Thailand to Revert to Siam?

"Istanbul was Constantinople
Now it's Istanbul, not Constantinople
Been a long time gone, Constantinople
Now it's Turkish delight on a moonlit night..."

Those are lyrics to an old tune reminding people that place names change. Like so much else in present times, cities and countries have shed part of their pasts -- colonial and otherwise -- and taken on new names or returned to old ones, or now have several names instead of one during un-unification. Rewind only as far back the changes since what schoolchildren learned mid-20th century geography classes, and it's clear why even veteran travelers have problems keep things straight. Some relatively recent and current names in the world atlas are:

• Belgian Congo - Zaïre - Democratic Republic of Congo
• Burma - Myanmar
• Bombay - Mombai
• British Honduras - Belize
• Calcutta - Kolkata
• Ceylon - Sri Lanka
• Chung-King - Chongqing
• Czechoslovakia - split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia
• Federal Republic of Germany (West or BRD by its German initials) and German Democratic Republic (East or DDR in German) - Germany
• French Congo - Central African Republic
• Palestine - Israel and Jordan
• Persia - Iran
• Peking - Beijing
• Southern Rhodesia - Zimbabwe
• Thailand - Siam
• Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (Soviet Union) - Russia (the Socialist Republics being Russia, Ukraine, Byelorussia, Uzbekistan, Kahzakhstan, Azerbaijan, Lithuania, Moldavia, Latvia, Kyrgyzistan, Armenia, Turkmenistan and Estonia, which are now independent countries)
• Yugoslavia - assembled from half-a-dozen countries in 1946 and half a century later split into Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia

Wait a minute! Why is Thailand on that list. Is it reverting to Siam? As in "Anna and the King of...."? It hasn't happened yet, but it could. According to an article posted on eTN/eTurbo News, during a recent conference on tourism and globalization, "Dr. Charnvit Kasetsiri, a respected historian from Thammasat University in Bangkok, introduced the debate on changing the name of the country from Thailand back to 'Siam' by showing a newly released video and presenting the possibility of a name change in one of the next constitutions to come. "

The change from the historic name of Siam (also sometimes spelled, Sayam) to Thailand occurred in 1939. We could see a reversion in our lifetimes.