The Daily Dumpling

Why Kaylaya?

All of my (JB) Thai family names start with the letter “K”, also Andrew’s mothers middle name is “Kaye”. We wanted her name to start with “Kay” with a beautiful meaning behind it, from both sides in English and Thai language.

The Meaning:

Kaylaya actually has multiple meanings and origins

Hebrew + Arabic : kayla + aliyah : kayla means “who is like god” in Hebrew and Aliyah in Arabic means “high” or “exalted”

Thai : เกลรญา โมน่า หว่อง, to be honest, Thai culture names are actually from Sanskirt, were it is considered a sacred language to auspicious meanings and connection to religious concepts. เกลรญา (pronounce as gail-la-ya in Thai accent) which is Hebrew + Sanskrit means the river/flows of joyful.

What about her middle name?

First, we thought about her name that could relate to the moon. My mother and grandmother are named related to the moon. Andrew’s grandmother’s full name is Monica but people always called her “Mona”, which is means moon in old English. This was a perfect middle name for her! We decided on Mona as her middle name, to honor our grandmother from both side of the world.

When people ask what her name means, and which language, it’s a bit difficult to explain because it has multiple origins, drawing from various cultural, and linguistic backgrounds. It is the name that came from Love from our parents and family lines.

JB, Kay’s mama.