The Office of the Royal Society (ORST) recently announced the change of the official name of Bangkok to Krung Thep Maha Nakhon, with the former name still being recognised. The change is part of the Prime Minister's Office draft announcement on an updated list names of countries, territories, administrative zones and capitals, proposed by the ORST for the Thai people. The draft was approved by Cabinet, though the new official name will not come into effect as it awaits further vetting by relevant authorities.
The change drew overwhelming online ire from the netizens who see little point in such a name change especially when the ORST later insisted both names could be used. Some said the authorities have more pressing issues to deal with first. Those who are for the change cite the fact that Krung Thep Maha Nakhon was named by King Rama III.
Endorsing Krung Thep Maha Nakhon as the preferred or official name could definitely cause a ripple effect. Regardless of where you are on this Bangkok-Krung Thep Maha Nakhon continuum, I would like to make the case for Bangkok as the preferred name and keep KTMN for govt documents for the sake of entertainment.
Public signage
Imagine the cost that would go into changing all "Bangkok" signs in public spaces to Krung Thep Maha Nakhon. You can argue that Krung Thep Maha Nakhon is used in an official context only but then who would be the judge as to which sign is official or not? Also, "Welcome to Krung Thep Maha Nakhon!" just doesn't roll off the tongue as easily as "Welcome to Bangkok!", does it?
It's just easier
Of course, Bangkok is the butt of a very juvenile joke when you put a space between the two syllables. Given Thailand's pre-Covid reputation of being a sex tourism hotspot, the joke is doubly funny. Conservatives may not like that the name of our beloved capital is an accidental innuendo but I would argue that the instant recognition and chuckles the word "Bangkok" gets is priceless and unique. Also, if we have such an aversion to "bang", then we should fix Bang Khae, Bang Sue etc.
Don't get me started on "porn".
No transliteration is perfect
While I understand that Krung Thep Maha Nakhon or Krung Thep is what Thais refer to as the capital of Thailand, visitors should be encouraged to call the capital by its true name, the Thai-to-English transliteration is inconsistent.
The word Bangkok should be rewritten as "baang-gog" in my opinion to resemble how it is natively pronounced and spelled with the Thai alphabet. Thais call Suvarnabhumi Airport as su-wan-na-poom. Thep can be written as Deb. A language nerd such as moi would like to point out that the syllable "khon" in KTMN should be written as korn to resemble its Thai spelling. The word "khon" can mean three different Thais words besides city: the traditional masked dance, a person or a hair. They all carry different tones but when transliterated they all look the same.
Historically speaking, I would argue that Bangkok is a more authentic way to call Thailand's capital since the name refers to the area where Krung Thep Maha Nakhon has been since the Ayutthaya period.
We probably would never agree on the perfect transliteration of Krung Thep Maha Nakhon or Bangkok so we may as well settle for Bangkok since we all know what it refers to and it's more convenient. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
