Thai Nicknames – Pig Pork Moo

If you were asked to name five famous Thai people connected to the following categories : politics, sport, music and film, I am sure like myself many of you would struggle to name three.

For those people for whom Thailand is a far away land frequented by travellers in search of sun, sea and sex, they would probably struggle to name one.

Abhisit Vejjajiva, Thongchai Jaidee, Tata Young, Siriyakorn Pukkavesh and of course the man who would be most people’s first answer Thaksin Shinawatra are names that with the exception of Tata Young, hardly roll straight down the middle of one’s tongue.

Thai Nicknames

Actress, model and TV presenter Siriyakorn Pukkavesh is better known by her nickname Oom and I can assure you it has no connection to her role in the 2003 Thai movie The Adventures of Iron Pussy.

Thai nicknames are the white knight in shining armour for most visitors to Thailand as they offer the bemused tourist at least a slight chance of remembering someones name should they meet up a second time.

Khun Siriyakorn’s parents may have put the oom-ph into their talented daughter, but why do some parents put moo (pig) into theirs. A mothers cry  ”Pig your dinners ready,”  needs some explaining and so I set off with my surf board in tow, on a walk with Google to find out why.

Thai family names were only introduced in the early 20th century, for many years before Thai’s addressed each other by using the formal first name and more intimately by their nickname. Thai nicknames are given at birth by doting parents in the hope that the chosen name will bring their baby good luck and as always in Thailand for such family matters, monks advice is sought in pursuit of the lucky nickname.

Apologies to beautiful Tata Young for placing her photo on the same page as a pig but a reporter has got to get his story. Moo is a  nickname that can mean pork as well as pig and is one of the more popular names chosen by parents. So how do we arrive at Moo.

A Thai persons nickname such as Moo may be picked because of their family involvement in pig farming, their parents love of eating pork, being born in the Chinese Year of the Pig or at birth having similar characteristics to the favoured nickname, the latter being doubtful in the case of Moo. A very simple explanation.

Animals, fruit, numbers, food, colours and size are some of the categories used by parents when choosing a nickname for their newly born baby.  Kai (chicken), Daeng (red), Neung (one), Boo (crab),  Som (orange) and Lek (small) are a few examples.

Multi talented Siriyakorn Pukkavesh’s nickname Oom (อุ้ม) translates as to carry or to cradle, who could argue with her parents choice as she now holds celebrity status tightly in her arms.

Thai nicknames can be given throughout the course of ones life in Thailand. School mates, work colleagues and friends often attach a nickname to their associates although someones nickname at birth will always be used within their family circle. Maew (cat) is a widely used and traditional nickname in Thailand and one that the Thai media have labelled one of their most famous countryman with.

“Despite cohabitation in colonies, cats do not have a social survival strategy, or a pack mentality. This mainly means that an individual cat takes care of all basic needs on its own (e.g., finding food, and defending itself), and thus cats are always lone hunters; they do not hunt in groups as dogs or lions do“…..Source Wikipedia.

Is Maew, better known as Khun Shinawatra planning on one day returning to prowl the hot tin roofs of Bangkok or has the self exiled cat lost his oom-ph. How about you, do you know someone who’s living up to their nickname.

Credits

Photograph Tata Young Sry85

Photograph Siam Sunray      Tourism Authority of Thailand

Photograph     Swine Oink © Dmitry Maslov | Dreamstime.com

Photograph Thaksin Shinawatra www.kremlin.ru.

© 2009 – 2011, Martyn. All rights reserved.

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