Naming The Baby!

[RueFang]

Just wondering if all those with half Thai / half farang kids had any issues naming your bubs? Did you decide on a farang name, or a Thai name, or a farang name with a Thai nickname!

I'm having a little boy in a few months and really love the name "Jai", both in meaning and sound. Thing is... it is actually my Thai mother-in-law's name! So, my husband thinks it's hysterical that I want to call our son his mother's name! Back to the drawing board to find a name that fits both cultures and is easy to pronounce for both sides!

Would love to hear your names and stories

[machans88]

We are having a boy soon too.We liked jai as well,but changed to jake,we are going to have a thai middle name,i prefer a farang first name,i think it might make life easier in the future for child.As far as a nick name goes,probably won't have one

[Raesum]

Hi RueFang

Hubby reckons Jai is actually a girls name anyway.I haven;t got any experience of naming kids but the name Jayden did come to mind.

Falang I know but using a "J" in the name is a good idea. For your sanities sake stay away from the "R"s and the "L"s it'll drive you crazy eg Nooo....... its Luke, oh.... "Hurrow Ruke" Noooo....Thai alphabet Lor Ling NOT Ror Rua .

Anyway whatever you decide I look forward to hearing what you decided on.How exotic!!!! All the best for the upcoming event.

All in all I was no help at all really.Cheers

Rae

[Boo]

as you know we chose a full thai first name for baby boo then a farang middle & he of course has his fathers thai surname, we then gave him a short bi lingual nickname & that is what everyone calls him. Just need something that can be used in both places

[Carry]

gave our girl a Western first name and a thai middle name, the thai name is also the nickname people in Thailand call her, our baby has my surname since my hubbies surname is so long and unpronounceable...we figured might be easier for her in the future having mine.

The two name thing actually is a result of us not agreeing on just the one name so we figured she could have two...

good luck naming your boy!

[Senia]

lol lucky you Carry, hubby insisted that we use his surname, I named my son Dex because of that, anything else with more than 1 syllable would be too much . he has a thai first name

dex( ter ) after the boy genius ( cartoon network ) and serial killer ( showtime )

[RueFang]

Thanks all, is great to hear from you! Lucky I've got another few months to find some good names. I've always loved J names and strangely enough hub's sister, brother, mother, aunties and about 10 cousins all have names starting with J and hub's name is Jay! Maybe can use Jai as the middle name (even though it's considered a girl's name in Thai ).

I also have to get around to changing my surname in the next couple of months... when we got married in Thailand 6 yrs ago, they didn't let me change my name and said I had to do it officially in Australia first and I never bothered changing it. Want us to all have the same name now though. Lucky it's only 2 syllables (short than mine!).

[gregb]

Thai firstnames and farang middle names. I chose the farang names and my wife chose the Thai names. There is a whole science behind choosing a Thai name, and you can't know exactly which name the baby will get until it is born. That sets the first character, and then the rest of the name then needs to conform to some kind of weird numerology system which I don't even try to understand. I just know my wife spent 6 full weeks and about 2000 baht in various books to make her choice. (went through 2 notebooks full of paper too.) In the end, because we had twins, we had 14 names, one for each day of the week, but the wife was still stressing over them right up until the delivery.

At that point, she finally stopped because it was clear they were going to be born on a day she was happy with. Of course, the chosen names are so long and so obscure that even the Thai people can't pronounce them. It is fun to listen to them try when we take them to the hospital. I always know it is our turn when I see that pregnant pause on the nurses face as she tries to parse through this name that is longer than babies. Since they have farang surnames which are also 4 syllables long and extremely difficult for Thais to pronounce, it makes for a quite a show. More than one nurse has told my wife these children are going to hate you when they start going to school and have to write that....

I kept the farang names to 5 characters. I felt sorry for the little ones...

I thought the Thai family would also make up a nickname for them, but since the farang names are so short and easy to pronounce, those have just been adopted by everyone.

Naming the baby is fun. It is one of the great joys of having a child. Pick something that you believe both you and the child will be happy with. It is going to be with them for a long time.

[sinbin]

We've never given our children nick-names. If we'd wanted them to be called by nick-names then we'd have given them nick-names in the first place. A guy near me let his Thai wife name the child as long as he could give the nick-name. The nick-name was the English name he wanted her called in the first place. Job done.

Edited May 16, 2011 by sinbin

[transam]

Just call him TERRY, make me happy.

[inthepink]

The two name thing actually is a result of us not agreeing on just the one name so we figured she could have two...

...And no more than two! My girlfriend and I wanted to give our baby girl 2 Western names and a Thai name, as well as a surname, i.e. 2 middle names, but we can only do that with her "British identity"apparently. The Thai government has decreed that nobody can have more than 1 middle name, unless they are a member of the royal family I guess.

I don't normally moan about much over here but that is one of the dafter regulations I have come across.

Re. the topic of this thread (sorry, almost forgot!), It's going to be English first name - Thai middle name - my (English) surname.

Edited May 16, 2011 by inthepink

[Carry]

its not easy ig both parents are from same counmtry and it is sure not easy when u need to find a name that sounds good in two languages [three in our case] before I was pregnant I always had some names I thought I would name my child if I ever got one...but that al changed once pregnant....!

J is a nice letter to start with Ruefang! Sure your baby will have a lovely name, dont give in too much none of you two should and your child needs that name for a lifetime!

[bina]

names can be changed.... my daughter has a name that no one in israel has; in hebrew its a bit obscure and spelled differently but pronounced in a modern pronunciation just like the other more common name but the meaning is very different, so people are always correcting her 'spelling of her name'... annoys her to bits. then in english, i gave her a slightly different spelling to her name also so it would be special. needless to say her english teachers constantly change the spelling back to the prosaic way. so ive reminded her that when she hits 18 she can change her name. here, changing a name is really easy, no courts, nothing. just change it. but now that she's almost 18 she's decided that its nice to have a different unusual name especially in a country where so many people have the same first and last names and no middle names (not a usual thing here, having a middle name). here also names get shortend, lenghtend and generally turned in to variations of nick names ....

hey i changed my name, then last name, when married first time, then recently changed last name and added surname back again... here names are important, yes they alsso do that geometria/kabala (like madonna) names=numbers luck life etc stuff.

the only problem i find with long names is filling out official forms that just dont have room for all the letters, or for clerks that cant seem to copy things properly.

find a name that everyone can pronounce properly, fits all the religious/cultural stigmas/taboos/problems, and u can remember how to spell.... i use all the wierd names ive always liked (petunia! rain! ) on my various animals ive had.

bina

[Hollywood13]

If our baby (due in November) is a boy, he'll be named Kevin Lee and then my last name. If the baby is a girl, she'll be named something Leigh and then my last name (haven't thought of a first name if the baby is a girl).

My wife has left the naming of our child up to me. While we'll live in Thailand for at least the next 4 years, we may eventually head to the States, so I've opted for farang names and my wife doesn't seem to mind.

[Senia]

the main issue is like what bina says, spelling and pronouncing the name, even a name like Dex gets Thais confused, they say it funny even when they get it right. and his Thai name makes sense to them when papa says it but when I say it they again get confused. my poor boo may actually be called Boo for as long as we are here .............. lmao

[Debothai]

Hi our baby boy is due in July and we already have the name decided...It is the name of my father albeit with a thai twist...My father is Cypriot and his name is Costas (Constantinos) so we decided to name the baby Dino which is short for Constantinos or Constantine.

In my native Cyprus it is normal to name the children, their Grandfathers or Grandmothers name...If we were to have a daughter, it would be Susan, as is my English Mum...If we have a next baby he/she will be named as per my wife's parents....(Nid or Da)

The name Jai is very nice and can be a boy or girl...Also it is a popular name even Jaidee is also very popular.

Don't get influenced by others, name your baby what you wish...

My father when asked what he thinks we should name the baby said: " I don't know.. this is your decision...Aren't you going to give him my name?"

At that moment I knew that we had to give our baby boy my father's name.

They are all coming over to Thailand when baby is 1 month old...My wife is already there and i am trying to conclude my work in the emirates and go to live in thailand.

:jap:

[vont]

the main issue is like what bina says, spelling and pronouncing the name, even a name like Dex gets Thais confused, they say it funny even when they get it right. and his Thai name makes sense to them when papa says it but when I say it they again get confused. my poor boo may actually be called Boo for as long as we are here .............. lmao

Dex....?

If you show any Thai that your boy's name in Thai, really, is pronounced as.... แด็ก-ซึ

Everyone including your baby would be delighted to hear his name in Thai....

that Thai would naturally and unmistakenably pronounced his lovely name Dex as.... แด็ก-ซึ

my poor boo.... the thai would say it as.... โบ

If you like to know what real confusion is.... just wait til you get to China.... LOL :jap:

Edited May 22, 2011 by vont

[vont]

Hi our baby boy is due in July and we already have the name decided...It is the name of my father albeit with a thai twist...My father is Cypriot and his name is Costas (Constantinos) so we decided to name the baby Dino which is short for Constantinos or Constantine.

In my native Cyprus it is normal to name the children, their Grandfathers or Grandmothers name...If we were to have a daughter, it would be Susan, as is my English Mum...If we have a next baby he/she will be named as per my wife's parents....(Nid or Da)

The name Jai is very nice and can be a boy or girl...Also it is a popular name even Jaidee is also very popular.

Don't get influenced by others, name your baby what you wish...

My father when asked what he thinks we should name the baby said: " I don't know.. this is your decision...Aren't you going to give him my name?"

At that moment I knew that we had to give our baby boy my father's name.

They are all coming over to Thailand when baby is 1 month old...My wife is already there and i am trying to conclude my work in the emirates and go to live in thailand.

:jap:

Most farangs have different concepts and perceptions from Thais.

The word Jai (ใจ) means Heart, Spirit, Concept etc....

Jai-dee (ใจดี) means Having a good heart, a charitable heart, a compassionate heart etc....

The name Jai is very nice and can be a boy or girl...Also it is a popular name even Jaidee is also very popular.

Most farangs would assume so.

I agree with you that for farangs those names sound nice and cute.... no problem there....

But then.... do you give Thai name or names to your kids because the Thai name sounds nice to you as a farang....?

Or should you as parents ought to dig a little deeper than most Thai people's depth in Thai names and such....

For what it is worth, we parents really ought to give our boys.... Thai masculine names, and; our girls, feminine names....

Our lack of knowledge or our unwillingness to spend more time in searching and giving our children meaningful and appropriate Thai names....

would only increase the probability of our children being teased unmercifully at schools, subsequently....

Our nice assumption and ignorance by then.... won't help our kids at all.... would it?

On the other hand, who am I to meddle with your kids' Thai names and such....

I'd better stay out of my neighbors' biz.... :jap:

[regine]

We're going with Thai first and last names, English middle name. No nicknames.