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HelpWhy are many Thai names rated so badly?
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It’s partly the “porn” part and they aren’t considered very euphonious in English? A lot of those names are also very long. Most Thais I met living abroad went by short forms.
The names you mention have nice meanings but I don’t think they work out of a Thai speaking context.
The names you mention have nice meanings but I don’t think they work out of a Thai speaking context.
This message was edited 6/20/2024, 3:46 AM
Some of them make sense to me (anything with 'porn' in it will look weird to English speakers, and maybe Ratree makes them think of rats) but I'm not sure why the others are rated low. Klahan, Sasithorn, and Thaksin especially look and sound good to my English-speaking brain.
This message was edited 6/19/2024, 8:19 PM
I think the vast majority of visitors to the site just don't appreciate Thai names. Also I suspect that most of the people who rate names are very young, and young people can be surprisingly conservative in their views of anything "different".
Ratree and Klahan are pretty
I love Ratree ...
My theory of why people make the connections
When the larger part of someone's experience with names, is with names that are recognizable as names in their native language - they have only occasionally had to learn a brand-new foreign name of someone they meet - and they encounter a word that is said to be a name, online, but unattached to any people .... they mainly feel motivated to associate the name with whatever seems mentally nearby. It feels like an effort for them, to think of it as a name for a person, because their conditioned expectation of ever meeting someone named it, is very low.
When the larger part, or a very large part, of someone's experience meeting new people has meant learning new, foreign names .... that person would tend to develop an internal motivation to learn any new name *as a name,* and assign the idea "name for a person" to it. Rather than associating things from their own language.
I suspect you are in that category, if you are fairly young and urban in the US. I'm more in the other category - older, and when I was growing up, a minority of people I met had non-English names. if I meet a real person named Porntip, I'm highly incentivized to mentally class it as a name and think it's fine; but if I see the text "Porntip" online and am asked to rate it as a name, it's a fair bit of mental effort to picture someone named it, and the association with the word "porn" dominates my response to it. You might not feel that way because, say, a large plurality of the times you've met new people, you had to learn a new foreign name... so maybe you would have been more conditioned to mentally exclude English associations from any new word that you learn as a name. It would be advantageous.
People rating the names are probably those who are more like me, conditioning-wise. Also they just want to judge things. Humans get gratification from passing judgment on things. That's why people ever fill out the ratings.
My theory of why people make the connections
When the larger part of someone's experience with names, is with names that are recognizable as names in their native language - they have only occasionally had to learn a brand-new foreign name of someone they meet - and they encounter a word that is said to be a name, online, but unattached to any people .... they mainly feel motivated to associate the name with whatever seems mentally nearby. It feels like an effort for them, to think of it as a name for a person, because their conditioned expectation of ever meeting someone named it, is very low.
When the larger part, or a very large part, of someone's experience meeting new people has meant learning new, foreign names .... that person would tend to develop an internal motivation to learn any new name *as a name,* and assign the idea "name for a person" to it. Rather than associating things from their own language.
I suspect you are in that category, if you are fairly young and urban in the US. I'm more in the other category - older, and when I was growing up, a minority of people I met had non-English names. if I meet a real person named Porntip, I'm highly incentivized to mentally class it as a name and think it's fine; but if I see the text "Porntip" online and am asked to rate it as a name, it's a fair bit of mental effort to picture someone named it, and the association with the word "porn" dominates my response to it. You might not feel that way because, say, a large plurality of the times you've met new people, you had to learn a new foreign name... so maybe you would have been more conditioned to mentally exclude English associations from any new word that you learn as a name. It would be advantageous.
People rating the names are probably those who are more like me, conditioning-wise. Also they just want to judge things. Humans get gratification from passing judgment on things. That's why people ever fill out the ratings.
I think some people go out of their way to rate/comment on foreign names that seem silly or strange in an English-speaking context. It's true that some of these names wouldn't be great choices for a baby name if you live in a primarily English-speaking country, but some people are downright racist about it, and forget that people (including kids!) with these names might be looking up their own names, or those of their loved ones. There are plenty of English names that sound silly or like rude words in other languages, but because this is an English website, we don't get much of that perspective.
There isn't a large Thai population where I live, so I don't encounter a ton of Thai names in my day-to-day life, but I agree that some of these seem really nice! Sasithorn and Thaksin catch my eye in particular.
There isn't a large Thai population where I live, so I don't encounter a ton of Thai names in my day-to-day life, but I agree that some of these seem really nice! Sasithorn and Thaksin catch my eye in particular.
I think this is disingenuous. It’s clear why most of these names won’t fly in English.
I have to say that I had to do a double take when looking at some of these names at first. I think as Thai names, they're probably great, but I also think that, like many cultural names, they are going to be much more appreciated by the culture they're found in. Since this website is mostly people from english speaking countries, these names aren't going to be completely understood. So, while I'm not against these names, I would probably hesitate before using them in a lot of english speaking countries. However, here are my individual opinions:
Porntip - the meaning is nice, but I'd probably go with Pontip or Phontip, instead, for obvious reasons. It's nice enough.
Amporn - Again, outside of Thailand, I wouldn't suggest against this name, but I would opt for the spelling Amphon or Ampon. The pronunciation itself is pretty.
Siriporn - I hate having to say that you should change the normal spelling, but again, outside of Thailand, I would suggest it. This is a good enough name, but I don't like it as much as Amporn.
Klahan - I'm not sure why this name has such poor reviews. The meaning is nice, and the pronunciation is fine both for and outside of Thailand.
Sasithorn - I like this. I think although unusual, it would be fine for both inside and outside of Thailand. The meaning is pretty, as is the spelling. I also don't think it has a horrible rating.
Ubon - It's fine. From what I can tell, most people just don't like the pronunciation/spelling. It really isn't anything against the Thai name, simply the name itself.
Kulap - I don't know why this name is rated so low. It's beautiful.
Thaksin - From what I can tell, it's pronounced similar to 'toxin' which would explain why it isn't rated super high. Aside from the connection, I find the pronunciation nice. Not a huge fan of the spelling, though.
Porntip - the meaning is nice, but I'd probably go with Pontip or Phontip, instead, for obvious reasons. It's nice enough.
Amporn - Again, outside of Thailand, I wouldn't suggest against this name, but I would opt for the spelling Amphon or Ampon. The pronunciation itself is pretty.
Siriporn - I hate having to say that you should change the normal spelling, but again, outside of Thailand, I would suggest it. This is a good enough name, but I don't like it as much as Amporn.
Klahan - I'm not sure why this name has such poor reviews. The meaning is nice, and the pronunciation is fine both for and outside of Thailand.
Sasithorn - I like this. I think although unusual, it would be fine for both inside and outside of Thailand. The meaning is pretty, as is the spelling. I also don't think it has a horrible rating.
Ubon - It's fine. From what I can tell, most people just don't like the pronunciation/spelling. It really isn't anything against the Thai name, simply the name itself.
Kulap - I don't know why this name is rated so low. It's beautiful.
Thaksin - From what I can tell, it's pronounced similar to 'toxin' which would explain why it isn't rated super high. Aside from the connection, I find the pronunciation nice. Not a huge fan of the spelling, though.
This message was edited 6/18/2024, 7:44 AM
What about Sukhon? It's my favorite on the list!
suck on
Think of it as people might if they don't have access to a Thai names list. They would be likely to perceive it as a version of Suck-On, which you must admit is unlovely.
Oh, I genuinely didn't perceive it that way. Thanks for the insight.
Oops! I must have missed it. My opinion on Sukhon:
Sukhon - While I don't have any particular like or dislike for the meaning, I think the spelling and pronunciation are very pretty. I think this name could be used outside of Thailand without much issue, so I'm not sure why the ratings are low on it, either.
Sukhon - While I don't have any particular like or dislike for the meaning, I think the spelling and pronunciation are very pretty. I think this name could be used outside of Thailand without much issue, so I'm not sure why the ratings are low on it, either.
re: Klahan
If I had to guess, I'd say some people probably rated it low because of its visual similarity to klan.
If I had to guess, I'd say some people probably rated it low because of its visual similarity to klan.
I guess I can see that. In that case, it makes sense why people wouldn't like it.
think about it ...
Say Porntip out loud. You aren't Thai, presumably, and your native language is English. You know what porn is. And in English, that's ALL porn is.
Say Ratree out loud. Rat Tree.
My guess is that there are few Thai speakers who come to this English-language site, and like it or not, in English, those word/name elements do not mean what they mean in Thai.
Sure, they may well be considered beautiful in Thailand, but putting aside your desire to be open-minded toward culture and language not your own, would you really want to be called Porntip or Ratree right now, within your own culture?
Say Porntip out loud. You aren't Thai, presumably, and your native language is English. You know what porn is. And in English, that's ALL porn is.
Say Ratree out loud. Rat Tree.
My guess is that there are few Thai speakers who come to this English-language site, and like it or not, in English, those word/name elements do not mean what they mean in Thai.
Sure, they may well be considered beautiful in Thailand, but putting aside your desire to be open-minded toward culture and language not your own, would you really want to be called Porntip or Ratree right now, within your own culture?
Why not? It didn't even occur to me that any of these names were "funny" until someone pointed it out. I wouldn't blame my parents for giving me one of these names -- it wouldn't be their problem.
Now I think you're being deliberately naive. If your parents named you Porntip, it absolutely would be your problem, because unless you are Thai and live in Thailand or among exclusively Thai-speaking people and never encounter the English language, everyone you met aside from the youngest or most sheltered child would hear Porntip and immediately hear the English word and know what it means. And while most adults would be too polite to let on to your face that they knew, kids your own age would have no such filters and they would never let up. You could explain and justify till you were blue in the head, but it would not stop them. And you could insist and insist that it wouldn't bother you because You Know The Real Meaning, but you'd be kidding yourself.
And even the adults who don't laugh at you or tease you would pity you and wonder at the judgment of your parents.
And even the adults who don't laugh at you or tease you would pity you and wonder at the judgment of your parents.
That's not the point. Of course I know what "porn" means. But when it becomes an element in a name, it just disappears. I don't see it until someone mentions it, simple as that. And even if it somehow worked differently, and I would see it and think, "Wow, that sure would be unfortunate if they lived around here..." I'm sorry, but I just don't get it. If I'm getting on your nerves, I'll just forget about it.
Not suggesting you forget about it, but that you think realistically about it.
Let's use another example; what if someone named their daughter Scarlatina?
Could you honestly tell yourself that it's like "little Scarlett" and not see/recognize that scarlatina is a disease, what used to be called scarlet fever?
I really don't think you or anyone else could just naturally overlook that; it would take some self-deception.
Let's use another example; what if someone named their daughter Scarlatina?
Could you honestly tell yourself that it's like "little Scarlett" and not see/recognize that scarlatina is a disease, what used to be called scarlet fever?
I really don't think you or anyone else could just naturally overlook that; it would take some self-deception.
I've never heard of scarlatina as a disease.
Well, it's stil out there. I remember having it and thinking at the time (I was probably seven or eight) what a pretty word it was.
Malaria is a pretty disease name too.
So is influenza and it has to do with the moon.
So's diarrhea, so's rubella ... I draw the line at pellagra.
This reminds me of a book by Cormac McCarthy called "Child of God." There's a family who run the town dump and there's like twelve daughters, all named from a medical book their father found in the trash. So there's Urethra, Sara Bella, and Hernia Sue, among others.
So's diarrhea, so's rubella ... I draw the line at pellagra.
This reminds me of a book by Cormac McCarthy called "Child of God." There's a family who run the town dump and there's like twelve daughters, all named from a medical book their father found in the trash. So there's Urethra, Sara Bella, and Hernia Sue, among others.
I thought Rubella was a pretty disease name as well.
The names don’t have many ratings, so I say we band together and change them!
Because the vast majority of people on this site are English speakers, and many of these names contain English words that are not attractive name elements: porn, rat, etc.
Maybe that's why because they are used only in Thailand.
Well, yes. I understand that naming bias exists. I suppose if someone randomly saw one of those names for the first time, they would be taken aback. But it seems like that prejudice exists even after people learn the origin and the meaning. I just don't see names like that.
Even after you learn what Porntip means in Thai, you can't unlearn what it means in English, and it's not some obscure or archaic English that few but scholarly people would know.