“Ahmad, son of Yusef”) has a daughter, her full name might be Norhaini binti Ahmad (“Norhaini, daughter of Ahmad”). If she married Zakaria bin Kassim, her son’s name might be Muhamed bin Zakaria (“Muhamed, son of Zakaria”) and so on.

When a person has two given names, the second one is the one usually used.

The word Haji is added before the name of a man who has been on the pilgrimage to Mecca. His form of address then becomes Tuan rather than Encik. Tuan is used for older and more respected males. The female equivalent is Puan.

   Tables of names can be acquired: given names , surnames/family names , family name prefixes , forms of address , job titles 

Singaporean company types include:

   Berhad
   Limited liability partnership (LLP)
   Limited (Ltd)
   Private Limited (Pte Ltd)

   Comprehensive tables of these strings can be acquired – see http:www.grcdi.nl/addresses.htm 

   Note: This section last updated 10th July 2022

Addresses are formatted as follows:

   Name
   number[ ]Thoroughfare name[ ]Thoroughfare type
   Settlement[ ]postal code

For example:

For Housing and Development Board (HDB) residential blocks, the block number is included in the address and in the postal code:

   Blk 335 Smith Street
   Singapore 050335

Blocks in the same sector with the same number are differentiated by the third digit of the code:

   Blk 110 Simei Street
   Singapore 520110

   Blk 110 Tampines Street
   Singapore 521110

Block addresses may also include a unit level and unit number, and a building name:

   Blk 110 Tampines Street 
   #12-05 Parkview 
   Singapore 521110 

where #12 is the unit level and 05 the unit number.

For post office box addresses, the name of the post office containing the box should be included before the post office box number, as in this example:

   Tanglin Central PO Box 99
   Singapore 247987

   A table containing information about the relevant position of elements within address blocks can be acquired 

Post office box deliveries may be to P.O. Box, Window Delivery or to Locked Bag Service.

VBox numbers link to a person’s physical address, so a person’s VBox number will remain unchanged if they move.

Postal codes of the new system, introduced on 1st September 1995, consist of a block of 6 digits. This allows Singapore Post to assign a single code to every building in Singapore and to allow mail sorting on the basis of sequence of delivery.

The first two digits are the sector code, the last four the delivery point (i.e. building).

Postal codes are assigned on the basis of the alphabetical order of the street name per sector. Thus streets with names beginning with ‘A’ are coded first, then ‘B’ and so on.

For Housing and Development Board (HDB) residential blocks, the block number is included in the postal code.

   Metadata containing postal code formatting rules, exceptions and regular expressions can be acquired 

Singapore - Postal code format graphic

Singapore - Postal code format

Singapore - Postal code specifics

Singapore - Postal code regular expression

Singapore - Postal code level of coverage

Singapore - Postal code map

Refer to Exonyms in Singapore for full lists of place names in Singapore in other languages.

   Alternate place name forms/postal code tables can be acquired at http://www.grcdi.nl/settlements.htm 

   Other language place name data can be acquired at http://www.grcdi.nl/otherlanguageplace.htm 

   Note: This section last updated 2nd August 2011

Singapore is divided into 5 districts : Central Singapore , North East , North West , South East and South West .

Administrative districts graphic

Singaporean telephone numbers have no area codes. Numbers have a total length of 8 digits. Mobile numbers commence with an 8 or a 9.

   Tables of telephone number information/formats can be acquired – see http://www.grcdi.nl/telephone.htm