BTS stations and their meanings

[Deserted]

I went to pra khanong today and was told it mesnt temple village. Mo chit is heart doctor. Chit lom is close wind. Saphan Kwai is buffalo bridge. What about the others?

[leeneeds]

Survanabhumi means get the f out of here,

[tgeezer]

สนามเป้า is an easier one.  I can’t see Heart doctor in หมอชิด.  The best I can do for ชิด is that it means to ‘be close’ or to ‘move close’.  พระขนง or พระโขนง is court language for eyebrow.  พระขนอง is court language for the ‘back’. 

 

 The good thing about the station name boards is that they are in both Thai and English.  Listening to the announcements and imagining the spelling really shows how much practice is needed correctly hear Thai. Until I went there I didn’t say วักมังกร correctly, my ‘a‘ was too open (not ‘u’) and the last vowel too short (not กอร) 

[BritManToo]

1 hour ago, tgeezer said:

I can’t see Heart doctor in หมอชิด.

'Close to Hospital/Doctors', there are four hospitals around the park.

Edited February 9, 2020 by BritManToo

[orchis]

Mochit is the name of the owner of the fruit market with the same name  that was located there since 1960, moved to chatuchak area 1998.

Edited February 9, 2020 by orchis

[ratcatcher]

Nana station is named after Lek Nana, a Muslim Thai politician who owned a large amount of land in Lower Sukumvit area.

Asoke named after Ashoka, an Indian emperor.

Saphan Taksin, station and bridge named after King Taksin the Great, of Thonburi.

[VocalNeal]

Simpler than that. They are mostly named after the roads/streets they cross. Which is why Asoke is Asoke but on the MRT it is Sukhumvit. Et al..

 

Now how the streets are named is another story.

[tgeezer]

I remarked to a farang on the BTS, that the names of MRT (Underground) and BTS (Sky-trains) in the same location have  different names eg. Asok  BTS Sukhumvit MRT.   He suggested that it could be useful when designating a meeting place, the stations being so far separated.  I think it confusing from the travel point of view, “Change at Asok” if on the BTS and “Change at Sukhumvit” if on the MRT.   I live near ‘Bang-Kane market’ and know better than to take a bus to Bang-kane, so it isn’t entirely surprising to me that knowledge is prized, and when lacking it, Some Thais tend to keep silent or give the wrong answer. 

 

Edited February 11, 2020 by tgeezer

[digbeth]

Silom is สีลม wind mill, if you go to the west end of the road there's a sculpture /art of a windmill that used to be in the area

[rak sa_ngop]

The BTS station Bearing came up for a lot of discussion a few (>5 ?) years ago. With a bit of research I showed that Soi Bearing was named after the ball bearing manufacturing workshops located on the soi. And in fact there is still at least one bearing manufacturing factory that still trades on Soi Bearing.

 

[Deserted]

We've got loads more stations now.

Firstly, I got Mo CHit wrong, its not heart Doctor?

 

I was told Thong lo means beautiful gold

What is Udom Suk?

What is Punnawitti (sic?)

And Kheka (last stop on the line) What's that mean?

On Nut?

Chong Nonsi also?

 

Any ideas?

 

ANd don't say I can guess what Bang Sue could be. I think we can all guess that.

[tgeezer]

2 hours ago, Deserted said:

We've got loads more stations now.

Firstly, I got Mo CHit wrong, its not heart Doctor?

 

I was told Thong lo means beautiful gold

What is Udom Suk?

What is Punnawitti (sic?)

And Kheka (last stop on the line) What's that mean?

On Nut?

Chong Nonsi also?

 

Any ideas?

 

ANd don't say I can guess what Bang Sue could be. I think we can all guess that.

หล่อ means to pour melted metal, probably predates the use handsome.  ทองคำ is the full name for gold. ทอง is also short for brass ทองหล่อ like แบริ่ง could be named for what is made there, brass castings.  

อุดม means the highest level, สุข you know. 

วิถี means path บาทวิถี is foot path. ปุณณ could be a proper name. 

 

เคหะฯ เคหะ means building, this word is shortened (ฯ) which means that everyone but us knows what it stands for!  It could be เคหเศษฐศาศตร์ the science of house building or housing.   It seems a bit In the sticks for any government building, maybe a government housing enterprise.  

Edited February 14, 2020 by tgeezer

[digbeth]

18 hours ago, tgeezer said:

 

 

เคหะฯ เคหะ means building, this word is shortened (ฯ) which means that everyone but us knows what it stands for!  It could be เคหเศษฐศาศตร์ the science of house building or housing.   It seems a bit In the sticks for any government building, maybe a government housing enterprise.  

เคหะ is short for การเคหะ department of housing but does indeed connotate government housing on 'the projects' ther's actually another การเคหะ station on the yet to open red line towards don mueang, which could cause confusion in the future

[Deserted]

On 2/9/2020 at 7:39 AM, tgeezer said:

สนามเป้า is an easier one.  I can’t see Heart doctor in หมอชิด.  The best I can do for ชิด is that it means to ‘be close’ or to ‘move close’.  พระขนง or พระโขนง is court language for eyebrow.  พระขนอง is court language for the ‘back’. 

 

 The good thing about the station name boards is that they are in both Thai and English.  Listening to the announcements and imagining the spelling really shows how much practice is needed correctly hear Thai. Until I went there I didn’t say วักมังกร correctly, my ‘a‘ was too open (not ‘u’) and the last vowel too short (not กอร) 

 

So what is สนามเป้า

 

[Deserted]

On 2/9/2020 at 12:38 PM, VocalNeal said:

Simpler than that. They are mostly named after the roads/streets they cross. Which is why Asoke is Asoke but on the MRT it is Sukhumvit. Et al..

 

Now how the streets are named is another story.

Only some of them are.

[VocalNeal]

6 minutes ago, Deserted said:

Only some of them are.

That's why my post said "mostly". More names that way than not? Of course The Royal Thai Naval academy isn't or Kasetsart Univesity or maybe even Siam Interchange.    

Edited February 16, 2020 by VocalNeal

[metisdead]

A troll post and a reply has been removed. 

[Deserted]

Thanks guys a great help, I ran this by the ex- she said spot on every time. Last q's

 

1. Chong Nonsi can't even guess.

2. Ekkamai

3. Rathatewi

4. On Nut

5. Surasak

6. Ari

 

And that's it from me I am told too many different things like Ari is the family that live by the station. All help appreciated

[samsensam]

 

keep them coming, a positive and interesting thread. for a change.

[Deserted]

The BTS names are quite easy but MRT not so.

 

What is CHong Nonsi

Ploen CHit. I thought 'chit meant close wind'/ Ploen

Pu CHao?

And Bang CHak, again can't get a straight answer.

[digbeth]

PloenChit

Ploen is delighting/delightful

Chit is heart/mind

 

Next street down is Chitlom (Next to/beside the wind) and the small soi next to Central is Soi Somkid

 

Old Roads/Sois have names that aliterates 

Upper Sukhumvit Sois from Nana to Thonglor have names that run off the tongue more than just numbers like that

Soi Sawadee

Soi Paidee Madee 'goes well, comes well' said to be named so because when the soi first came into being, a chief of police live there and there are no crimes in the soi whatsoever.

[Deserted]

What if they created a station called 'falang mai dee'?

[Deserted]

No one would want to get off!

[asanee]

That BTS and MRT have different names on where they cross and thus where you could change is obvious: different systems, even different farecards. In fact the Russians, where the old govmt gave cities that grew >1 million a metro, did that on what are official and innerconnected interchanges, to make it clear on what line the stop is.

Everything with BANG is a village on water. What follows may simply be a name or perhaps even have some other meaning. Sue, Na, Khae, Wa, Yi, Bo, 

SANAM = field, wide open expanse.

KheHa= Communal Housing, social or whatever govmt. built and run rental flats. Often for specific workers, police, transportation etc. There are 100s of that in BMA area.

Pak nam= mouth of water, or where the river flows in the sea. (same for pak soi=where it feeds into the road)

[tgeezer]

I agree that เคหะ is an official sounding word and probably does refer to a  government project as we concluded earlier in this thread.  Actually เคหะ means เรือน  ที่ฮยู่ it is the ฯ that is the important part. Theoretically the whole word should be said when encountering ฯ but laxity in that point seems to be the norm (กรุงเทพ ฯ reads กรุงเทพมหนคร)so เคหะ ฯ should be written เคหะ as it is when adjacent sites are named. 

I think that it is เคหะสมุทรปรากาน.  If we are correct that would be Samut Pragan Housing Project. 

สมุทร deep sea ปรากาน fort. 

[tgeezer]

In posts 12 & 13 we started the discussion on เคหะ ฯ and digbeth pointed out that it is การเคหะ The effect of การ is to convert the noun dwelling/house into the business of houses> housing In the same way as เมือง becomes การเมือง > politics.  I understood that ฯ shows shortening of a word or phrase but here it seems to be applied generally.  However the scheme is การเคหะแห่งชาติ National Housing.  There is one near me การเคหะทุ่งสองห้อง which digbeth may have referred to.  Just saying เคหะทุ่งสองห้อง makes more sense now I think. 

I am North of Rachdapisake which is a ring road and presumably once “in the sticks” so names which seem urban may owe their origin to a rural setting. นนทรี is the name of a tree ช่องนนทรี would be where there was once a way through นนทรีtrees I suppose. 
 

 

[VocalNeal]

On 2/16/2020 at 9:26 AM, Deserted said:

What is CHong Nonsi

Chong Nonsi is a canal crossed by the BTS.  can find on wikipedia

[tgeezer]

2 hours ago, VocalNeal said:

Chong Nonsi is a canal crossed by the BTS.  can find on wikipedia

Then the question is why is the canal called นนทรี! However you make a very good point I could have saved myself a lot of guessing had I used Google for เคหะ too! 
 

[watthong]

this book has lot of info re origin of street/district names. Plus interesting historical trivia.