In this article, we will see some Modern Dai Ahom Names for boys and girls,

Historical Ahom Names

This is an article on modern Dai Ahom names for boys and girls but if you want to know some historical names then please refer this article

One-Syllable Names

Traditionally, Ahoms like all Dai people had only one syllable-names due to monosyllabic nature of their language. But as population increased, more and more longer names started showing up. The Thais are particularly known for their super-long names adopted as recently as 1910s, from Pali-Sanskrit language. This was mainly because of the restriction and limited vocabulary of core-Tai language. Modern Dai Ahom however solves this same issue by borrowing heavily from Chinese and Burmese, either in form of loanwords or calque. Lot of Dai names are actually Burmese or Chinese in origin that way (because Tai doesn't have more than 3000 core-words of which a very small fraction are naming words)

The issue of creating vast amount of Tai words is thus solved by compounding and particularly affixes - particularly prefixes to signify birth-order and/or gender and other affixes to just make the name longer while not contributing in anyway to the overall meaning. For example, in Yang Jom Muang the actual name is only Jom which means joyful or happy, and rest affixes (yang-white,muang-country) are just added to make the name longer and unique. Tho there are also some very meaningful bi- and tri-syllable words which we will see later. For now, let us look at some core-monosyllabic naming words.

Some Monosyllabic Naming Words

	Roman	Ahom	Meaning
	Kawng	ko[q	n. drum
	Kaew	kVw@	n. gem
	Kham	xmq#	n. gold
	Nam	nM$	n. water
	Mo	mUw	n. lily
	Mon	mUnq@	v. happy
	Jom	cUmq#	v. be glad, joyful
	Wan	bnq#	n. day, sun
	Saeng	sV[q	n. diamond
	Daeng	dV[q	n. red
	Kham	xmq@	n. evening
	Phan	fnq	n. dream
	Kyaw	ekia!	adj. happy
	Laed	lVtq!	n. sun

Multi-Syllable Names

Some Multisyllabic Naming Words

	Roman	Ahom	Meaning
	Sengdao	sV[q d,w	Jewel of the Star
	Laingdao	lV[q# d,w	Starlight
	Senglee	sV[q lI	Precious Gem
	Sengyum	sV[q yuM$	Smiling Diamond
	Sengawn	sV[q Aonq!	Little Diamond
	Sengyen	sV[q yCnq!	Gracious Gem
	Sengmai	sV[q m]!	New Diamond
	Wanmai	bnq# m]!	New Day
	Nonkham	nUnq# xmq#	Acacia Flower
	Ngaokham	[w# xmq#	Goden Shade
	Khampeng	xmq# pV[q#	Treasured Gold
	Konkham	konq@ xmq#	Lump of Gold
	Konseng	konq@ sV[q	Lump of Diamond

Note that these are all unisex names. Dai names are all ungendered and only through affix (Tsai/Tsao or Nang) we know whether a person is male or female. Aside from general affix, we also have birth-based affix to make names more unique.

Birth-Based Affix

Below is the table of variety of names that you can construct using the birth-affix system. Note that it is not compulsory but only helps to give extra information about a person along with fulfilling the purpose of word-compounding.

Some Examples of Naming Affixes

	Roman	Ahom	Meaning
	Ai Kaew	A,j kVw@	Precious Gem (1st born son)
	Sai Kham	s! xmq#	Gold (3rd born son)
	Ye Nam	ey@ nM@	Water (1st born daughter)
	Samseng	s,mq sV[q	Diamond (4th born son)
	Emo	AI@ mUw	Lily (2nd born daughter)
	Ngo Wan	[Uw$ bnq#	Sun (5th born son)
	Ngi Deng	[I@ dV[q	Red (2nd born son)

Do Tones Matter in Names?

Well they do matter, because khām means evening and khám means gold. So Laengkham for example can mean either golden light or evening light. Likewise kawng means drum and kāwng means a cannon.

We can see this in historical names too. Serkāfâ means a tiger from heaven and Sērkāfâ means the shirt from heaven. But you can't expect everyone to pronounce your name correctly nor is it feasible. So you can simply write in English without diacritics but do not forget the rendition in Tai script with tonal marks. Since that is the most important.

Breaking Grammer Rules

For the purpose of some naming words and naming words alone, you can break the grammar rules (like reversing the position of adjectives or quantifiers). This is perfectly acceptable within the closed boundary of proper nouns. There are lot of historical Ahom words too that don't actually properly follow these grammar rules. For example, the Ahom King name Tao Khamti, literally meaning come from golden place (tī khám). Or the word Boranye/Boranje - meaning ancient store. Similarly the word for prince Baipha - meaning young lord. In all these cases the grammar rules have been wrecked, but it is only to make the word sound good. Imagine if Tai Khamti people were instead called as Tai Tikham. Same goes for person names. Feel free to break rules to make your name sound good. Sengdoi or Doiseng - both can mean diamond hill. Given you are in the constraints of proper noun, you can create lot of names on your own by overlooking grammar rules.

Ahom Name Generator

If you want a completely randomized name. You can go to Ahom Name Generator Tool to generate a randomized name.

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