OK, I don't want to start a Thaksin-bashing thread. There are enough of those. But I'm curious as to why the man's parents agreed to name him "Thaksin", meaning "South".

To my knowledge, the name in Thai culture has no particular connotations, but it does in Sanskrit, the language from which the name is derived, and in Hindu religion and culture. And these connotations are not positive.

In the ancient Vedic scriptures, there were considered to be two pathways by which the soul could journey after death. The first, the Northern pathway, or Uttarayana, led to union with God, and the second, the Southern pathway, or Dakshinayana, led to rebirth, another life of suffering and thwarted desire. You can see the derivation of "thaksin" from "dakshin"; likewise, "uttara" appears in the name "Uttaradit" ("northern river crossing") and in the northeastern city of "Udorn", where the word has been siamized.

To both ancient followers of the Vedas and modern traditional Hindus, it is preferable to die when the sun is in the northern hemisphere of the sky. That is conducive to the soul making the northward journey to union with God. Traditionally minded elderly Hindus, knowing that their time is running out, will attempt to keep body and soul together until their souls can take the northern route, known as "the path of light, of fire, of day, of the bright fortnight". The southern path, by contrast, is known as "the path of smoke, of night, of the dark fortnight".

It is the latter which is known as the (path)way of Dakshin (Thaksin). Surely to give one's son a name with such dark connotations is not what an enlightened parent would want to do.

Sri Eknath Easwaran, in whose commentaries on the Bhagavad Gita I've found this information, says of those who follow the Dakshinayana in their life, and consequently after their death, that they allow their senses to run amuck and they follow the call of self-will. They often fall prey to sickness as they get older. Those who follow the Uttarayana, by contrast, are well-balanced people who live in harmony with natural and divine forces and put the welfare of others before their own. Their later years are serene.

Of course, selfishess and wilfulness are common enough among humanity, and we are all more or less prone to these things at times. However, most of us would not give our children names that connote smoke and darkness. Thaksin's mum and dad, did however.

I wonder if he knows. Given the Thai penchant for changing one's name every so often, I guess not.

I don't know, how many times have you met some girl named Candy and she lived up to her awful name? I always wondered, what if they had named her Laura, would she be less of a moronic bimbo?

On a sidenote, my uncle married a Candy and yes, she lived up (or down) to her name. gawd

I don't know, how many times have you met some girl named Candy and she lived up to her awful name? I always wondered, what if they had named her Laura, would she be less of a moronic bimbo?

On a sidenote, my uncle married a Candy and yes, she lived up (or down) to her name. gawd

I think the bimbo Candy is a Hollywood invention. Most Candys I can think of look like they ate too much of it...unless they take Candy as a nickname for Candice, then they can be pretty hot...

https://www.google.com/search?q=candy&hl=en&safe=off&tbo=d&rlz=1C1GGGE_enAE413AE421&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=MU7dUPvAHPGL4gSLwoGYCQ&ved=0CAoQ_AUoAA&biw=1366&bih=681#hl=en&safe=off&tbo=d&rlz=1C1GGGE_enAE413AE421&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=CAndice&oq=CAndice&gs_l=img.12..0l10.51898.56442.2.58803.7.6.0.1.1.0.133.627.1j5.6.0...0.0...1c.1.wEM-jH4gl9c&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&bvm=bv.1355534169,d.bGE&fp=b5b9ee23b3d94b84&bpcl=40096503&biw=1366&bih=681

You didn't meet my Uncles exwife

Since this thread seems to be deviating from XSH's learned discourse on what Thaksin means, I shall add some of the kind of names which Westernized Chinese in Hong Kong (and probably elsewhere) choose for themselves..

I had a girl in one class called Tittie (she wasn't), which was unfortunate when I had to call the register. I've had Satan and Beelzabel (which I suspect was a 'mistake' for Beelzebub) too Fancy Lee was a peasant artisan whom I didn't fancy at all (he was a man, not that that would have worried me). And then there's that man I had a letter from yesterday called Apache.

My own name, discouragingly, means "Who is like God?"

Thanks Isanbirder

When I was in charge of a government-funded program for newly arrived immigrant school children in Queensland we had to keep a register of each eligible child and their details. I can't think now of examples, but some were along the lines of those you've given. We generally discouraged schools from altering or westernizing kids' names to make them easier to say and remember, but some names just had to be adjusted for the sake of decency and to avoid embarrassment to the students and their teachers.

I'm interested in proper nouns (names) and in Thailand they are particularly interesting as they are usually derived from Sanskrit, very often reflecting the Hindu pantheon or Buddhist hagiology. Not always, of course. Many names are siamized forms of Sanskrit words for valued attributes - courage, beauty, patience, etc. - or the names of flowers, gem stones, or valued objects. But the names of Hindu gods and goddesses occur often.

To be named after a compass point ("South") is very unusual, I think, though it might occur in a surname (I have seen "burapa", meaning "east" in a compound surname). One unfortunate person on Facebook does have "Burapa" as a given name, which in Hindi means "nasty", "stinking", "evil", etc, but as there is no Thai derivation from the Hindi word, we can dismiss any connection.

I often ask Thai people what their name means - especially women and girls, as their names are so often mellifluous - and they usually say "It doesn't mean anything; it's just a name", but when pressed a bit or after consulting someone they'll then provide a meaning.

It has been said that Thaksin Shinawatra derived his given name from his father's appreciation of the profitable business he did in the South some time before his son's birth, but I've not checked the provenance or credibility of that view.

Here's another: "Chalerm", as in the Minister, means "to glorify, eulogize or extol". He was given a verb as a name. I don't know who is being glorified, etc.

The Prime Minister's name,"Yingluck", means something like "outstanding or great quality or character. Another word for the "luck" (Sanskrit: lakshana) in her name is khunaparb, derived from the Hindu "guna", which refers to any of the three prevailing human dispositions - inertia, energy or harmony (tamas, rajas and sattva).

Thai proper names and their origins are fascinating, don't you think?

Every name in Thailand has meaning, so those girls who tell you their names have no meaning are either talking about their nicknames or don't know much about their own culture.

A Thai friend of mine in high school in the US name was a combination of her mother and her father's first names. I remember when I told my husband he looked at me flabbergasted and said, "You can't do that!"

Chalerm is a very common name, I know many. Most of them are NOT fans of the Deputy PM.

Surnames have meaning too, Thai people are deeply impressed by my husband's surname. He has an original name, ie two syllables and the meaning is a very good one. I often hear, "wow good name" in reference to his given name. People recognize its origin (King Rama V) and are always impressed by the meaning. Thats always surprised me, I must say, nobody back in the US was ever impressed with my maiden name even though it is an usual one.

English surnames are among the most interesting of all, as they reflect the various peoples who have lived in England, and also all the immigrants who found England a good place to live. The last three generations of my own family include names from Italy, France (Huguenot), France (Mauritius), England (one or two), France again (Burgundy, I think), and others which I would have to check.

English surnames are among the most interesting of all, as they reflect the various peoples who have lived in England, and also all the immigrants who found England a good place to live. The last three generations of my own family include names from Italy, France (Huguenot), France (Mauritius), England (one or two), France again (Burgundy, I think), and others which I would have to check.

Very true. My mother's name was a Huguenot one, from the people who settled in Norwich. Funnily though, my surname is Welsh, but we've got good records back to the 18th century and haven't found anyone who was Welsh. That side of the family was from Kent. I have Irish as well, and the O'Connors still flourish in Western Australia. I also have a Parsi ancestor from Bombay, but don't know her original surname, as she married my ancestor, an East India Company army officer, and she previously had been married to a Jewish man.

Every name in Thailand has meaning, so those girls who tell you their names have no meaning are either talking about their nicknames or don't know much about their own culture.

A Thai friend of mine in high school in the US name was a combination of her mother and her father's first names. I remember when I told my husband he looked at me flabbergasted and said, "You can't do that!"

Chalerm is a very common name, I know many. Most of them are NOT fans of the Deputy PM.

Surnames have meaning too, Thai people are deeply impressed by my husband's surname. He has an original name, ie two syllables and the meaning is a very good one. I often hear, "wow good name" in reference to his given name. People recognize its origin (King Rama V) and are always impressed by the meaning. Thats always surprised me, I must say, nobody back in the US was ever impressed with my maiden name even though it is an usual one.

This rule of requiring a name to have a meaning created a bit of drame when i wanted to name my son Phoenix and the Thai staff declined it because it had no meaning! in the end i won the fight but it was a fight.