Other Name For Orang Utan

The name orangutan (also written orang-utan, orang utan and orangutang) is derived from the Indonesian and Malay words orang meaning "person" and hutan meaning "forest", thus "person of the forest". In Sabah, they were called as kisau or kogiu or kahui. In Sarawak, they were called as Maias. Maias and mawas are also used in Malay, but it is unclear if those words refer only to orangutans, or to all apes in general.

The name of the genus, Pongo, comes from a 16th century account by Andrew Battell, an English sailor held prisoner by the Portuguese in Angola, which describes two anthropoid "monsters" named Pongo and Engeco. It is now believed that he was describing gorillas, but in the late 18th century it was believed that all great apes were orangutans; hence Lacépède's use of Pongo for the genus.