What Do You Call Someone From Singapore? (Helpful Content!)

Someone from Singapore is called Singaporean. Singapore is a highly diverse country in terms of ethnic background, and this can make the question somewhat more complex. However, the term for someone from Singapore in the modern sense of nationality is Singaporean. Ethnicity, though, may be a more important identifier.

These sorts of questions are never quite as clear cut as you might think.

There is usually a long answer and a short answer.

The short answer, again, is just about the official national status of a person from Singapore—the other question is about ethnic descent and even the widespread Singaporean diaspora across the world.

Let’s find out more.

In This Article

What is someone from Singapore called?

Someone from Singapore is called Singaporean.

This, again, is the short answer, and there are virtually always at least two ways of looking at this question.

Singaporean is a catch-all term to describe a person from Singapore, whether by nationality or ethnicity.

At the same time, a person of Singaporean birth who is not born in the country or even ever steps foot there may naturally strongly feel Singapore to be an important part of their identity.

Equally, a person of non-ethnic Singaporean descent, born and raised in the country, may feel themselves Singaporean by residential association.

The more important way of looking at this question in fine detail, though, is in terms of ethnicity and ethnic background.

Singapore is a highly diverse and multicultural place, and the population is generally categorized into four groups: Chinese, Malay, Indian, and other.

Of these, the Singaporean Chinese represent the vast majority—around 75% of the total population.

This means there are around 3.7 million Chinese Singaporeans.

There is evidence of Chinese people trading and settling in Singapore as early as the 10^th Century, so this is by no emans recent.

The next largest group is the ethnic Malay people, who make up around 13% of the population.

They are recognized by Singapore’s government as being an indigenous group, and there are around 811,000 Malay Singaporeans living in the country today.

They are primarily Sunni Islam, with a very small minority being Catholic or Protestant.

Indian Singaporeans then represent a further 9% of the population, or around 362,000 people.

Again, historical contact with India has had a huge impact on Singaporean and Malay culture, and so Indians have always been important to Singapore.

All of this is to say that while all of the people may, legally speaking, be Singaporean, they may prefer to identify with their ethnic background instead.

Where does the name “Singapore” come from?

Singapore, naturally, is an anglicized term, deriving from the native Malay name for the nation.

This name was and is Singapura, which was ultimately derived from the Sanskrit word meaning “lion city”.

Of course, the nation has gone by other names and in historical Chinese accounts it was called Pu Luo Zhong, which was itself transcribed from the Malay name meaning “island at the end of a peninsula”.

The modern standard in Chinese is Sin-ka-pho, which is simply the Chinese form of Singapore or Singupura.

It was also sometimes called Temasek, a name found in Javen sources, possibly meaning simply “sea town”.

This, though, naturally just referred to a single settlement rather than the country as a whole.

Plainly, then, the country has gone through a number of name changes over the years and even today is it called many different things depending on where you are in the world.

Is it Singaporean Chinese or Chinese Singaporean?

Generally it is said as Chinese Singaporean rather than Singaporean Chinese.

Chinese is the ethnic group to which most Singaporeans today belong, rather than it being the other way around.

Again, though, this is not to say that Singaporeans simply feel themselves to be Chinese people living outside of China.

On the contrary, they have a very strong sense of their own national identity.

Ethnically, though, they are ultimately descended from Chinese settlers, and thus they are a lot more likely to refer to themselves as Chinese Singaporean rather than Singaporean Chinese.

Of course, though, most Singaporeans don’t really go to such lengths to precisely specify their identity; they are Singaporean, and while they will no doubt strongly identify with their ethnic background, their Singaporean nationality means a lot to them.

Where do Singaporeans live?

In all this, we also should not forget the widespread Singaporean diaspora that can be found across the world.

There are an estimated 3.8 million Singaporeans in the world, with most living in Singapore–around 3.5 million.

Populations of Singaporeans, though, are also spread throughout the world.

There are around 91,000 living in Malaysia, unsurprising given the ethnic connections the indigenous people have to Malaysia. Australia, further, has a population of about 64,000 Singaporeans, and there are a further 58,000 living in the United Kingdom as well as many other places.

All of this, again, is just to point out that any of these people may feel both their Singaporean identity and their other native identities to define them all at once.

Ultimately, then, the easiest way of looking at it is that people from Singapore are called Singaporean.

Any given individual may feel their particular ethnic background to be at least as important as their legal status as a Singaporean, and this is where the question gets a bit harder.

Either way, though, it is not as though Singaporean nationals are going to take issue with this term—it’s simply that this can often be an individual question with more going on under the surface.

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Founder - @PollyWebster

Polly Webster is the founder of Foreign Lingo and a seasoned traveler with a decade of exploration under her belt.

Over the past 10 years, she has journeyed to numerous countries around the globe, immersing herself in diverse cultures, traditions, and languages.

Drawing from her rich experiences, Polly now writes insightful articles about travel, languages, traditions, and cultures, sharing her unique perspectives and invaluable tips with her readers.

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