After watching the first episodes on Channel 7 of the remake of the lakorn classic “Tawipop”, I came to wonder about how nicknaming has gone astray in Thailand. In “Gan Kor Gad” (the new movie by and with Joey Boy), the Playboy model most frequently shown bounce her stuff around is named Bowling. The main actress in Tawipop is named Pancake.
How on earth can anyone, even Thais, think nicknames like Bowling and Pancake are reasonable or even cute names for a pretty young girl?
But then I realized, it is just the top of the iceberg. Other strange Thai nicknames include Khanom Jeen, (a kind of noodles) Wun Sen (vermicelli), Airbus, Boat, Ball, Golf, Benz, Cola, Beer, Pepsi, Fanta, Seven, and Mint.
Gone are the days when Thai girls are nicknamed after cute, small animals and Thai fruits like Maew (cat), Nok (bird), Noo (mouse), Poo (crab), Pla (fish), Kwang (deer), Taay or Gadai (rabbit), or Som (orange), Som-O (pomelo), Chompoo (rose apple), or Ple (apple). By the way, the Thai concept of “cute animal nicknames” includes not only animals you can eat but extends further to amphibians, insects and other creatures that you may not want to see on your dinner table (but sometimes do appear on some dinner tables), like Tao (turtle), Kob (frog), Mod (ant), and Jingjok (house lizard).
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