What's in Thai Names
My name is Haru. I picked it myself. I'm not Japanese. I got it from an anime called Hitman Reborn, which didn't seem to be very popular in the west but had recession era Thai weebs in a choke hold. It's been my username since middle school and now it's kind of my actual name. In person I go by another name, the one that my parents gave me, but most people know that I also go by Haru.
A quick Google search for "Thai names" will show you that Thai names are ridiculous as hell. Thais have "real" or legal names which are the ones that are on our documents. Real names are 9/10 times way too formal so people go by nicknames instead. Thai nicknames can be anything and I mean anything. See this tweet:
piano is tweeting that she’s with music rn, but she’s flirting with plaifah as the throuple yuri gods intended https://t.co/RKYxy8cFJX pic.twitter.com/QrGpg4NIy2
— b00kwOrm (@agathaallaround) January 9, 2026
Piano, Music, and Plaifah (this one means something like "horizon") are all nicknames, and while the tweet is about TV characters, people are actually called something like these in real life. There are common nicknames like Ploy (jewel) or Ice (well, ice), but they can also be, ahem, unique. I know a Big Bird, a Nampoo (crab paste), and a Guitar. If you think your name is too unique you can also just give yourself a new one. You aren't limited to just changing your nickname either. You can just show up to your district office to get a legal name change. It's free and people do it all the time.
When I was born, my legal name was a different one from what I have now. My parents had the old Supreme Patriarch renamed me shortly after my birth. My parents also had their names changed, Mom twice. Auspicious reasons. They are deep into numerology. I don't believe in this kind of stuff, but my name means "individuality" and I was a social outcast in school because I was deemed too weird and scary. There might be some correlation here.
My parents-given nickname is the shortened form of my birth name. That's still the name I introduce myself as. On the Internet though I'm Haru. Some URL friends know my "real" names, but I much prefer Haru. It feels weird and too personal to be called my IRL name online.
Thailand's attitude towards names might be one of the reason why being transgender is seemingly1 readily accepted. It's not only trans people changing their names. Everyone is changing their names. You can't deadname anyone because names are auspicious and you should respect other people's wish to bring more auspice to their lives.
Perhaps other countries should make it easier to change your name. I see a lot of posts about how naming your children "tragedeigh" names is terrible and even abusive. I'm not disagreeing, but I find it more so scary that you're stuck with your name forever elsewhere. Names hold seemingly so much gravity in other places. In Thailand, it's just one of the many things you can change to maximise your chance of a winning lottery number.
Foreshadowing a future post here...↩