When we got married, I discussed with my wife the importance of preserving her cultural identity, and we decided that her surname would be double barrelled. I was sure at the registry office they asked the question and it seems after searching the KR2 and other paperwork, one of the papers did mention that her name was double barrelled but the Thai part of her name is in the "middle name" part.

Her name on her ID card, Thai passport, bank account and the tabian baan book is double barrelled but without a hyphen ( which I know probably doesnt exist in the Thai alphabet ). I don't know how the staff at each department did it, but it was never an issue.

We have been married for 4 years and we hadn't paid any attention to it. Until we went to the Land Transport Office to get a 5 year driving licence, it wasn't a problem when she gained the one year licence under her double barrelled name but it seems they check the "tabian lat" which I think is some kind of census / registry / database, and they wouldn't issue a new driving licence.

Can someone tell me where we stand ? Am I flogging a dead horse by trying to insist that we have a double barrelled name. If we do have to change to using my surname exclusively then its a couple of days work getting all the other paperwork in order.

Also does this have any adverse effect if my wife was to apply for a UK visa one day ?

The best advice I can give you is to stop talking about "double-barrelled" surname to Thai government officials. As you said yourself, they do not know this concept and their computer systems cannot handle it, for which reason they have used what you call the first part of the double-barrelled name as the middle name or, more accurately, as the second forename. The Thai systems can handle two forenames, although sometimes they join them together in Thai script.

Let the Department of Land Transport use the name as shown on the Thai ID card and be happy with that.

The best advice I can give you is to stop talking about "double-barrelled" surname to Thai government officials. As you said yourself, they do not know this concept and their computer systems cannot handle it, for which reason they have used what you call the first part of the double-barrelled name as the middle name or, more accurately, as the second forename. The Thai systems can handle two forenames, although sometimes they join them together in Thai script.

Let the Department of Land Transport use the name as shown on the Thai ID card and be happy with that.

Yeah .. we don't try to talk about double barrelled names, we just tell them thats her name, and they usually know to enter it into the computer as her middle name. The ID card uses this method ( her surname as a middle name ), the tabian baan uses this method, its the 'tabian rat' that doesnt, and the LTO follows the 'tabian rat' .. It seems this registry is compiled from entries to the house book, she has never completed a form to be on this electoral register.

I will go and down with her and insist that they change the 'tabian rat' .. At the end of the day its all totally irrelevant - She is just a number, the same one she was given when she was 8 years old and will be with her until she dies. It's the LTO being stubborn.

Actually we have already found a work around, we just went to a different LTO a few minutes before closing and they didn't bother to check the electoral register, but now she wants to sell a bike and we can't. The work around again is, put it in my name and I sell her bike.

What I didn't want is an issue further down the line. I have seen here, when I did a search - an issue with kids names, should we ever have any or a name conflict on documents for a UK visa.

Edited January 31, 201511 yr by recom273

No good deed goes unpunished...... especially ones that twist the common social constructs of two cultures.

• At the beginning, there was the birth certificate,
• followed by the entry in the house registration book (tabian baan)
• followed by the ID card
• followed by the passport

I am not familiar with the tabian rat, but from what you say it is the electoral roll, a register of the persons allowed to vote, and theoretically this should be based on the tabian baan.

From the look of it, the people at your Department of Land Transport are ignorant, or obstructive for another reason.