I'm writing a novel, and need names of people in Thailand. One
character is a woman of 30, the other a boy of 4. The novel is set
between 2001 and 2003.

Darryl,

I visited Thailand a year ago and would highly recommend it to
visitors. Lots to see and do!

In any case, in response to your question on names:



The website Learning Thai has two pages with lists of names [
http://www.learningthai.com/dictionary/vocab_thnames.html ]. According
to the top of this page, "Thai has many first name and on this page
you will find some common Thai names. Thai people doesn't have middle
name but we have nickname." Unfortunately, this page does not indicate
if the names are intended for males, females, or both. Another page at
[ http://www.learningthai.com/dictionary/vocab_thnicknames.html ]
gives lists of common nicknames for both men and women.

The Baby Name Network gives a list of 12 common Thai names divided
into male and female names at [
http://www.babynamenetwork.com/origin.cfm?origin=Thai ]

At [http://www.floatinglotus.com/enter.html?target=thainames.html ]
you can find names of a few famous men in Thailand along with the
pronounciation of their names.

Finally, here is a huge list of Thai male and female names in addition
to surnames: [http://plumblossom.topcities.com/thai.htm ].


It appears that names are a big deal under Thai law. While these
articles don't gives lists of names, you may still find them
interesting for the research that you are doing:

Kriengsak Niratpattanasai writes about "Why many Thais have a long
surname" in his article [
http://www.thailandguidebook.com/cgi-bin/forum/ikonboard.cgi?s=5ebeed36487c567153ed9ed77dd3a348;act=ST;f=5;t=4635
]. Kriengsak explains that people with long surnames may in fact be
people of Chinese descent who have gone through a complicated legal
process to obtain a Thai surname.

An article in the Phuket Gazette [
http://www.phuketgazette.com/issuesanswers/details.asp?id=271 ]
discusses legal issues regarding the naming of a child where one
parent is Thai and the other foreign. If the parents wish to give the
child a foreign non-Thai name, then the non-Thai parent must obtain
proof of their nationality.

Search used:

[://www.google.com/search?as_q=thai+names&num=100&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&btnG=Google+Search&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&lr=&as_ft=i&as_filetype=&as_qdr=all&as_nlo=&as_nhi=&as_occt=any&as_dt=i&as_sitesearch=&safe=images
]

Search terms used: ?thai? + ?names?

Good luck and feel free to ask for clarification if needed.

/ephraim

Great question and answer. But please keep in mind how often nicknames
are used when writing the novel. Almost everyone has a nickname and
many Thai people don't even know some of their friends' real names.
Even stranger, for me, is that some many people don't even know a
person's nickname because they have always called the person by their
kinship term (I don't know how to say that). Pee (older), nawng
(younger), nuu (even younger), etc. These are equivelant to I and you
but also put before the name to show respect and to kind of develope
the standing in the relationship.

ladida68