Children's Names

[leisurely]

Why do some Thai children have two names the same. Obviously these are nicknames rather than the full 22 letter forenames but. Ting ting, tong tong and tang tang, ling ling are four that spring to mind. This has puzzled me for a long time. Suggestions please? Are they going to be twice as lucky in life?

[Jet Gorgon]

Just like Chinese names and a means to emphasise a word's meaning; haven't heard it so much in Thailand tho in names. But then, I do not know mak mak...

[kmart]

Just nicknames. Usually prefixed by "nong" or "look".

I think its great when kids are called "pig" or "fatty". At my old school being thus titled would have meant bullying misery for several years.

[leisurely]

These aren't the usual pig, mouse, rat, bird, rather two names the same. If you called your kid Steve Steve or John John in the UK or US you would be thought of as a bit deranged I think; Tang Tang, Ling LIng and Tong Tong are just three, all in my eldest daughters class. WHY? I have tried asking the children but they just shrug and haven't been able to ask the parents as all three are essentially bought up by Nanny's

[dumspero]

Isn't it just for emphasis with certain names the same way Thai, Tagalog, some Pacific island languages (others?) repeat a word twice for emphasis?

But even if so, guess the question is why only some nicknames and not others.

[fxm88]

If you called your kid Steve Steve or John John in the UK or US you would be thought of as a bit deranged I think...

Deranged... LIKE A KENNEDY

(Growing up I remember having a lot of friends named "Dumb Dumb")

[geronimo]

Why do some Thai children have two names the same. Obviously these are nicknames rather than the full 22 letter forenames but. Ting ting, tong tong and tang tang, ling ling are four that spring to mind. This has puzzled me for a long time. Suggestions please? Are they going to be twice as lucky in life?

Dunno but I named my two boys Tom and Jerry ..... I guess they'll beat me up for that when they are older!!

[crazydiamond]

Obviously, they are all Chinese name and they are common in China.

Such things are not applied to real Thai or English nickname.

For example, popular english names such as Ex, Top, First, Mike, Golf are always one word.

I've never heard of someone names TopTop or MikeMike up to present.

[listenup]

My friend named one son Astin and the other Martin - No joke!

[phibunmike]

Just like Chinese names and a means to emphasise a word's meaning; haven't heard it so much in Thailand tho in names. But then, I do not know mak mak...

At last ! Jet, I have found something to disagree with you about

I think in Thai, repeating the word DE-emphasises it - like making cool (yen) cool-ish (yen yen). Na krap ?

Is that right ? Any linguistic experts care to comment ?

But Jet, I do agree, I know a number of Chinese people with double names, like Ping Ping etc.

Cheers,

Mike

[Jet Gorgon]

Just like Chinese names and a means to emphasise a word's meaning; haven't heard it so much in Thailand tho in names. But then, I do not know mak mak...

At last ! Jet, I have found something to disagree with you about

I think in Thai, repeating the word DE-emphasises it - like making cool (yen) cool-ish (yen yen). Na krap ?

Is that right ? Any linguistic experts care to comment ?

But Jet, I do agree, I know a number of Chinese people with double names, like Ping Ping etc.

Cheers,

Mike

I am not even close to speaking Thai, but I can discern that it is close to Chinese in that the language is tonal and the grammatical structure appears the same (subject verb object), with no verb conjugations and no messy in- or definitive articles, etc. Much more streamlined than English, for example. The most oft-used doubling that comes to mind is mak mak. Cannot remember a Thai name that is doubled like this, but...? Ching ching?

[phibunmike]

Just like Chinese names and a means to emphasise a word's meaning; haven't heard it so much in Thailand tho in names. But then, I do not know mak mak...

At last ! Jet, I have found something to disagree with you about

I think in Thai, repeating the word DE-emphasises it - like making cool (yen) cool-ish (yen yen). Na krap ?

Is that right ? Any linguistic experts care to comment ?

But Jet, I do agree, I know a number of Chinese people with double names, like Ping Ping etc.

Cheers,

Mike

I am not even close to speaking Thai, but I can discern that it is close to Chinese in that the language is tonal and the grammatical structure appears the same (subject verb object), with no verb conjugations and no messy in- or definitive articles, etc. Much more streamlined than English, for example. The most oft-used doubling that comes to mind is mak mak. Cannot remember a Thai name that is doubled like this, but...? Ching ching?

You are right, "mak mak" and "ching ching" (as an exclamation rather than a name in this case) do indeed emphasise. I was thinking of things like "nang dee dee" which I interprete as "sit nicely" in a softer way than " nang dee" ("sit properly"). But I don't really know. Come to think of it, I have a Chinese friend called Ching Ching.

edit> typo

Edited February 16, 2007 by phibunmike