Refering to oneself in the 3rd person is normal... Don't read into it too much... It doesn't attribute to any kind of personality traits...

Exactly

I know why:

It is considered cute

It might be cute... Is it not that there is no *informal* personal pronoun like ผม ( pŏm) for women. In which situation would a female speaker say (ฉัน) "chăn" or (ดิฉัน) "dì-chăn"? Harley ever, informally.

Refering to oneself in the 3rd person is normal... Don't read into it too much... It doesn't attribute to any kind of personality traits...

Exactly

I've heard a few friends use their name when they have learnt a little Thai. I advised them to stop as it sounds very gay for a man to do it.

LarryBird likes it when Thai chicks talk about themselves in the third.

The wife does it constantly and I'm glad she isn't the only one else I'd think she was a nutter.

My impression is that it's very common for women to do this in conversation, especially if they're speaking with anyone who isn't a close friend or family. Now with males (outside of the soaps) - have heard it a handful of times, kinda rare, but does occur.

For consistency, I always refer to myself simply as the king of all falang.

What about ตน ? do Thais ever use that when referring to themselves? I see it sometimes in written dialogue but can't say I ever heard anyone use it when speaking, which doesn't mean they don't.

For instance แพรไหมตัดบทว่าตนยังไม่ได้เข้าห้องน้ำเลย ขอตัวก่อน

Please excuse me I haven't been to the bathroom yet.

แพรไหมตัดบทว่าตนยังไม่ได้เข้าห้องน้ำเลย ขอตัวก่อน

This sentence, ตน means he/she

ตน is never used as first person like "me" or I

That sentence just say:

Phraimai said he/she hasn't been to the bathroom yet. Please excuse me.

Also, it's nothing strange or eccentric at all that an older person prefer to call himself as well as having other's call him Pa ป๋า

It's similar when people call themselves grandma or auntie etc.

Also, chan is often used by males when addressing either a very good male friend or most of the time another female who's either a good friend or companion.

For strangers or formal occations, it's not appropriate for a male to use chan, he'd have to use ผม phom.

dichan is always used by females to address themselves. Never used by men.

dichan is used on formal occations when politely addressing a stranger or somebody not aquaintance

it's used about similarly as the men's phom ผม but maybe even more formally than ผม

These things may be a bit complicated and often if you talk to somebody without sounding overly informal, you can usually skip all kind of pronoun when speaking.

Oh, and men do address themselves using their name, but only when talking with their wife/gf.

It's quite common actually. I think nearly all of my friends does it.

แพรไหมตัดบทว่าตนยังไม่ได้เข้าห้องน้ำเลย ขอตัวก่อน

This sentence, ตน means he/she

ตน is never used as first person like "me" or I

That sentence just say:

Phraimai said he/she hasn't been to the bathroom yet. Please excuse me.

Thank you for clearing that up. What if someone asked me where Phraimai was, would it be acceptable to say

ตนเข้าห้องน้ำ ?

No, ตน is not used in this way. I don't really know how to explain it properly. It kinda means his/her or oneself. But it's not used to refer to oneself, but other's self.

For example, เธอทำกระเป๋าของตนหาย