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Months in Thai: มกราคม to ธันวาคม, zodiac signs and Buddhist Era
The months in Thai are named after the twelve signs of the zodiac, from มกราคม (makarakhom), January, to ธันวาคม (thanwakhom), December. The last syllables tell the length: a name ending in -khom has 31 days, one ending in -yon has 30, and February alone ends in -phan.
The months in Thai, January to December
Romanisation is RTGS, the Royal Thai General System of Transcription, written without the syllable hyphens dictionaries use. RTGS ignores tone, so the IPA column, in Wiktionary's notation with tone letters, shows how each name sounds. The abbreviation is what calendars, forms and phones print.
| English | Thai | IPA | Romanisation | Abbr. | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1January | มกราคม | /ma˦˥.ka˨˩.raː˧.kʰom˧/ | makarakhom; mokkarakhom | ม.ค. | Makara, sea monster (Capricorn); 31 days |
| 2February | กุมภาพันธ์ | /kum˧.pʰaː˧.pʰan˧/ | kumphaphan | ก.พ. | Kumbha, pitcher (Aquarius); 28 or 29 days |
| 3March | มีนาคม | /miː˧.naː˧.kʰom˧/ | minakhom | มี.ค. | Mīna, fish (Pisces); 31 days |
| 4April | เมษายน | /meː˧.saː˩˩˦.jon˧/ | mesayon | เม.ย. | Meṣa, ram (Aries); 30 days |
| 5May | พฤษภาคม | /pʰrɯt̚˦˥.sa˨˩.pʰaː˧.kʰom˧/ | phruetsaphakhom | พ.ค. | Vṛṣabha, bull (Taurus); 31 days |
| 6June | มิถุนายน | /mi˦˥.tʰu˨˩.naː˧.jon˧/ | mithunayon | มิ.ย. | Mithuna, a pair (Gemini); 30 days |
| 7July | กรกฎาคม | /ka˨˩.ra˦˥.ka˨˩.daː˧.kʰom˧/ | karakadakhom | ก.ค. | Karkaṭa, crab (Cancer); 31 days |
| 8August | สิงหาคม | /siŋ˩˩˦.haː˩˩˦.kʰom˧/ | singhakhom | ส.ค. | Siṃha, lion (Leo); 31 days |
| 9September | กันยายน | /kan˧.jaː˧.jon˧/ | kanyayon | ก.ย. | Kanyā, girl (Virgo); 30 days |
| 10October | ตุลาคม | /tu˨˩.laː˧.kʰom˧/ | tulakhom | ต.ค. | Tulā, balance (Libra); 31 days |
| 11November | พฤศจิกายน | /pʰrɯt̚˦˥.sa˨˩.t͡ɕi˨˩.kaː˧.jon˧/ | phruetsachikayon | พ.ย. | Vṛścika, scorpion (Scorpio); 30 days |
| 12December | ธันวาคม | /tʰan˧.waː˧.kʰom˧/ | thanwakhom | ธ.ค. | Dhanu, bow (Sagittarius); 31 days |
RTGS and IPA: Wiktionary entry for each month (Royal Institute romanisation, standard Thai). Abbreviations: Unicode CLDR, Thai locale. Sanskrit sources and zodiac signs: Wikipedia, Thai solar calendar. The cross-language table on the months page gives a letter-by-letter transliteration of the same Thai spellings.
Twelve signs of the zodiac: how the months in Thai got their names
Most European languages took their month names from Rome; the months in Thai come from the sky instead. Each month carries the Sanskrit name of the zodiac sign the sun enters during it: January is Makara, the sea monster that stands for Capricorn, February Kumbha, the water pitcher of Aquarius, and so on round the circle to Dhanu, the bow of Sagittarius, in December. The Wikipedia article on the Thai solar calendar lists each sign with its Sanskrit meaning.
The names were not inherited from the old lunar calendar. They belong to the solar calendar that King Chulalongkorn (Rama V) adopted in 1888, which fixed the Gregorian month lengths in Thai dress. The older lunar calendar, which the same article says is still used for traditional and religious events, counts its months with เดือน, a word that Wiktionary records with both meanings, moon and month.
Each zodiac name is joined to an ending that sounds like part of the name but is a separate word. -คม (-akhom) is Sanskrit āgama and -ายน (-ayon) Sanskrit āyana, and the Thai solar calendar article glosses both as the arrival of, so มกราคม is, in effect, the arrival of Makara. February's -พันธ์ goes back to Sanskrit bandha, bound. Because the endings sit on the stem without a break, Thai speakers hear one word, and RTGS writes it as one.
The -khom, -yon rule: month length in the name
The endings carry a practical bonus. Every month whose name ends in -คม (-khom) has 31 days: มกราคม, มีนาคม, พฤษภาคม, กรกฎาคม, สิงหาคม, ตุลาคม and ธันวาคม. Every month ending in -ายน (-ayon) has 30: เมษายน, มิถุนายน, กันยายน and พฤศจิกายน. The Thai solar calendar article states the rule this way, and a learner can check any date against it without counting on knuckles.
February is the odd one out in Thai as in every Gregorian language. Its name ends in -พันธ์ (-phan), and it has 28 days, or 29 in a leap year. Wikipedia gives the Thai name of the leap day as Athikasurathin.
The rule also explains a frequent spelling slip. Learners who know only the sound sometimes write -คม on a 30-day month by analogy. The table above settles it: four months, the four that English remembers with thirty days hath September, take -ายน.
Dates in Thai: day, month and the Buddhist Era year
A Thai date runs from small to large: day, month, year. The year is normally counted in the Buddhist Era, พุทธศักราช, abbreviated พ.ศ. According to the Thai solar calendar article, a Buddhist Era year is 543 ahead of the Gregorian one, so 2026 is พ.ศ. 2569 and subtracting 543 converts back.
The Unicode CLDR data for the Thai locale, which phones and computers use, sets the Buddhist calendar's long date pattern as day, month name, year: 28 ตุลาคม 2569 for 28 October 2026. The medium pattern swaps in the abbreviation, 28 ต.ค. 2569, and the short one uses figures, 28/10/69, with the Buddhist Era year cut to two digits. The full pattern puts the weekday and the era name in front of the year, and the days of the week in Thai page shows it built out.
New Year's Day has moved twice. The Thai solar calendar article records that Rama VI shifted the start of the year to 1 April in 2455 BE (1912), and that a decree of 1940 under Plaek Phibunsongkhram made 1 January 1941 the first day of 2484 BE. For dates from 1 January to 31 March before that change, the difference to the Gregorian year is 542, not 543, a detail that matters when converting old documents.
Saying the months in Thai in everyday speech
Five or six syllables are a lot for a word used every day, and speakers clip them. Wiktionary records มกรา as a short form of มกราคม, and the same clipping works across the year: the zodiac part is said and the ending dropped. In writing, the abbreviations with full stops do the same job, ม.ค. to ธ.ค., built from the first letters of each syllable group.
January has two accepted readings. RTGS gives makarakhom and mokkarakhom, and Wiktionary lists both pronunciations; July, too, has a rarer form, karakkadakhom. The dictionary spelling is fixed, only the reading varies.
To ask which month, Thai uses เดือน with the question word อะไร, what, and answers with เดือน plus the name, as the first two example sentences below show. A birth month follows the same frame: เกิด, to be born, then เดือน and the month. Learners who know the months in Thai only from calendars should practise them in this spoken frame.
| Thai | Romanisation | English |
|---|---|---|
| เดือนนี้เดือนอะไร | duean ni duean arai | Which month is it? |
| เดือนนี้เดือนตุลาคม | duean ni duean tulakhom | This month is October. |
| วันนี้วันที่ 28 ตุลาคม 2569 | wan ni wan thi 28 tulakhom 2569 | Today is 28 October 2026. |
| ฉันเกิดเดือนเมษายน | chan koet duean mesayon | I was born in April. |
The year 2569 is the Buddhist Era form of 2026.
Questions about the months in Thai
What are the 12 months in Thai?
มกราคม, กุมภาพันธ์, มีนาคม, เมษายน, พฤษภาคม, มิถุนายน, กรกฎาคม, สิงหาคม, กันยายน, ตุลาคม, พฤศจิกายน and ธันวาคม, January to December. In RTGS: makarakhom, kumphaphan, minakhom, mesayon, phruetsaphakhom, mithunayon, karakadakhom, singhakhom, kanyayon, tulakhom, phruetsachikayon, thanwakhom.
Why do Thai month names end in -khom or -yon?
The ending marks the length. Months ending in -คม have 31 days, months ending in -ายน have 30, and February ends in -พันธ์ with 28 or 29.
What year is it in Thailand?
Thailand counts years in the Buddhist Era, 543 years ahead of the Gregorian calendar. 2026 is พ.ศ. 2569.
How are the months in Thai abbreviated?
With letters and full stops: ม.ค., ก.พ., มี.ค., เม.ย., พ.ค., มิ.ย., ก.ค., ส.ค., ก.ย., ต.ค., พ.ย., ธ.ค., as given in the Unicode CLDR data for Thai.
When did Thailand start the year on 1 January?
From 1941. A decree of 1940 moved New Year's Day from 1 April to 1 January, starting with 2484 BE.