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All kings in the currentChakri dynasty ofThailand are often referred to asKing Rama in the English speaking world. The name Rama was adopted from the name of theHindu GodRama, anavatar ofVishnu.
The use of the name "King Ramanth" is in line with Thai practice of giving numbers to the king in the current dynasty. However, the translation was not exact and can give rise to some confusion as to whether this was actually the name adopted by the king on hiscoronation.
While "Rama" was used as a title for all the kings, it was not always taken on as the name. In the present dynasty, the first king to call himself Rama wasPhra Mongkutklao or King Vajiravudh, who was the sixth to reign. His reigning title wasPhra Mongkutklao Chaoyuhua (พระมงกุฎเกล้าเจ้าอยู่หัว); later in his reign, he preferred to style himself asPhra Ram thi Hok (พระรามที่หก,lit. 'Rama VI'). It was presumed that he was influenced by the European practice of numbering the rulers with similar names while he studied in England.
Quite conveniently, it coincided with another practice of theThai people. Traditionally, the name of the king is sacred and would not normally be said. Instead, people would refer to the king by other words, currentlyNai Luang (ในหลวง) orPhra Chao Yu Hua (พระเจ้าอยู่หัว). When KingPhutthayotfa Chulalok founded the dynasty, he was commonly referred to asPhan Din Ton (แผ่นดินต้น,lit. 'the First Reign'); and when his son KingPhutthaloetla Naphalai inherited the throne, he was referred to asPhan Din Klang (แผ่นดินกลาง,lit. 'the Middle Reign'). That then became awkward when Prince Chetsadabodin (KingNangklao) became the third king, as the obvious referral would then bePhan Din Plai (แผ่นดินปลาย,lit. 'the Last Reign'), which did not sound very auspicious.
He decided to give the names "Phutthayotfa Chulalok" and "Phutthaloetla Naphalai", after the names of twoBuddha statues, to his two predecessors. He was then posthumously given the name "Nangklao" by his successor, KingMongkut, who also tried to establish more systematic royal nomenclature. Later historians would refer to King Nangklao's reign asRatchakan thi Sam (รัชกาลที่ 3,lit. 'the third reign'). That was becoming more common, probably because of Western influences on Thailand during the reigns of Mongkut and his son,Chulalongkorn. Since then, all the reigns of kings in the dynasty are also known unofficially asRatchakan thi n ('thenth Reign'); hence, the present King's reign is also known asRatchakan thi sip ('the tenth reign') and extrapolated back to all the earlier kings of the dynasty.
Since King Vajiravudh called himself Rama VI in English, the name was seemingly equivalent to ThaiRatchakan thi hok. This rough translation is still in use today, but no other king in the dynasty before him used the name "Rama" as such.
However, there have been several kings in theAyutthaya andThonburi periods who are best known by the titleRamathibodi ("OverlordRama").Ayutthaya itself was borrowed from the name of Rama's capital in theRamayana epic,Ayodhya. Still, most of the names of the earlier kings as given by historians are titles rather than real names. It was not customary to refer to a king by his name during his lifetime, and in many cases, the personal names of the kings are not known. Even the titles are often doubtful. Each king had his full style and title inscribed on a golden plate, which, however, were all lost when the Ayutthaya Kingdom was destroyed in thesack of the city by the Burmese in 1767.[1]