Culture of Thailand - Nicknames

Nicknames

See also: Thai names

Thais universally have one, or occasionally more, short nicknames Thai: ชื่อเล่น play-name) that they use with friends and family. Often first given by friends or an older family member, these nicknames are typically one syllable (or worn down from two syllables to one). Though they may be simply shortened versions of a full name, they quite frequently have no relation to the Thai’s full name and are often humorous and/or nonsense words. Traditionally call-names would be after things with low value, e.g. 'dirt', which was to convince evil spirits lurking in the vicinity that the child was not worth their attention.

Some common nicknames would translate into English as small, fatty, pig, little one, frog, banana, green, or girl/boy. Though rare, sometimes Thai children are given nicknames after the order they were born into the family (i.e. one, two, three, etc.). Nicknames are useful because official Thai names are often long, particularly among Thais of Chinese descent, whose lengthy names stem from an attempt to translate Chinese names into Thai equivalents, or among Thai with similarly lengthy Sanskrit-derived names.

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