Luckily Thai People Have Nicknames

Would it be acceptable to you if people called you a “pig” or “buffalo”? I imagine you wouldn’t like it. But lots of people in Thailand are called just that and some other names that appear very strange to us. Thais have first and last names like we do, but they are often four or five syllables long and, at least for us, impossible to pronounce, what to speak of remember.

This is a somewhat recent phenomenon. In earlier times names in Thailand used to be shorter and easier. It is a fairly recent phenomenon that those never-ending names are in vogue. This went so far that the Thais felt compelled to p*** a law that limits how many syllables names can contain. This prevented the multi syllable name game from making legal transactions unmanageable. It is quite easy to change your name in Thailand. Your name does not fit you – just select one you like better. A simple application will do it.

In Thailand you might plead “please, anything but your real name!” Nicknames to the rescue! Fortunately most Thais have one. They are mostly just one syllable long and sometimes only one letter. For simplicity’s sake Thais frequently use any one of the syllables of their real name as their nickname. You will find that some of those nicknames strike you as very unusual. There is Ms Pig, Mr. Buffalo, Mr. Dog, or Ms Bomb. How do they come up with those names? Here are some name stories of Thais whom I know personally.

There are quite a few nicknames that are descriptive in an odd sense. One girl I know is called “pig”. In the west such a name would be impossible, but in this case her parents looked at her baby fat and decided that she resembled a cute baby pig, hence the name. Yes, Thais consider this  a very cute name. If at some point the girl does not find her nickname appealing anymore, she will be able to change it at any time. The nickname of another acquaintance of mine is “dog”. When he was a little boy, he was a real chatterbox to the point of getting on people’s nerves. That reminded his family and friends of the yapping of a dog, so ‘dog’  became his nickname.

Some Thais believe that nicknames can have special powers. In one case a young boy was chronically weak and sickly. The people of his village thought that the name “buffalo”, a powerful animal, would help him counteract his weak condition. There is even a saying ’strong as a buffalo’. And in this case it turned out to be his cure, his maladies disappeared and he is convinced that the name saved him. But you should be aware that “buffalo” is often used as an insult in Thailand. Buffaloes are regarded as ****** and low brained. If Thais want to say something really ***** about someone, they use the expression ‘he is ****** like a buffalo’.

Some nicknames are descriptive in a colorful way. The nickname of another friend of mine is: “Green” . When she was born she had a slightly greenish skin tone and that is how she ended up with this nickname. Now, 40 years later, she definitely lost her greenish complexion but not her nickname.

Non-western cultures often place more importance on dreams than we do.  A good Thai friend of mine once had a dream. She was visiting a temple, and her sister in law who accompanied her was offered a beautiful stone by one of the monks. But she didn’t want it and told the monk to give it to her friend instead who accepted it gratefully. Then she awoke from the dream and discovered that she was pregnant. So she named the baby girl “Ploy”, the Thai name for ‘precious stone’. The gift of the stone symbolized that she was going to receive something beautiful, and the pregnancy confirmed that.

There are also some truly creative nicknames. The same friend of mine also gave birth to a boy right around the time of the Iran-Iraq war. The Thai news agencies published regular stories about all the shooting and bombing. She had been looking for a good nickname, and so she named the baby “bomb”, a name which he still has twenty years later.

Not all nicknames are that graphic. Some are just single letters like O (pronounced Oh) , E (sounds more like the English pronunciation of  ‘A’), B (pronounced ‘bee’) or D (pronounced ‘dee’). More recently it is becoming fashionable to use western names like ‘cat’ or ‘joy’ as nicknames, provided they consist of only one syllable.

Some Thais use their legal first names, but the majority have nicknames. In most cases Thais will introduce themselves by their nicknames. However strange some of those nicknames appear to us, they are a blessing in disguise since we would never be able to understand, repeat or remember most of those convoluted legal names that the Thais like so much.