Most Thai didn't have surnames until the 20th century because there were no real clans, feudal system etc so it would often be (given name) + (an identifier) to separate different people, e.g. Benz the tall, Benz son of Moo, Benz from Chum Het, and so on. Then the government brought in a law that people needed surnames, so people simply made them up by combining words or phrases. And because you were not supposed to have the same surname as someone you were not related to, people added more words to make them different, hence the long-ass surnames.
Quite a lot of Thai have Chinese descent so there are a lot of Chinese names floating around, but there was also anti-Chinese sentiment in the past so many of these adopted new fabricated Thai names.
Some random examples that I Googled:
Chevapravatdumrong - "biography" + "to uphold"
Suwannarat - "golden" + "jewel"
Shinawatra - "does good routinely"
Fhaumnuaypol - "sky brings you success"
For this reason they have some of the largest name diversity in the world. Also, the names are so long that in regular society many people use nicknames given at birth (replicating the old days before the law was introduced) instead of their actual names.
Quite a lot of Thai have Chinese descent so there are a lot of Chinese names floating around, but there was also anti-Chinese sentiment in the past so many of these adopted new fabricated Thai names.
Some random examples that I Googled:
Chevapravatdumrong - "biography" + "to uphold"
Suwannarat - "golden" + "jewel"
Shinawatra - "does good routinely"
Fhaumnuaypol - "sky brings you success"
For this reason they have some of the largest name diversity in the world. Also, the names are so long that in regular society many people use nicknames given at birth (replicating the old days before the law was introduced) instead of their actual names.
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