Why a statue in Singapore called Merlion...?

From my understanding and knowledge, the fame Singapore Merlion is actually a created myth by the Singapore Tourism Board. As you may know, Singapore is a tiny island with few areas for viewing of exotic animals and birds. The idea of creating such an mythical icon, from what I believe, is create an attraction which would draw in foreign visitors. Another reason is such that Singapore's national animal is the Lion, and we are also an island city, thus in early years, the lifeline of the country is on the port at the mouth of what we now know as the Singapore River. So the top half is a Lion, representing our national animal, and the bottom fish like body represents our lifeline, the Ports we have in Singapore, namely Keppel Port, Jurong Port, etc.

Well, the above posts are all valid explanations to how the merlion came about. To put your question to an even simpler explanation... well, we all heard of mermaids and mermen. These are creatures who are half fish and half women/men, respective. The statue is also the same in many sense of the word. It is half fish, and half lion, thus the name Merlion. Heh heh... just trying to be cheeky here ;p

The only answer that I could think of is quite similar with the answer given above. The word singa from the word Singapore means lion, assumed it is a Malay word. Then the word Merlion (is it the sea-lion?) might refer to the word 'lion' or 'singa'. Maybe singaporean know the exact answer...

Singapore is also known as the Lion City, due to a myth that Sang Nila Utama, a prince, landed on Singapore and saw a lion (impossible since there are no lions in the region). The fish part is due to Singapore being a small island surrounded by sea, and its importance as a port. The merlion hence, is an icon created by the Singapore Tourism Board as a way to identify and differentiate Singapore from other countries in the region.