Names

Clive Staples Lewis was known to his friends as "Jack". This is unusual for two reasons: firstly, while nicknames are common in English-speaking countries, they are often related to the person's actual name (Lawrence is called "Larry", Patricia is "Pat") or else some personal characteristic (Goldie may have blond hair, or Shanks is someone tall). And a significant proportion of people will have no nickname at all: John is usually just "John".

The Thais often have cumbersome polysyllabic Sanskrit or Pali names that translate to something like "Golden Lotus beloved of the Sun", but these are not commonly used except on passports and to open bank accounts. Instead, most Thai people use a "nickname" or cheu-len ชื่อเล่น. These nicknames are used in everyday life and may even be used when making introductions to complete strangers (although not usually in a business or work context), so Thai nicknames see far more use than English ones. It is not unheard of for Thai people to forget or not even to know the actual name of friends who are quite close.

Thai nicknames have a far more homely feel to them. They are usually single-syllable native Thai words: common nicknames include "Nok" (bird), "Lek" (small), "Goong" (prawn) and "Moo" (pig). Unlike English nicknames, nicknames are usually chosen by parents at birth for their children.

When the communists took over China, they decreed that all people would have one name only. Prior to that point, it was common practice for all Chinese (even peasants) to have at least two names: a register name 名 and a "courtesy name" 表字, a practice that originated in Shang Dynasty China. Dr Sun Yat-sen had at least six names which he used in his lifetime: his register name, 德明 "luminous virtue"; a milk name, 象帝 "like an emperor"; a school name, 文 "cultured"; and a baptismal name, 日新 "daily renewal" (taken when he converted to Christianity). He later used the courtesy name 逸仙 "dissolute immortal", which in Cantonese is a close homophone of 日新, and it is from this name that his English name is derived. When in Japan, he took the pseudonym 中山樵 "woodcutter of the middle mountain", and after death he was given the posthumous name of 國父 "father of his country" which is a title still used in Taiwan. His register name would be used in the clan genealogies, milk name was used by his family in childhood, his school name was given when he reached school age, and his courtesy name was given at the age of 20. A pseudonym was usually only used by scholars, artists or poets and was usually three or four characters and generally of a very personal nature. Even Mao Zedong had at least two names: a register name 澤東, and a courtesy name 潤之.

The abolition of courtesy names and pseudonyms had an curious effect on the Chinese attitude towards names. Whereas previously Chinese names were like clothes that you put on for different occasions, now each person was identified uniquely by a single register name, which now gave the register name a significance it did not previously possess. Around the 1950's there arose a belief (in Hong Kong, I have heard it said), that a persons destiny might be determined by the number of strokes in the characters that made up a person's name, a concept that could not previously exist for two reasons: Firstly, there is often more than one way of writing a Chinese character, which means many characters have no definite stroke count; and secondly, no person was identified by just one name, making such an exercise impossible.

In the Chinese community, an industry has grown up around this belief in stroke counts (and which may or may not include an analysis of the component radicals). There now circulate astrologers in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia who analyse names (for an appropriate fee) and suggest changes. For most English-speaking people, a name is who and what you are and the thought of changing a name for this reason or in this way is alien. There exist baby name books that give the meaning of English names, and of course many people believe that the meaning of a name is important, but these same people would probably treat with incredulity the suggestion that the number of pencil marks you need to write a name could be relevant.

I do from time to time hear of Chinese friends whose names have changed on the advice of an astrologer, but was a little surprised to discover that the Thais may have a similar belief. This does not revolve around the number of letters or pencil marks, but there is a tradition of asking buddhist monks to name or rename people. One of the nurses in the unit I work at consulted an astrologer on a whim and was advised that her name would need to change in order to solve the problems in her life. Interestingly, the way that Thai names are used mean that the changing of a formal name has a negligible social impact on the majority of Thais, because they continue to use the same nicknames; however, throughout their history, the Thais have only ever had one name (surnames are a recent invention) so a name change requires a much greater mental adjustment than for the Chinese.