Mondonomo is pleased to communicate names and connect Thailand to the world with the publication of this Handbook, which celebrate the role of the Thai naming traditions in the nation’s development from the past to the present, touching the daily lives of people in Thai society, as well as impacting Thailand’s international relations.
About the book
- First and biggest collection of the most frequent Thai first names (5.000),
- First and biggest collection of more than 16.000 English spelling variations for Thai names
Thailand is known for its unique cultures, stunning beaches, and delicious food among other things. While most of its history can be seen in museums and historical buildings, a fascinating part of Thai culture can be experienced in Thai people's names. Up until 100 years ago, people in Thailand were known by one name. After 1913, Thais and new Immigrants to the country had to adopt a unique family surname (following the Western form of family name last), which usually translates into a phrase that represents a positive virtue. The unique surname ensures that everyone who shares that name is related, and despite the apparent lengthiness of many Thai names when translated into Roman letters, new Thai family surnames are not allowed to exceed 10 Thai letters in length -- it is only due to the phonetic translation of Thai letters into Roman syllables that make the surnames appear long. Of course, indigenous Thais picked the shorter names.
Do you feel lost in this mish-mash of Thai names?
We present to your attention the Handbook of Top Thai Names by Attapol Rutherford (Associate Professor, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand) assisted with Mondonomo AI. Its aim is to forewarn you and, therefore, to forearm you with the knowledge about Thai first names and with the insight into their spelling in Latin script. The Handbook will be more than just helpful for those who does not master the Thai language. The latter has its own unique writing script, which is unintelligible for most people in the world. As the world becomes globalized, everybody needs to Romanise their name into the Latin alphabet as names are the signs that we use to call each other regardless of what language we speak. You will find each Thai name transcribed according to the Royal Thai General System of Transcription (RTGS) that is the official system for transcribing Thai words into Latin alphabets.
This reference edition will also help the general Thai public as it hardly knows how to transcribe their names with it.
Structure of the Handbook
The first part presents the most common 5.000 Thai forenames, organized in English alphabetical order. For each name, the Latin form is listed first, followed by one or more forms of the name in Thai script. The pronunciation in the phonetic alphabet is then provided, followed by the name's gender and an estimation of its popularity in present-day Thailand.
The second part presents the same collection of names ordered by the Thai alphabet. After a name, gender, and popularity estimation, over 16.000 Romanized forms are listed. The first form is always the official RTGS transcription. Among the other variants labelled by the expert team, there are also Romanised names that are found to be used in multilingual corpora and verified automatically by the AI model.
The third part documents the less standard Romanized forms of Thai forenames analysed in the first two parts. For each Latin variant of the name, the name in Thai script, the correct RTGS transcription, and the page number are provided.