Did your wife change her name, or still use her Thai name?

[MikeN]

Now that the GF and I are seriously talking marriage, the subject of what name to use has come up. Me, I am a Sensitive New Age Guy who doesn’t care either way if she uses my name or continues with her Thai name but she has already received lots of “advice” from her family and friends.

Use his name or you will have problems....

Keep using your name or you will have problems....

And when I ask “what problems” nobody can be specific.

 So for those that have been through this, did your wife have any problems because she either changed or didn’t change her surname ?

 I know that many years ago women married to foreigners were not allowed to own land because half of it would belong to the “alien” which is a no-no, so many women just kept their maiden name and nobody was the wiser. But that law changed 20 or more years ago. I know she will have to go and update her ID card, Tabien Baan, etc.

[BritManToo]

2 minutes ago, MikeN said:

I am a Sensitive New Age Guy who doesn’t care either way if she uses my name or continues with her Thai name

Why not take her name, if you're that sensitive?

[Peterw42]

My wife has never changed her name and 3-4 years later its never caused any problems. We have done visa's to Australia as married but with different names. 

[BobBKK]

2 minutes ago, Peterw42 said:

My wife has never changed her name and 3-4 years later its never caused any problems. We have done visa's to Australia as married but with different names. 

She loves you obviously  lol

[BritManToo]

My wife changed her name but kept the title 'Miss' on her ID card.

I guess she was young enough to be my daughter.

[ubonjoe]

My wife had not choice when we registered our marriage in 2001. It was the law (changed in 2002) then that she had to use my name. Never a problem for her having my family name.

 

[jaiyen]

My wife kept her surname. To have changed it would have created so much hassle e.g. passports, business name. tax records, ID card, house, land documents and more.  Sometimes it is better to have a Thai name on documents,

[thecaveman]

My wife took my name when we got married in 2002. The only problem was a minor misspelling in the thai transcription (one character different from the translation of my birth certificate). It was no big deal to get it corrected by our local amphur years later.

 

No further problems at all.

 

 

[Aussieroaming]

Mine changed her name, no issues resulted from it

[thailand49]

????The family simple, easier to obtain your assets once you are gone!  Drawback once she does get your name she is view by others as an ATM?

[Jackie66]

One thing if she changes her name is that they ask for that document about name change quite often when doing anything with banks or government.... Not sure what's the point of that document. It is laminated just as the marriage certificate. Never encountered such a document in Europe. So one more document to keep safe as i am sure you can't get a same looking replacement :) Not a big issue.

 

 

[Denim]

My wife never changed her name . Married 7 years no problems. Been to the UK three times , not an issue. It's just a matter of personal preference. However, if you change names obviously everyone will know she has a foreign husband.

[CharlieH]

Wife changed to mine, can't think of it ever causing an issue + or -  with anything. 

[KiChakayan]

My wife chose to change her name even though I told her that she didn't have to do so.

My recommendation would be you get a proper transliteration of your name into Thai and make sure that it is used consistently to prevent any exaction from anal officials.

[Farang99]

Uses my name - spelt in Thai, as it is on the marriage certificate.

[Asquith Production]

My wife changed her Thai ID and passport to my surname almost straight away after marrying. Took her awhile to be able to pronounce it. The fact my surname as 7 letters and in Thai only 3 was strange when I first saw it. 

[alanrchase]

17 hours ago, ubonjoe said:

My wife had not choice when we registered our marriage in 2001. It was the law (changed in 2002) then that she had to use my name. Never a problem for her having my family name.

 

I got married in 1994 and my wife just ignored the law and kept her name. Nobody official ever questioned it.

[Estrada]

My wife did not have to change her name at marriage because the Persons Name Act B.E. 2505 (1962) (amended 2005)  has always stated that either spouse may use the last name of the other or continue to use their existing names. We had some hassle from the local land registry who insisted that the law required her to change her name, which is untrue. I took this up with the deputy Prime Minister in 1999 and a directive was issued to stop this practice. Namely the right to buy land law march 23rd 1999. We therefore got married after march 1999 and she did not change her name. There are still some officials including immigration who believe that your wives have to change their name to their foreign husband's name to make it easier for them to spot foreigners attempting to own or buy land.

[scorecard]

17 hours ago, BritManToo said:

Why not take her name, if you're that sensitive?

What is 'sensitive new age'?

[Tayaout]

She use my last name. We want our child to use both surname if possible. 

[Emdog]

Besides need to change all that ID as mentioned above, I suggested to wife keeping her name also makes her less of a target when dealing with government, cops... anyone looking for some sort of payoff. Farang name: hit the jackpot

[buffallobill]

My wife changed to my surname, it causes some sniggers with Thais when she tells them her name is Mrs Newman 

[Srikcir]

18 hours ago, MikeN said:

Use his name or you will have problems....

Keep using your name

What about the third option: wife keeping maiden last name and adding foreign husband's last name with a hyphen? Very common in Hispanic nations, also some Western nations.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double-barrelled_name

 

[bert bloggs]

My wife has kept her name ,but when we were living in the UK she always used my surname ,over here its far easier just to use hers ,

[Gerard052]

18 hours ago, ubonjoe said:

My wife had not choice when we registered our marriage in 2001. It was the law (changed in 2002) then that she had to use my name. Never a problem for her having my family name.

 

My wife changed her name to mine and when she bought a land she had to put it in her daughter's name and when she goes to the hospital she pays farang price and of course who pays the bill? Me

[Pilotman]

My wife changed her name on our marriage 22 years ago.  All of her documents/assets/ID/Passport are in her married name. She has no issues with the authorises or other Thai people.  Our mixed daughter of course has our name, again no issues. 

[Pilotman]

3 minutes ago, Gerard052 said:

My wife changed her name to mine and when she bought a land she had to put it in her daughter's name and when she goes to the hospital she pays farang price and of course who pays the bill? Me

That is odd, my wife has never had such an issue. 

[Pilotman]

45 minutes ago, buffallobill said:

My wife changed to my surname, it causes some sniggers with Thais when she tells them her name is Mrs Newman 

Brilliant 

[Pilotman]

59 minutes ago, Tayaout said:

She use my last name. We want our child to use both surname if possible. 

Don't go down that road.  She may send up with two passports/IDs in two different names and one unusable. We tried that and it caused no end of problems, not least with Thai Immigration. 

[Moti24]

18 hours ago, MikeN said:

So for those that have been through this, did your wife have any problems because she either changed or didn’t change her surname ?

 

When we married, we lived in Spain for a short time.  My wife changed her name to mine before we went, and it made it a lot easier to obtain a Spanish visa and other documents when living there.

 

However, after returning to Thailand, it was obvious that my wife would have been better off with keeping her Thai family name.  On a few occasions, at a police checkpoint, the officer's eyes lit up when he saw the foreign name; unfortunately, he picked on the wrong person to try and extort money from.  When we bought the house, my wife wanted to arrange for me to obtain a 30 year lease to protect my investment, but I was informed by a solicitor that the Land Office would not approve the lease because it would be obvious that we were man and wife.  There have been a couple of other instances where her having my name has caused difficulties.

 

My advice would be for your wife to retain her Thai name if you are staying in Thailand.  However, if she wants to change it, it won't be a great problem, just less hassle  that could be avoided.