The full name of Bangkok
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@kattoksthai Replying to @Mamba Did you know that Bangkok has the longest city name in the world? I dare you to say it too! #bangkok #thailand #thai
♬ original sound – Kat Talks Thai
Bangkok's full, ceremonial name is the world's longest place name, consisting of 168 letters derived from Pali and Sanskrit, acting more as a descriptive poem than a functional title. It translates to: "
The city of angels, great city of immortals, magnificent city of the nine gems, the seat of the king, city of royal palaces, home of gods incarnate, erected by Vishvakarman at Indra's behest".
The Full Name (Thai Script):
กรุงเทพมหานคร อมรรัตนโกสินทร์ มหินทรายุธยา มหาดิลกภพ นพรัตนราชธานีบูรีรมย์ อุดมราชนิเวศน์มหาสถาน อมรพิมานอวตารสถิต สักกะทัตติยวิษณุกรรมประสิทธิ์
Romanized Translation Breakdown:
Krung Thep Mahanakhon: City of Angels, Great City.
Amon Rattanakosin: Eternal land of the Emerald Buddha (gem).
Mahinthara Ayuthaya: The impregnable city of God Indra.
Mahadilok Phop: Grand capital of the world.
Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom: Endowed with nine precious gems, the happy city.
Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan: Abounding in enormous royal palaces.
Amon Piman Awatan Sathit: Resembling the heavenly abode wherein dwell the reincarnated gods.
Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit: Given by Indra and built by Vishvakarman.
[Note the spacing]
Key Facts
Context: The name was given by King Rama I when the capital was established in 1782.
Usage: In daily life, Thais refer to the city as Krung Thep (meaning "City of Angels").
Official Status: It is recognized by Guinness World Records as the longest place name
(AIO)
In the following video, a strong and realistic counterclaim is put forward for Thiruvananthapuram, capital of the state of Kerala in southern India, as the city with the world's longest name.
@wordsatwork What’s the city with the longest name in the world? Let’s learn more about geography and language! #learnontiktok #education #didyouknow #kerala #language
♬ original sound – Griffin
But how can we forget The 58-letter Welsh town name
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch. Located on the island of Anglesey, it is the longest place name in Europe and second-longest in the world. It means "St. Mary's Church in the hollow of the white hazel near to the rapid whirlpool of Llantysilio of the red cave".
and, for good measure:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/4cvbxH3RYxI
Selected reading
- "Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch" (2/15/25)
- "Long words" (6/25/18)
- "'Written Cantonese must have word segmentation'" (2/23/26)
AlexB said,
February 24, 2026 @ 9:07 am
Llanfair is of course made famous by Barbarella https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5GMB-IYQ8Q
Endymion Wilkinson said,
February 24, 2026 @ 10:53 am
And the "Bang" in "Bangkok" is derived from the Dai 傣 word for town, muang or bang (written in Chinese as meng 猛[猛, 蒙, 孟, 芒), as in the names of the southern Yunnan towns, Menghai 猛海, Mengla 猛臘, or Menglong 猛龍.
The "kok" in Bangkok is said to be either from "Bang makok" (the town of water olive trees) or from "kok" (island) thus Bangkok means the Town of islands (formed by criss-crossing canals).
John Rohsenow said,
February 24, 2026 @ 11:19 am
The original, full Spanish name of the city of Los Angeles is El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles de Porciúncula. Founded in 1781, this name translates to "The Town of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels of Porciúncula". It was later shortened to El Pueblo de Los Ángeles and eventually to Los Angeles.
Joe Abley said,
February 24, 2026 @ 11:36 am
Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu is longer than Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, so while the latter may well be the longest place name in Europe, assuming a certain latitude with the constitution of the region, I don't see how it can be the second longest in the world if Bangkok's full ceremonial name is longer than both.
Victor Mair said,
February 24, 2026 @ 11:39 am
"Porciuncula" is the Spanish translation of the Italian "Porziuncola," which does mean "little portion."
However, The Porziuncola is a tiny chapel located inside the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli (Saint Mary or Holy Mary of the Angels) in Italy (and predating the Basilica by hundreds of years), where tradition says that the Franciscan Order was founded. As the Franciscans built the California mission system, it's almost certain that the original name for the Los Angeles River (El Río de Nuestra Señora La Reina de Los Ángeles de Porciúncula), and later the puebla, were named after the Franciscan chapel, and not simply a small piece of land.
updated Jun 2, 2012
posted by WalfordS
on SpanishDictionary.com
https://www.spanishdict.com/answers/128805/in-the-title-el-pueblo-de-nuestra-senora-la-reina-de-los-angeles-de-porciuncula-what-does-porciuncula-mean
ajay said,
February 24, 2026 @ 11:40 am
Bo in Sierra Leone, meanwhile, seems to be the shortest city name – there are no capital cities shorter than four letters (Apia, Roma, Kyiv, Baku, Nuuk, Oslo).
Endymion Wilkinson said,
February 24, 2026 @ 12:15 pm
Apologies. Please ignore my previous comment on Bangkok. Bangkok was the common name for the small settlement that later grew into the Thai capital under the Chakri dynasty and was eventually called Khrung Thep etc.
The "Bang" in "Bangkok" is derived from the the Thai word for river community. "Kok" is said to be from makok (translated as plum or wild olive).
KMH said,
February 24, 2026 @ 12:56 pm
The long official name of Bangkok makes more sense in the context of the history of shifting empires in mainland Southeast Asia (discussion of Thai language changes here: https://thaiarc.tu.ac.th/thai/thai.htm).
Sukhothai (สุโขทัย, considered the first "Thai" kingdom) was founded in the mid-13th century; Buddhism and the Thai script were introduced in this period. Power shifted to Ayutthaya (อยุธยา, the name taken from Sanskrit and the Ramayana) in the mid-14th century; during this period (1350–1767) many Sanskrit and Pali words were borrowed, and Khmer loanwords entered the language in particular after Angkor (the Indianized Cambodian capital) was conquered by the Thais in 1431.
Ayutthaya was sacked by the Burmese in 1764; the Thai leader Taksin recaptured the city of Thonburi (ธนบุรี), was crowned king in December 1767, and attempted to establish a new kingdom there. King Rama I (a name invented retroactively in the early 1900s) was chosen as the new ruler on 6 April 1782; two weeks later he officially moved the capital across the river to Bang (บาง= "district along the waterway") Kok (กอก =olive/fig; มะกอก = olive/plum) → "Wild Plum Tree Village". The new capital and palace were built in the image of Ayutthaya, using bricks from Ayutthaya, and renamed "City of Angels, etc." self-consciously to borrow the (Indianized) glory of the past.
Stephen J said,
February 24, 2026 @ 1:14 pm
"Place name" is a broader category than city name, but how could you forget? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taumatawhakatangi%C2%ADhangakoauauotamatea%C2%ADturipukakapikimaunga%C2%ADhoronukupokaiwhen%C2%ADuakitanatahu
J.W. Brewer said,
February 24, 2026 @ 2:46 pm
I'm not sure why the shortness of a capital city's name should be measured via characters in a romanized spelling when that is not the official script used in the capital in question. South Korea, for example, has a two-glyph capital city: 서울. Also 東京 for Japan and various other examples in that part of the world.
For a three-letter capital city in Latin script (plus diacriticals), there's Vietnam's onetime capital Huế, which unfortunately got downgraded in status due to the Cold War and other such developments.
For a long capital-city name in the U.S., consider the possibilities of Santa Fe, New Mexico, whose common name is clipped from the fuller eleven-syllable "Santa Fe de San Francisco de Asís." (It wasn't originally named for some vaguely-generic Holy Faith, but for the specific Holy Faith of St. Francis of Assisi.)
Y said,
February 24, 2026 @ 3:44 pm
Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, is 19 letters (excluding spaces) to Thiruvananthapuram's 18. Its population is only 6,000, but it is the seat of Sierra County and its most populous settlement, and is officially considered a city.
J.W. Brewer said,
February 24, 2026 @ 5:49 pm
This list includes both Thiruvananthapuram and Truth or Consequences, but perhaps more sensibly is focused on syllable count than character count, in which Th. beats T.-or-C. by a score of seven to six. Two eight-syllable municipalities are listed (one in California, the other in Quebec) but neither is what you'd call a major metropolis. https://panethos.wordpress.com/2015/08/30/city-names-with-the-most-syllables-in-english/
Y said,
February 24, 2026 @ 8:36 pm
If we get into the gray area of large towns arguably cities, Central America provides plenty, like Parangaricutiro in Michoacán (7 syllables, pop. 17,000), aka Nuevo San Juan Parangaricutiro. Then there are the 11-syllable Benemérito de las Américas, in Chiapas (pop. 10,000), in addition to compound names like Ocozocoautla de Espinosa (Chiapas; 11 syllables, pop. 100,000) or Villa de Tututepec de Melchor Ocampo (Oaxaca; 13 syllables, pop. 40,000), which are rarely pronounced in full.
martin schwartz said,
February 24, 2026 @ 11:40 pm
The "nine gems" of Bangkok, noppharat, would ultimately
go back to Skt. navaratna-. This seems to refer to a canon of
jewels representing 9 celestial bodies (the old 7 planets plus
Rahu and Ketu, further 9 Sages, and the theoretical 9 ingredients
in a rice dish featured in US Indian restaurants; I've wondered but dunno what these are supposed to be.
Martin Schwartz
Martin Schwartz said,
February 24, 2026 @ 11:46 pm
p.s. navratan pulao recipes…
marftin schwartz
Philip Taylor said,
February 25, 2026 @ 5:02 am
Having never eaten in an American Indian restaurant and assuming that the latter is to be parsed as "American Indian-restaurant" rather than "American-Indian restaurant"), I can only hazard a guess, but I would imagine that they include : rice, water, ghee, garlic, star anise, cassia bark, tej patta, cardomom and kala jeera, If the first three are not to be included in the count, then I would add coriander seed, cloves and ginger.
Andreas Johansson said,
February 25, 2026 @ 9:51 am
Wikipedia has, of course, a list of short placenames:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_short_place_names
The shortest that belong to places they call "cities" are two letters, but there quite a few smaller settlements with single-letter ones, including over a dozen Scandinavian villages called Å (meaning "small river").
languagehat said,
February 25, 2026 @ 10:01 am
(Andreas Johansson beat me to it.)