What's In A Name ?

[Spee]

Happy Friday Group !

Almost time to test some of the anti-hangover theories from that recent thread.

Anyway I had a question about common Thai names and what they may or may not mean.

For example, in the romanized spelling a common beginning to many city and street names is "Ratcha ..." or "Racha ... ". For example, there is Ratchadamnoen Boxing Stadium in BKK, and Ratchadamnoen Street in several towns.

Does this beginning have any meaning with the Thai people? There must be some background to it.

Also, if there are any other common names or beginnings to names where there is special Thai meanings, and people would like to add to the thread, that would also be appreciated.

Spee (looking forward to big ahaan thai dinner tonight)

[Thetyim]

Nakhon means city

Wang means palace

[Spee]

Thanks for the reply Thetyim,

A lot of these basic translations are in the books or can be interpreted. I was looking more for origins or meanings for more complicated names such as the example that I gave, or common/unique last names/first names, etc.

Any others you can think of ?

Spee

[Pink Mist]

theyitime

fantastic for the translations

can you do one for me please write on shithouse wall if you like

seriously

please explain this one

Amphur muang

jungkhud

tumboon

the addresses are hard to understand

[KevinN]

OK Bronco; Here is the way it was explained to me,,AMPHUR MUANG or MAENG means the city,,TAMBOON or TAMBOR means the village and MOO is the section of the village..

I still really do not understand how you would find a certain address tho,but they seem to get around.

[sbk]

Well, Kevinn, no wonder you get lost! Changwat (not jungkhud) is the province. Amphur Muang is the capital city/district of the province, the administrative center of the province. Next would be Amphur which are districts in the province (kind of like counties). Then Tambun, which is a section of an Amphur, and consists of several villages. Then Moo Ban, which is the village. So when there is an address that says Tambun Ban Tai Moo 4 that means it is the number 4 village in the Tambun of Ban Tai.

City is Muang (like in Amphur Muang) , a big city is Nakhon and a very big city is MahaNakhon (like in KrungThepMahaNakhon etc).

As for Racha, my husband believes it has something to do with the king as the Raj (pronounced Ra) in Racha... mean King, but he is unsure of the original meaning of Racha.

[tuky]

What about Sri? as in Sri Racha and so on, any ideas?

[sbk]

OK, Tukyleith, thats a tough one. Apparently it depends on the word following it. So, like in Sri Ayuthaya it means something like Ayuthaya is the head. Ayuthaya used to be Krung Sri Ayuthaya, meaning it was the capital but once it moved to Bangkok it became just Sri Ayuthaya.

Apparently on its own it doesn't really have a meaning. Sri sa means head. My husband had to tell me this one 'cause he says it is very hard to explain. Its one of those lovely ambiguous words in Thai that is nearly impossible to understand! You picked a toughie!

[k for kandy]

racha means kingly or royal - a bit like raja.

sri (pronounced 'sie') means something good and decent. actually i cant be any more specific than that unless i have a thai-thai dictionary in my hand.