Thai names - can one determine gender from examining a Thai's name?

Question

In my job we have frequent interactions with Thai individuals, usually electronic correspondence. Thai names can be very long and hard to pronounce for Americans, but the primary difficulty is determining a person's gender. So far I have been unable to look at a name and glean any rules or patterns that might identify a person as male or female based on their name (first name or last name). Does anyone know of any such rules or patterns that we might be able to follow to make an educated guess, or are we "doomed" simply to ask about gender first?

Answer 1

Like the person before me said, there aren't rules that a person who doesn't speak Thai could learn to know the gender of Thai names. Some names are used only for girls, others only for boys, and others can be used for both genders.

However, there are lists of common names on the internet that might help.  Here's one:

Akara - male

Amornrat - female

Anantachai - male

Arthit - male

Asda - male

Boonsri - female

Busarakham - female

Chaiyaanunt - male

Chakrii - male

Chaluay - male or female

Chaniporn - female

Chantana - female

Chaow - male

Chati - male

Daeng - male or female

Daranee - female

Duangkamol - female

Duanphen - female

Dusit - male

Gaandaa - female

Gaew-gaow - female

Gamon - male or female

Hathai - female

Khajee - female

Klaharn - male

Krasin - male

Kwanchai - male

Kwanjai - female

Malee - female

Manee - female

Mano - male

Naiyana - female

Nak - female

Naowarat - male or female

Niew - female

Niracha - female

Nopadon - male

Nopparat - male or female

Panit - male

Parvadee - female

Phanphan - female

Phornphan - female

Prasert - male

Prasong - male or female

Prawit - male

Preecha - male

Prem - male

Punyaa - male

Ram - male

Rong - male

Ruthai - female

Rutna - female

Saisamorn - female

Samorn - female

Sangwan - female

Sanit - male or female

Siriporn - female

Somboon - male

Sonthi - male

Suda - female

Sujit - male or female

Sunaree - female

Sunee - female

Supachai - male

Suphanee - female

Suphawut - male

Suriya - female

Suwit - male

Tanet - male

Thitiporn - female

Ubol - female

Udom - male

Veera - male

Wichai - male

Wirat - male

Wiriya - male

Woraporn - male or female

Yuth - male

Answer 2

I do understand your predicament. Unfortunately, there are no specific rules for determining the gender based on the name. Male and female names can be anything. You have to be familiar with the Thai language itself before Thai names could be apparent to you. If you spent a considerable period of time in Thailand and interacted with Thai people, through experience you can distinguish a male from a female Thai name later on. But it takes time and familiarity before such knowledge sink in. The same thing applies to Chinese names.

It is not like Spanish names where a name ending with an ___o is usually a male, and a name ending with an ___a is usually a female (for example: Maria, Amanda, Alejandra are female, and Mario, Amando, Alejandro are male).

You can put it this way. Imagine, let's say that there is a country that totally doesn't speak the tiniest bit of English and never been exposed to the English language at all. Now, if you show any native of that country a list of English names and ask him to identify the gender of each name in the list. I'm pretty sure that he can't tell whether 'Charles' or 'Mark' is a male or female. The same is true when he sees 'Jane' and 'Carole'. He might then ask you for specific rules or pattern in telling the gender by looking at the English name or last name. Of course, you can't tell him because there is no such specific rule. The only way for him to tell is to learn the English language and to familiarize himself with English names. Through time and experience, he can distinguish the names later on.

For me, since I spent considerable time in Thailand, now I can tell that the name 'Sunaree' is female, 'Rathana' is female, 'Somboon' is male, 'Thanapat' is male, 'Chalermpol' is male, 'Sirisom' is female, 'Suraporn' is male, 'Panida' is female, 'Somchai' is male, 'Sritawat' is male, 'Sirirat' is female, 'Sirasak' is male, 'Jaruwan' is female, etc..

I can suggest only a couple of general rules: A Thai first-name ending in ___ee is usually a female (Sunaree, Ratchanee, Apiradee, Malee, Sunee, Nathinee, Daranee, Suphanee, etc). A Thai name ending in ___a is usually a female (Kannika, Sarana, Panida, Chalida, Kanthipa, Pinthira, Saranya, Chantana, Sirinda, Kanchana, Nittaya, Suchada, Bussaba, etc.). But this general rule is not 100% accurate. For example, the name 'Phatapee' is male despite ending in ___ee. The names 'Preecha' and 'Sanya' are male despite ending in ___a.

I can't think of any other rule.

Answer 3

As far as I know Thai names like Japanese names are open to be used by both males and females.

What I mean is like this:

The names Tsukasa, Sakura, Shion, etc.. which are Japanese names, get to be used by both males and females. I don't think that the Thai name system is different than the Japanese one. And I'm 95% sure that also China has that way of naming children, not according to gender, but according to the taste of the parents.

I'm sorry if I'm making u feel doomed (to ask d gender), but I myself find their way kind of intriguing.

Cya!!