nicknames

All Thai people have three names: the first name ("cheu"), the last name ("nam sagoon"), and the nickname (don't know the Thai for this one). The last name is rarely used and is only really necessary for official documents. This is true among professionals and people of all walks of life. That means my students refer to me as Ajarn Hermione (for instance), not Ajarn Granger.

The nickname is the really interesting one. In America a nickname is generally a diminutive form of a first name--Mike for Michael or Beth for Elizabeth. Other, more descriptive nicknames (think "Shorty" or "Big Larry") are generally reserved only for the most casual situations.

Not so in Thailand. First of all, everyone has a nickname. While some of them are derived from one's "cheu," most are not. People are given their nicknames by their parents, in infancy or childhood, and the nicknames stay with them throughout their lives. Some of them have obvious descriptive Thai meanings, some of them refer to animals (and never in a derogatory way--a person can be a "pig" here with no negative connotations at all), some are actually English words, and some are English or American names chosen for their sound.

Your nickname, whether descriptive or not, is used by anyone who knows you more than slightly. Your family, your friends, and your business acquaintances may call you by your nickname. When I first arrived everyone wanted to know my nickname and all were very surprised when I told them I didn't have one. I suspect they were a little disappointed also, as my name is both difficult for Thai people to pronounce and not really amenable to shortening.

Here are some of the nicknames of people (students, teachers, and staff) at the university. (I do love a bulleted list.)

• Lek (Thai for "small")
• Neung (Thai for "one"--a common nickname for a firstborn)
• Khai (Thai for "egg"--he tells me it refers to the shape of his head)
• Nok (Thai for "bird")
• Moo (Thai for "pig)
• Bpoo (Thai for "crab")
• Bank (the English word "bank"--bestowed by one's parents in the hope of prosperity)
• Josh (the English name)
• Nancy (the English name)
• Woody (an Anglicized version of a shortening of the given name)
• Bowling (yeah, like the game)

There are many others (Beer, Ter, Do, Mix, Som, Num, Big, Top, Keam, Bird, Tik, Golf, Gong, Ket, Nat, Champ, and more), the meanings of which I don't know for sure. Some of these certainly sound like English words, but I would hate to ascribe meaning falsely, so I'll just leave that as a list of unknowns.