One of the adventures of having a child is naming a child. This is an awesome priveledge and gigantic responsibility. We are excited about this very important task, which will soon befall us, but we are also a little stressed about it too. _It really comes down to the fact that we both have pretty unique names and we like them – yes, they were difficult in pre-school and early childhood when no one can pronounce them and yes, Iven gets called “seven” a fair bit here in Thailand but nonetheless we want to give our child a name that is a gift to them, much as we both feel like our names have been a gift to us. Naming Thai babies is a lot easier, I think, then how we foreigners go about naming our babies. _Most all Thai babies are given both a formal name and a nickname, usually completely unrelated to one another. _The formal name is used for formal occasions and documents but for all practical purposes and everyday life the child (and later, adult) is known and called by their nickname. Those nicknames are for the most part either a noun or an adjective. _Common girl names are “Gai” (chicken), “Muu (pork, our landlord’s name), “Benz” (as in Mercedes), or “Ying” (literally meaning: girl)._Common boy names are “Golf” (yes, as in the sport), “Bond” (made popular after a James Bond movie filmed here in Thailand several decades ago), “Honda” (like the car company, or more notably in this context, the motorcycle) or “Boy” (pretty straightforward). Either gender can be nicknamed “Uan” (fat), “Noi” (little), “Bia” (beer), or “Dam” (black/dark, as in dark-skinned). _We have one friend whose given nickname is “Bowling” (because dad liked to bowl). _One of the cuter and most disturbing nicknames given to children, at least from an English speaker’s perspective is “Me Pooh”, which is the literal translation of “Pooh Bear” (as in Winnie the Pooh) but is just plain horrible if the poor kid ever makes any foreign friends. Another funny thing about naming Thai babies is a bit too close to home for us in our current season of life (getting ready to meet our baby and not sure yet what he/she will be called) – we recently heard from a Thai friend that each hospital has a particular “default” name for both boys and girls that they assign to babies whose parent’s can’t decide on a name by the time they leave the hospital. _I expect these can be changed later but the path of least resistance is to keep the assigned name. _For example, Chula Hospital assigns the name “Bua” to any unnamed girl and “Kwan” to any unnamed boy. _What this means in practice is that the nearby and largest slum community, Klong Toey, has a ridiculously higher than average number of children with those two names. _ _This would never go down in America… _Can you imagine? _”I’m afraid you have taken too long to settle on your child’s name, so the birth certificate will be filed as ‘John Smith’…thats the fifth John Smith born at this hospital this week!” Don’t worry, we’ll find a name…