What Happened To The Chinese Family Names?

[Livinginexile]

My wife's maiden name is more than 8 letters long. She says that is how you can tell if a Thai is of Chinese desendance.

She says the Thais forced them to change their names long ago, anyone know what happened?

[wolf5370]

Ah, now this I know. The mojority of Thais didn't really have surnames - only the wealthy and titled tended to. Foreigners (like Chinese) did. About a hundred years ago now (I think around the 1920's) it became necessary for everyone to have surnames for census and other state paperwork (Banking etc came later for most Thais). The government of the day decreed that every Thai had to have a surname, it had to be unique to the family. This caused problems for Lees, Chans etc - so most of the Chinese surnames were bastardisations of their original Chinese in a Thai form (remember at this time the Thai-Chinese were still immigrants and not the ruling powers). Familys either chose their names or were given them. As new families arrived (from China etc) they had to change their surnames to fit in (and I believe it was the law to become a citizen back then too).

Unlike the west where we got surnames from our ancestors jobs (Goldsmith, Piper, Tanner etc) or places they lived, the Thai's got a blank sheet. So, they chose grand sounding names and names made from joining together other names, place names and religious (Pali) words.

PS: My wife's surname is 12 characters long.

Edited August 18, 2008 by wolf5370

[LaoPo]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thai_Chinese#History

and:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overseas_Chinese

gives a good picture.

LaoPo

[teacup]

I don’t know it’s true or not, or for every cases

But many of my friends, including myself -with Chinese ancestry-….we all have quite long last name….of 5 or more syllables.

Also....

Unless your lastname happens to be…….Sae-toung, or Sae-tang, or Sae-of something, then everyone will know you’re a Chinese thai, without even seeing you face-to-face. Therefore most issan people will not have this lastname begins with...."Sae...."

[Richard W]

Actually, quite a few Thai surnames do end in '-wong'! So far as I am aware, there is no connection with Chinese 'Wong' - it means 'lineage, family of'. It's often Romanised as a Pali plural, '-wongse'.

[Heng]

Plenty of Chinese last names still around. As Teacup mentioned, sae-anything is the Teochiu pronunciation of any of the major Chinese last names. You won't hear Wang, Hong, Chang, etc. as much because that's how they would pronounce it in Mandarin, not Teochiu. Also, many families simply changed their last names legally, but still kept their own records of what each family member's Chinese name was. I think it's a good system that helps to promote that feeling of continuity. Not a Thai bash, but it's one reason not too many Thai Chinese will think about selling or hocking their grandparent's or great grandparent's properties after going through the family lineage book, perhaps another explanation of why the latter own the place.