Siam or Thailand: what's in a name?

Randy Cornhole · Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 7:24 am Post subject:

I have given a brief synopsis on Thai flags through the ages on my new blog 'Thai Delights' (link at the bottom of my post) Unfortunatly for some strange reason that I have not yet sorted it only works in Firefox and IE7...

For the record my missus prefers Thailand over Siam.
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johnnyk · Guru Joined: 02 Sep 2005 Posts: 906

HHTel · Professional Joined: 12 Feb 2007 Posts: 300

The meaning of Thailand is simply 'Free Land'.

Mueang means land or country one of the many meanings of the word 'thai' is free.

I thought it was general knowledge. It was explained to me many years ago.

Simple!

buksida · Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 12:37 pm Post subject:

Hasn't been very free since September 2006 Wink

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KelpieKiss · Specialist Joined: 17 Oct 2007 Posts: 223

Is this it?

johnnyk · Guru Joined: 02 Sep 2005 Posts: 906

sandman67 · Guru Joined: 11 Jul 2007 Posts: 630 Location: Hua Hin

HHtel gotta agree although I was told by a palace guide that SIAM means "Land of the Free" too.....

I just get a kick out of living somewhere called the Land of the Free no matter where it is.....

and it certainly aint where we came from Mr. Green

Personally I love SIAM because it sounds about more "exotic". It has a touch of the Indiana Jones / Rowley Birkin QC about it.......
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redzonerocker · Posted: Sat Jan 12, 2008 6:27 am Post subject: vote

i voted for thailand for the same reason as randy, siam just conjures up visions of yul brynner! Confused

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HHTel · Professional Joined: 12 Feb 2007 Posts: 300

Yeh, I agree with the mental images of Yul Brynner. However, it shows the average age of us old fogies. I mentioned Yul Brynner to my son and daughter, 24 and 27 years old, and their response was "Who?"

How time flies!

chalvy · Rookie Joined: 01 Oct 2007 Posts: 24 Location: Hua Hin

Just had a yarn with my missus about the meaning of "Thailand" compared to "Siam". She pointed out that the word thai is similar but not the same to tai ( not sure how its spelt, but in thai script there is one glyph missing so thats what i came up with), which means FREE.
Apparently Rama V set all the slaves in thailand free during his rule and the feeling was very great amongst the people. As anyone in Thailand knows Rama V is THE giant amongst the kings and the decision to free the slaves made a huge impact amongst the masses.
She seems to think that this contributed to the name change as it was simmering away to recognise this feat for many decades. She also thinks these two words --- ไท (tai??) and ไทย (thai), are very closely related and essentially mean the same thing, hence- ไทยแลน (thailand).
Didn't read the original post so maybe i'm going over old ground.
cheers
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