There was a discussion on names, particularly Thai names, on James Clark’s blog. James Clark is a heavyweight in the Standards Community, so names/identity and internationalization are on the tip of his brain.

When are two concepts–perhaps existing in separate systems or minds–the same and how do we communicate this identity? Names are one solution. We map distinguishable sounds or text to concepts via an arbitrary convention (language). We also have various ways of further specifying a concept when a given key maps to multiple concepts (collisions).

When it comes to naming individual people, different cultures have different frameworks or systems for naming. Most large cultures use at least a “given” name (given by the parents) and a “family” name. The family name provides an extra layer of hierarchy to prevent name collisions. I suppose the logic is that within the family, the parents can give each child a different name so that assuming every family name is different, every individual will have a different name. Of course family names often collide so you’ll end up with hundreds of James Clarks for instance.

But across cultures there are differences in the frameworks. For example, in Iceland and other Scandinavian countries, the “family” name is derived from the given name of the father (rather than the family name of the father). In Spain, people take two family names, their father’s and mother’s family names.

Thailand is an interesting case. Formally, people have first (given) and last (family) names. But last names were only introduced at the beginning of the 20th century, and bureaucracy and superstitions have resulted in a peculiar situation.

First, all names (first and last) must be sanctioned names (there’s a department of the government in charge of this) and last names are given out on a first-come, first-serve basis to ensure uniqueness. If two people have the same last name in Thailand, they are related.

When you become a citizen of Thailand, you have to choose a last name. The problem is, like domain names, all the good ones are taken. Further, people can change their name (including last name) very easily. And they do this often, usually on the advice of fortune tellers or numerology.

You can’t just choose any name. Every year, the Interior Ministry invents a few thousand new family names which are “released” on certain days (dates have significance in these superstitions). So on particularly auspicious days, people will wait in line for hours for a name!

The result is that many people in Thailand don’t bother learning each other’s last names. Phonebooks are sorted by first name. And most people just go by a nickname, which is used in situations where my culture uses a first name.