The Office of the Royal Society (ORST) is taking flak from netizens over confusion about what Thailand's capital should be called between Bangkok and the official Krung Thep Maha Nakhon.
However, Krung Thep Maha Nakhon has been the capital's official name since 2001.
The cabinet on Tuesday approved a Prime Minister's Office draft announcement of the name change, as proposed by the ORST.
The new official name, Krung Thep Maha Nakhon, will not come into effect until it is vetted by a committee.
In the ORST's announcement, Krung Thep Maha Nakhon will become the official name of the Kingdom of Thailand's capital. However, the name Bangkok will be put in parentheses.
The ORST also updated the official spelling for other countries, including Rome and Roma for Italy's capital, the change of Myanmar's capital from Yangon to Nay Pyi Taw and the change of the Kingdom of Nepal to the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal.
However, a government spokeswoman said nothing had been changed in the capital's name but for punctuation marks. "Krung Thep Maha Nakhon; Bangkok" with a semicolon between them which has been used since 2001, will now be changed to "Krung Thep Maha Nakhon (Bangkok)", she said.
The Thai name Krung Thep Maha Nakhon would be used only as its official name. The name Bangkok would still be recognised in parentheses, she said.
On its Facebook page, the Office of the Royal Society also posted a message that both names could be used, Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and Bangkok, after its announcement on the name change drew public criticism.
Bangkok governor Aswin Kwanmuang on Wednesday said that actually the official name of the capital -- Krung Thep Maha Nakhon -- remains unchanged in the latest update by the ORST because it has been in use since 2001. However, most foreigners refer to the capital as Bangkok, he said.
