3 hours ago, khunPer said:

That is correct.

In the beginning all families needed to create a family name of two unique sounding syllables, and when there where no more options available with two syllables, it became three syllables and so on.

Those registering Thai family names later, as many Chinese migrants, have quite long family names, as they needed four or even more unique sounding syllables in the name. So if a family name is long – i.e. many syllables – it's a fairly late registered name.

Correct. The very long Thai surnames are nearly all Chinese.  Many, particularly Kuomintang Chinese in the North were just given Thaiified versons of their Chinese surnames with "Sae" in front, e.g. Saelim, Saechan etc. 

9 hours ago, rwill said:

When my wife went to change her last name to Williams some other Thais had already used the name.  She would have had to get permission from those people to use the same last name.  I told her just to use a different character for the last 's', ษ, and that was ok as no one had used that spelling before.

Interesting. I thought a Thai with a foreign spouse could just exercise their right to take the foreign spouse's surname without worrying about it already being in use in Thailand because it is a foreign family, not a Thai one. That also gives exemption from the requirement that it should have meaning in the Thai dictionary.  I would assume it was the same as registering a Thai child born in Thailand with your surname or getting PR or Thai citizenship using your own name. I have done all three of those things and their was no question of checking whether someone was already using the Thai spelling of my surname. Did you get married in Thailand?

42 minutes ago, Dogmatix said:

I am very skeptical about this story. It is pretty easy to photoshop up an ID card like that.  The rules are that you can choose a new surname that is not in already in use.  First, middle names and surnames must have meaning in the Thai dictionary and must be deemed appropriate and polite by the district office official. It is pretty obvious that neither of these names would pass either of those tests. I have been to the district office to reserve a Thai name while applying for Thai citizenship and it was clear that they take the rules very seriously and wouldn't allow nonsense names like that. 

OMG, sceptical, you must be joking. 

 

The article heading reads 

ARE THAI NAMES UNIQUE. 

 

It's the bloody hijackers that stole the posting, it's off topic, the TROLLS, I'm fed up with them. 

 

So bloody common on this forum. 

 

It's the old fogies, they do it every time, too much time, doing nothing all day, just posting nonsense 

 

 

14 hours ago, Dogmatix said:

I am very skeptical about this story. It is pretty easy to photoshop up an ID card like that.  The rules are that you can choose a new surname that is not in already in use.  First, middle names and surnames must have meaning in the Thai dictionary and must be deemed appropriate and polite by the district office official. It is pretty obvious that neither of these names would pass either of those tests. I have been to the district office to reserve a Thai name while applying for Thai citizenship and it was clear that they take the rules very seriously and wouldn't allow nonsense names like that. 

 

The picture is not photoshopped. Here is the man himself:

 

 

There is a story in the Bangkok Post about this, which unfortunately due to BP rules I cannot link to.

 

However the following story is about the same man changing his name back to his original name:

 

The Surin man who made headlines last year for failing to live up to his name, Mr. Heangjobhappylife Makelifebetter, when he got arrested for petty theft, has decided to ditch his unique name.

 

Sanan Warinthrawat, the sheriff of Muang Surin district, said that Makelifebetter came into the district office on Tuesday to change his name back to Saen Soisoongnern, as given by his parents, after he had trouble spelling his own name, according to Daily News.

 

https://coconuts.co/bangkok/news/mr-heangjobshappylife-makelifebetter-ditches-unique-name-after-spelling-trouble/

 

Trouble spelling his own name. You can't make this sort of stuff up.

Troll post removed

On 5/29/2023 at 7:32 AM, rwill said:

When my wife went to change her last name to Williams some other Thais had already used the name.  She would have had to get permission from those people to use the same last name.  I told her just to use a different character for the last 's', ษ, and that was ok as no one had used that spelling before.

 

I read an article several years ago that you can tell chinese families who had become Thai because the last names are a lot longer as they couldn't use ones that had already been taken.  

This is the correct answer. Thai family names are unique in the sense that same name means same family. You can change your family name, yes, but not to an existing one you are not related to. My wife's niece for example changed from her father's to her mother's family name.

 

If you adopt Thai citizenship as a foreigner you must adopt a Thai family name which is not yet taken.

On 5/28/2023 at 11:48 PM, Lorry said:

Thai first names, e.g. Somchai, are not unique and can easily be changed. 

I heard last names are unique for only one family (so they cannot be changed?),

so the full name would be unique for only one person. 

 

Is this correct?

No this is NOT correct. My wifes father and mother have a family-name, and all their children have the very same family-name as well....

It's true that Chinese Thai names are often long, with syllables like 'wang', 'chong', 'butr' en 'silp' thrown into the mix. My friend is true hi-so Chinese Thai, with a last name that reflects his heritage: Prawongkanchanalinongphrasilp. Don't know why people would ever choose that name, but, hey, those funny Chinese.????

On 5/28/2023 at 11:48 PM, Lorry said:

Thai first names, e.g. Somchai, are not unique and can easily be changed. 

I heard last names are unique for only one family (so they cannot be changed?),

so the full name would be unique for only one person. 

 

Is this correct?

Normally yes, but in some case, it's okay to have same full name. Only ID is unique.