"Nama kamu siapa?"
Translation:What is your name?
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1520
You can ask that too, but in Indonesian, placing a question word at the end of a sentence is more prevalent than in English. And as demoksaputra has explained, it's also informal and casual.
They explain on this page that you have to use "siapa" meaning "who" or "to whom" "belonging to who", "who's", etc... Rather than "apa" meaning strictly "what" for an object, without owner.
So I guess that "Nama apa" would mean "What is the name" as it's nobody's name, but for instance the name of something or a name written somewhere.
The problem is with English (not only English) that expresses the possession with what + possessive. What is your... When the Indonesian language is more direct and express es it with What's the name that belongs to you? With "siapa" = belongs to (here it's "kamu", you).
3133
Is "nama" a loan from a Germanic language (e.g. Dutch, English)? It would be quite a coincidence if it were the native word.
1520
No, it isn't. But it's a loanword from Sanskrit, itself an Indo-European language. I guess it completely replaced a native one.
It's very particular to English language to use "it" as an impersonal for some animals. Pets are often an exception, as they are considered so close from the human beings than they are allowed to be called with "he" or "she" instead of the impersonal thing-like "it".
For instance, in my language, French, we use "she" (elle) even for a wild lioness or any other animals, it would be translated as "it" in English.
So, as it's very particular to English, (and some other languages, but as a particular cases among languages) no wonder that Indonesian use "siapa" for human beings and animals. It seems weird only if your native language is English.
1520
Yep. Indonesian uses "siapa" to ask about names, be it people's or an animal's (if they have any). It's useful, too. I gave my pets names and when my friends ask their names they always use "siapa".
Nama kamu siapa = correct.
Namamu siapa = correct.
Nama aku siapa = (What is my name?) correct. Using the informal "aku".
Namaku siapa = correct.
If you use siapa at the beginning of the sentence, it's also correct, but sound a lot more formal, and somewhat unnatural in everyday life, at least it's the way it has been explained to me.