The order of names in Thai is the same as that in Western Europe, that is, the first name is followed by the surname, which is different from that in Cambodia, Vietnam and East Asian countries. Thai names are long, and each family has a unique surname, so there are many kinds of surnames. In addition, Thai people will be given a nickname with short syllables and convenient use at birth, which is frequently used in daily life such as schools and workplaces. In most cases, nicknames are used more preferentially than their real names, and names are usually used for official purposes.
Siamese people didn't have surnames before. During the reign of Rama V, the Siamese government began to record the information of citizens, including birth, death date and family members, but it was difficult to distinguish them because there were too many people with the same name. In 1912, Rama VI established the registration system of birth, death and marriage, and promulgated the Surname Act every other year, and began to stipulate that every citizen must have a surname. He believed that having a surname or not would lead to confusion in the lineages of close relatives.
According to the research, 45,665 name samples are used as a measure of the diversity of Thai names, among which 81% surnames are family indicators, while 35% names are unique. People with the same surname all come from the same family, and the diversity of names is the norm. Surnames
Thai surnames often have positive meanings and are long, especially those of Chinese Thais. For example, former Thai Prime Minister thaksin shinawatra (whose Chinese name is Qiu Daxin) took his surname "Sinava" in 1938, which means "do more good". According to the current name law in Thailand, Thai surnames cannot be more than 1 Thai letters, excluding vowel symbols and phonetic symbols. The law also stipulates that the new surname cannot be similar to any other surname, but this rule could not be fully implemented in the past, because there was no computer database at that time, so there were very few unrelated Thais with the same surname. In order to facilitate the distinction, some place names will appear in the form of suffixes in surnames.
Article 6 of the Surname Act promulgated in p>1913 states that "a married woman can choose to take her husband's surname or keep her original surname", but this right was deprived in the Personal Name Act of 1941, and Article 13 of the Act restricted women from taking their husband's surname after marriage. In 1962, it was revised to allow divorced women to restore their maiden names, and widows who lost their husbands could choose whether to change their original names. The personal name law of 22 restored the right of married women to choose whether to take their husband's surname, and women must decide whether to change it when registering their marriage.