I hope this is an appropriate place for me to ask this as I can't really find any other site that can help me ^^;

 

I'm writing a story that's going to take place in Thailand and because of that I'm going to have many Thai characters. I am having no problem with creating first names and nicknames, but I'm having a very hard time coming up with any surnames as I know Thai surnames are usually unique to the family. Is there way for me to create surnames or would that not be possible? Any help is appreciated!!!

Google "Thai name generator" for a bunch of sites that create "believable" Thai names.

 

Mix and match family names as you see fit.

I saw a few of these sites around in my searching but I wasn't sure if they would be okay to use - I've been finding it hard to find sources that tell me how Thai families choose their names and if it's a very significant thing - so this is helpful! Being a foreigner it's just hard to know if it would be unkind or not.

Or drop the marble and describe the sound as close as possible in Thai alphabets. 

 

It can be very hard for the unfamiliar to understand the intricacies of Thai surnames, 

but being only a recent thing, surnames only came into use in Thailand around 1910s they have a pattern

Royally bestowed 'old money' has certain pattern of not too many syllables, and has words that reflect the profession of the household see this article (in Thai) for examples, here's also a list for royally bestowed surnames by alphabets, with English/Roman transliteration

 

New money chinese immigrants tend to incorporate their original Chinese surnames into their Thai surnames using embellishments, Lim becomes Limcharoen (Charoen means prosperous)

 

Thai rural names are simple, often short and not very ornate, using simple language, imagine the simple farmers out in the boondocks who never had much education got told in the 1910-20s that they had to have a surname, some leave it to the imagination of the registrar at the amphur, creating the butt of many playground jokes for the grandkids for generations like literally 'blue shirt' 'silver pants' and such ,

Some will reflect their locality, using the Amphur or village name in the surname, or geographic like Soongnern which also means high hill and an Amphur in Korat, here's an article in Thai for such example of using Amphur/local as suffix in surnames you can see many BoonSoongern, DeeSoongern, the pattern being embellishment+name of amphur , such embellishments are: Boon บุญ (merit) Buat บวข (ordained at) Sri ศรี (Glory of) Gerd เกิด (Born at)

then you can follow it by any from the list of Amphur or Sub-District Tambon

 

More middle class or aspiring social climber might want to move away from their Chinese or Rural family names, many would go to fortune teller to get more auspicious name, these are pali-sanskrit derived and are getting more multi syllabic of up to 4-5 syllable, Here's some lists but without transliteration unfortunately

 

So, pick a name and ask a Thai person if it matches the character background and social status

 

 

Don't forget that while Thais have official, long-winded multisyllabic names used in official documents etc, in practice they use nicknames to refer to each other eg frog, pig etc.
Many Thais aren't even aware of their friends' official names after years of knowing them.

Edited May 18, 20206 yr by katana

45 pages of doctors names:

https://www.bangkokpattayahospital.com/en/find-a-doctor-appointment-en.html

 

Be aware that they use this "English style" transcript and letter by letter, ignoring rules for pronunciation.

So pronunciation of "Tirawanichkul" would be closer with "Tirawanitkun", "Ittikul" -> "Ittikun".

 

I have seen long lists of students (test results etc.) but can't find it now.

Edited May 18, 20206 yr by KhunBENQ

15 hours ago, KhunBENQ said:

45 pages of doctors names:

 

Not sure that's a good idea.  Each surname is unique to a single family.  If something fictional were written using one of these names which was perceived as derogatory Thailand's draconian libel laws could swing into action.  Better to make up original names, or simply not bother with with surnames at all.