I was always curious about the origin of the name Sukhumvit for the road since over the years there have been many jokes about the sound of the name and the word suck.  So I looked on the internet and found some interesting background information.  The road is named after the man:    Phra Bisal Sukhumvit   By all accounts he was a smart man and hard working.  Interesting reading

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phra_Bisal_Sukhumvit

 

 

Interesting. That leads on to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Thai_Movement , of which Sukhumvit was a member.

 

Thai interest in the science of the origin of place names is near zero, I'm sure there are many interesting stories behind many names. 

https://www.eki.ee/knab/valik/gzth.pdf gives a few explanations of common place names but  is unsatisfactory. In Switzerland there isn't a single place name on a map that hasn't been researched. Immigration police asked me out of intellectual curiosity, what the name of our village meant. Nobody seems to know or care, there's a lot of "that's just the way it is" in Thailand, not that I mind.

The name probably means "S**t hole in the middle of nowhere" 

Some in Pattaya won't be aware that they live at the eelswamp (Nong Pla Lai)

 

2 hours ago, cooked said:

Nobody seems to know or care, there's a lot of "that's just the way it is" in Thailand, not that I mind.

The village names are often quite trivial.

"Nong" as above (swamp, marsh, mire...) is very frequent combined with other words like Nong Prue (sleepy swamp, not sure about this ).

We live in the villa of the abundant paddy(?). About 20 of same name in Thailand.

 

 

 

"he was a smart man and hard working.  Interesting reading"

   I am from Europe and only got to watch American TV after coming to Thailand.

  One thing I couldn't help notice (specially during this political climate) is that there are no "working" people in that country....They are Always referred to as...the "Hard working" people.

  Sorry, I know off topic...but was just reminded of it.

 

I thought it was named after all the sleaze....Sukhumwit being thaiglish for suck and spit ?

Some place names are .... er, unfortunate

 

5 hours ago, KhunBENQ said:

Some in Pattaya won't be aware that they live at the eelswamp (Nong Pla Lai)

 

The village names are often quite trivial.

"Nong" as above (swamp, marsh, mire...) is very frequent combined with other words like Nong Prue (sleepy swamp, not sure about this ).

We live in the villa of the abundant paddy(?). About 20 of same name in Thailand.

 

 

 

right; same as Suvarnabhumi now ("Golden Land") which was Nong Ngu Hao before ("cobra pit swamp")

The story about the River Hee is an interesting one. Because it touches on royalty I won't tell it here.

I always assumed (incorrectly) it was a corruption of the English/French word 'circumference' as in a ring road going around a city or similar.

James Sukhumvit was the first actor who played the part of the very first James Bond movie, so after they named the London street after Bond it seemed like the only natural thing to do. Honestly !

Most (though not all) Thai names owe their origins to Sanskrit (which is the mother of most Indian languages, somewhat akin to Latin), and the lower version for common folk, Prakrit. 

"Sukh" means happiness, a state of well-being. "Vithi" in Sanskrit is a road. 

A lot of the Sanskrit pronunciation gets slightly corrupted here, due to the Chinese influence on the Thai tongue; thus "sadhu" becomes "sathu", "dev" becomes "deb",  and a myriad other examples.

How about this one... 

 

 

 

 

There is actually a sign (if it is still there) here in Bangkok on Sukhumvit giving a brief explanation of the history of Sukhumvit road. I think it is near Asok.

3 hours ago, timendres said:

There is actually a sign (if it is still there) here in Bangkok on Sukhumvit giving a brief explanation of the history of Sukhumvit road. I think it is near Asok.

Yes, it's just past Asoke (as you're heading east toward soi 18) on the southeast corner, near the Skytrain stairs, if memory serves.

Good to hear from people that think about place names. My Thai is useless but we have many villages here that are Huai... or  Thong....  Any explanation of what the words mean would be appreciated.

On 9/14/2019 at 5:56 AM, cooked said:

Thai interest in the science of the origin of place names is near zero, I'm sure there are many interesting stories behind many names. 

https://www.eki.ee/knab/valik/gzth.pdf gives a few explanations of common place names but  is unsatisfactory. In Switzerland there isn't a single place name on a map that hasn't been researched. Immigration police asked me out of intellectual curiosity, what the name of our village meant. Nobody seems to know or care, there's a lot of "that's just the way it is" in Thailand, not that I mind.

Well,  actually great many geo names in Thailand bear a clear meaning (often Sanskrit/Pali derived, as noted by another poster above, or explicitly descriptive like "Unmilled Rice" (Khaosarn) or "White Lotus" (Buakhao)) which is obvious right away to most at least basically literate Thai people. 

11 hours ago, GreasyFingers said:

Good to hear from people that think about place names. My Thai is useless but we have many villages here that are Huai... or  Thong....  Any explanation of what the words mean would be appreciated.

Huai = Creek or stream

Thong most likely = Gold (can also be flag or banner)