ABSTRACT
Names of Thai people can be divided into the formal and informal, formal being first and family names, while the informal ones are pet names and nicknames. Indeed, the Thai people have a widely popular practice of informally addressing one another with names other than the legal first family name. These socalled pet names and nicknames may have a meaning or may be onomatopoeic or just nonsense words; those with. meaning conform to the general patterns of monosyllabic words, whereas those without possess the phonological patterns of onomatopes or of English and Chinese loanwords.
