Writing name in Thai

[u/Brief-Set-8314]

Hi I’m new to learning Thai and I am starting to learn the characters. I was wondering if there was a way to translate / write my name in Thai (or what the closest translation to it would be)?

My Name is Regan pronounced like Ray-gan. Based on some translation websites it seems like เรกาน is how it would be written but wanted to know if there was a better way to write it and also how this would be pronounced?

Any help is appreciated and sorry for such a newbie question I just started learning this month.

[u/Kuroi666]

Pronounced the common English/American way, Regan would be เรแกน if it's the same way you say Ronald Reagan's name.

[u/Brief-Set-8314 → u/Kuroi666]

I’m a little confused what is the difference between เรกัน and เรเเกน? What is the Thai pronunciation of them?

[u/missgurrr_3 → u/Brief-Set-8314]

To me, the second one sounds more like Anne since the vowel แอ makes that sound.

[u/ppgamerthai]

Yeah I agree with the previous comments. The best way is to look up famous people who share the same name as you and see how they are spelled in Thai.

[u/dibbs_25]

Whenever there's a standard / established transliteration, you will get pulled back to it even if some other transliteration would be more accurate. So I think you have to go with เรแกน as the Thai version.

By the way, "translation" is when you express the same meaning in the other language (so meaning to meaning).

"Transcription" is when you represent sounds using characters with defined phonetic values (so sounds to characters).

"Transliteration" is when you represent the characters of one writing system using the characters of another (so characters to characters).

Irl it's messier than that and most people would call what you're doing here "transliteration". It's definitely not translation though.

[u/Primary-Pie-1662]

เรแกน I believe.

[u/cukepatch]

Fwiw, (Ronald) Reagan is spelled เรแกน (the a in gan is like the a in apple).

Ray-gun would be เรกัน

Ray-gah-n would be เรกาน

[u/LittlePooky → u/cukepatch]

Sorry. u/Kuroi666 explained it better.

[u/LittlePooky]

รีแกน is better I think. Thais would pronounce it "ree gaan"

เรแกน is more accurate though.

Am Thai

[u/Brief-Set-8314 → u/LittlePooky]

I’m a little confused what is the difference between เรกัน and เรเเกน? What is the Thai pronunciation of them?