Traditional Vietnamese personal names generally consist of three parts, used in

Eastern name order A personal name, or full name, in onomastic terminology also known as prosoponym (from Ancient Greek πρόσωπον / ''prósōpon'' - person, and ὄνομα / ''onoma'' - name), is the set of names by which an individual person is know ...

. * A

family name In some cultures, a surname, family name, or last name is the portion of one's personal name that indicates one's family, tribe or community. Practices vary by culture. The family name may be placed at either the start of a person's full name, ...

(normally

patrilineal Patrilineality, also known as the male line, the spear side or agnatic kinship, is a common kinship system in which an individual's family membership derives from and is recorded through their father's lineage. It generally involves the inheritan ...

, The father’s family name may be combined with the mother's family name to form a compound family name). * A

middle name In various cultures, a middle name is a portion of a personal name that is written between the person's first given name and their surname. A middle name is often abbreviated and is then called middle initial or just initial. A person may be ...

(normally a single name but some have no middle name). * A

given name A given name (also known as a forename or first name) is the part of a personal name quoted in that identifies a person, potentially with a middle name as well, and differentiates that person from the other members of a group (typically a ...

(normally single name but some have multiple given names). But not every name is conformant. For example: * ''

Nguyễn Trãi Nguyễn Trãi (阮廌), pen name Ức Trai (抑齋); (1380–1442) was an illustrious Vietnamese Confucian scholar, a noted poet, a skilled politician and a master strategist. He was at times attributed with being capable of almost miraculous or ...

'' has his family name '' Nguyễn'' and his given name is ''Trãi''. He does not have any middle name. * ''

Phạm Bình Minh Phạm Bình Minh (born 26 March 1959) is a Vietnamese politician who is currently a Deputy Prime Minister since 2013. He was the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam from 2011 to 2021. Phạm is also a member of ...

'' has his family name '' Phạm'' and his given name is ''Bình Minh'' (). He does not have any middle name. *'' Nguyễn Văn Quyết'' has his family name ''Nguyễn'', his middle name is ''Văn'' () and his given name is ''Quyết'' (). * '' Nguyễn Ngọc Trường Sơn'' has his family name ''Nguyễn'', his middle name is ''Ngọc'' () and his given name is ''Trường Sơn'' (). * ''Hoàng Phủ Ngọc Tường'' (a Vietnamese poet) has his family name ''Hoàng Phủ'' (natural compound family name), his middle name is ''Ngọc'' and his given name is ''Tường'' (). Sometimes his family name is confused with ''

Hoàng Huang (; ) is a Chinese surname that originally means and refers to jade people were wearing and decorating in ancient times. While ''Huáng'' is the pinyin romanization of the word, it may also be romanized as Hwang (Korean surname), Hwang, Wong ...

''. * ''

Trần Lê Quốc Toàn Trần Lê Quốc Toàn (born 5 April 1989) is a male Vietnamese Olympic weightlifting, weightlifter who competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics in the -56 kg class. He initially finished 4th, however was awarded the bronze medal in 2019, after ...

'' has his compound family name combined from ''

Trần Trần (陳) or Tran is a common Vietnamese surname. More than 10% of all Vietnamese people share this surname. It is derived from the common Chinese surname Chen. History The Tran ruled the Trần dynasty, a golden era in Vietnam, and succe ...

'' (from his father) and ''Lê'' (from his mother), his middle name is ''Quốc'' () and his given name is ''Toàn'' (). The "family name first" written order follows the system of

Chinese name Chinese names or Chinese personal names are names used by individuals from Greater China and other parts of the Chinese-speaking world throughout East and Southeast Asia (ESEA). In addition, many names used in Japan, Korea and Vietnam are ofte ...

s and is common throughout the

East Asian cultural sphere The East Asian cultural sphere, also known as the Sinosphere, the Sinic world, the Sinitic world, the Chinese cultural sphere, the Chinese character sphere encompasses multiple countries in East Asia and Southeast Asia that were historically ...

. However, it is different from Chinese,

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula * Korean cuisine * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl **Korean dialects and the Jeju language ** ...

, and

Japanese name in modern times consist of a family name (surname) followed by a given name, in that order. Nevertheless, when a Japanese name is written in the Roman alphabet, ever since the Meiji era, the official policy has been to cater to Western expec ...

s in the usage of a "middle name," which is less common in China and Korea and uncommon in Japan. Persons can be referred to by the whole name, the given name, or a hierarchic pronoun, which usually connotes a degree of family relationship or kinship – but referring via given name is most common, as well as if degree of family relationship or kinship is unknown. In more informal contexts given name can be written first then family name e.g. ''Châu Bùi'' or ''Thanh Trần''. The

Vietnamese language Vietnamese ( vi, tiếng Việt, links=no) is an Austroasiatic language originating from Vietnam where it is the national and official language. Vietnamese is spoken natively by over 70 million people, several times as many as the rest of the ...

is tonal and so are Vietnamese names. Names with the same spelling but different tones represent different meanings, which can confuse people when the accent marks are dropped, as is commonly done outside Vietnam (e.g. ''Đoàn'' () vs ''Doãn'' (), both are dropped marks as ''Doan''). Additionally, some Vietnamese names can only be differentiated via context or with their corresponding Chinese character, such as Vũ (武) and Vũ (巫). Anyone applying for Vietnamese nationality must also adopt a Vietnamese name. Vietnamese is also a script that is fully transliterated (romanized), as ''Hán-Nôm'' was replaced by ''Chữ Quốc Ngữ'', which was made compulsory during the colonial era for Vietnamese.

Family name

The family name is positioned first and is passed on by the father to his children. It is estimated that there are around 100 family names in common use, but some are far more common than others. The name '' Nguyễn'' is estimated to be the most common (40%) in 2005. The top three names are so common, because people tended to take the family names of emperors to show loyalty to particular dynasties in history. Over many generations, these family names became permanent. The most common family names among the Vietnamese are the following with their commonly used ''Chữ Quốc Ngữ'' spelling, and their corresponding '' Hán-Nôm'' (Han-Nom Characters) which have become obsolete. The following figures are from ''100 họ phổ biến ở Việt Nam'' (100 most popular Vietnamese surnames/family names) from ''Nhà xuất bản Khoa học Xã hội'' (Social Science Publishing House). Các họ VN

In 2005, these 14 names had accounted for around 90% of the Viet population. The following list includes less-common surnames in alphabetical order which make up the other 10% (2005), now 16.3% (2022):

Other

* Ái: 愛 * An: 安 * Ân: 殷 *

Bạch Bạch is a Vietnamese language surname, which means "white".''Behind the Name''"Surname Bạch" Retrieved on 26 January 2016. The name is transliterated as Bai in Chinese, and as Baek (also often spelled Baik, Paek or Paik) in Korean. Bach ...

: 白 * Bành: 彭 * Bao: 包 * Biên: 邊 * Biện: 卞 * Cam: 甘 * Cảnh: 耿 * Cảnh: 景 * Cao: 高 * Cái: 蓋 * Cát: 葛 * Chân: 甄 *

Châu Chu ( or Châu () is a Vietnamese surname. It is transliterated as Zhou (for ''Chu'') and Zhu (for ''Châu'') in Chinese, and Ju in Korean. Chau is the anglicized variation of Châu. Notable people with the surname Chu/Châu * Chu Văn An ...

: 周 * Chiêm: 詹 * Chu: 朱 * Chung: 鍾 * Chử: 褚 * Cổ: 古 * Cù: 瞿 * Cung: 宮 * Cung: 龔 * Củng: 鞏 * Cừu: 裘 * Dịch: 易 * Diệp: 葉 * Doãn: 尹 * Dũ: 俞 * Dung: 容 * Dư: 余 * Dữu: 庾 * Đái: 戴 * Đàm: 譚 * Đào: 陶 * Đậu: 竇 * Điền: 田 * Đinh: 丁 * Đoàn: 段 * Đồ: 涂 * Đồng: 童 * Đổng: 董 * Đường: 唐 * Giả: 賈 * Giải: 解 * Gia Cát :諸葛 * Giản: 簡 * Giang: 江 * Giáp: 郟 * Hà: 何 * Hạ: 賀 * Hậ: 夏 * Hác: 郝 * Hàn: 韓 * Hầu: 侯 * Hình: 邢 *

Hoa The Hoa people ( Vietnamese: ''Người Hoa'', or ) are citizens of Vietnam of full or partial Chinese origin. Chinese migration into Vietnam dates back millennia but most Hoa today derive their recent ancestral Chinese heritage from the 18t ...

: 花 * Hoắc: 霍 * Hoạn: 宦 * Hồng: 洪 * Hứa: 許 * Hướng: 向 * Hy: 郗 * Kha: 柯 * Khâu: 邱 * Khổng: 孔 * Khuất: 屈 * Kiều: 喬 *

Kim Kim or KIM may refer to: Names * Kim (given name) * Kim (surname) ** Kim (Korean surname) *** Kim family (disambiguation), several dynasties **** Kim family (North Korea), the rulers of North Korea since Kim Il-sung in 1948 ** Kim, Vietnamese f ...

: 金 * Kỳ: 祁 * Kỷ: 紀 * La: 羅 * Lạc: 駱 * Lại: 賴 * Lam: 藍 * Lăng: 凌 * Lãnh: 冷 *

Lâm Lâm is a Vietnamese surname. The name is transliterated as Lin in Chinese and Im in Korean. Lam is the anglicized variation of the surname Lâm. Lam is also a commonly held surname of Cantonese speakers of Chinese descent. Large populations in ...

: 林 * Lận: 藺 * Lệ: 酈 * Liên: 連 * Liêu: 廖 * Liễu (in northern or central regions): 柳 *

Long Long may refer to: Measurement * Long, characteristic of something of great duration * Long, characteristic of something of great length * Longitude (abbreviation: long.), a geographic coordinate * Longa (music), note value in early music mensu ...

: 龍 * Lôi: 雷 * Lục: 陸 * Lư: 盧 * Lữ: 呂 * Lương: 梁 *

Lưu {{Unreferenced, date=December 2009 Lưu or Luu without diacritics is a Vietnamese surname. It is also the Vietnamese and Khmer transliteration of the Chinese surname Liu ( 劉). During the Three Kingdoms 三國 era (3rd century AD), a number of ...

(in central or southern regions): 劉 * Mã: 馬 * Mạc: 莫 * Mạch: 麥 * Mai: 梅 * Mạnh: 孟 *

Mao Mao Zedong pronounced ; also romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the founder of the People's Republic of China (PRC ...

: 毛 * Mẫn: 閔 * Miêu: 苗 *

Minh {{Orphan, date=December 2021 Minh (Chữ Nôm: 明) is a popular unisex given name of Vietnamese origin, written using the Chinese character (明) meaning "bright", and is also popular among other East Asian names. The Chinese name Ming has the s ...

: 明 * Mông: 蒙 * Ngân: 鄞 * Nghê: 倪 * Nghiêm: 嚴 * Ngư: 魚 * Ngưu: 牛 * Nhạc: 岳 * Nhan: 顔 * Nhâm: 任 * Nhiếp: 聶 * Nhiều: 饒 * Nhung: 戎 * Ninh: 寧 & 甯 * Nông: 農 * Ôn: 溫 * Ổn: 鄔 * Ông: 翁 * Phí: 費 * Phó: 傅 * Phong: 酆 * Phòng: 房 * Phù: 符 *

Phùng Phung is a Vietnamese surname. The name is transliterated as Feng in Chinese and Pung in Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula * Korean cuisine * Korean culture * Korean langu ...

: 馮 * Phương: 方 * Quách: 郭 *

Quan Quán is the Pinyin romanization of the Chinese family names / and , as well as a customary spelling of (pinyin: Guān). All written forms of the name are rare enough that they do not appear in the list of the 100 most common Chinese surnames. ...

: 關 * Quản: 管 * Quang: 光 * Quảng: 鄺 * Quế: 桂 *

Quyền ''Kata'' is a Japanese word ( 型 or 形) meaning "form". It refers to a detailed choreographed pattern of martial arts movements made to be practised alone. It can also be reviewed within groups and in unison when training. It is practised ...

: 權 * Sài: 柴 * Sầm: 岑 * Sử: 史 * Tạ: 謝 * Tào: 曹 * Tăng: 曾 *

Tân Tan or TAN may refer to: Businesses and organisations * Black and Tans, a nickname for British special constables during the Irish War of Independence. By extension "Tans" can now also colloquially refer to English or British people in general, es ...

: 辛 * Tần: 秦 * Tất: 畢 * Tề: 齊 * Thạch: 石 * Thai: 邰 * Thái: 蔡 * Thang: 湯 * Thành: 成 * Thảo: 草 * Thân: 申 * Thi: 施 * Thích: 戚 * Thiện: 單 * Thiệu: 邵 * Thôi: 崔 * Thủy: 水 *

Thư Shu () is a Chinese surname. It is 43rd in the Hundred Family Surnames, contained in the verse 熊紀舒屈 ( Xiong, Ji, Shu, Qu). Šumuru sinicized their clan name to the Chinese surnames ''Shu'' (舒), '' Xu'' (徐) or '' Xiao'' (蕭) after the ...

: 舒 * Thường: 常 *

Tiền The term ''tiền'' ( Hán tự: 錢) is used to refer to various currency-related concepts used in Vietnamese history. The name is a cognate with the Chinese ''qián'' (錢), a unit of weight called " mace" in English. It can refer to a unit ...

: 錢 * Tiết: 薛 * Tiêu: 焦 * Tiêu: 蕭 *

Tô Tô or To is a Vietnamese surname. It was formerly written in chữ Nôm as . It derived from the Chinese surname Su, which is written identically to the chữ Nôm in traditional characters but as in modern simplified characters. List of person ...

: 蘇 *

Tôn Tôn (孙) (Anglicised as Ton) is a Vietnamese surname. It is transliterated as Sun in Chinese and Son in Korean. Notable people *Tôn Đức Thắng (1888–1980), first President of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam * Tôn Hiếu Anh (), Vietn ...

: 孫 *

Tôn Thất Tôn Thất (''Ton That'' or ''Ton-That'', often simplified to ''Tonthat'' in English-language text) is a two-character Vietnamese compound surname, originating from the Nguyễn dynasty. This surname was originally ''Tông Thất'' (), which is der ...

:尊室 * Tông: 宗 * Tống: 宋 * Trác: 卓 * Trạch: 翟 * Trại: 賽 *

Trang Trang may refer to: Places * Trang province, Thailand **Trang, Thailand, capital city of Trang province **Trang Airport ** Trang railway station ** Trang River *Trang, a sub-district of Mayo district, Pattani province, Thailand * Trang (commune), ...

: 莊 * Trầm: 沈/瀋 * Trâu: 鄒 * Trì: 池 * Triệu: 趙 * Trịnh: 鄭 (almost exclusively a northern surname, based around Thanh Hóa) * Từ: 徐 * Tư Mã: 司馬 * Tưởng: 蔣 * Úc: 郁 * Ứng: 應 * Vạn: 萬 * Văn: 文 * Vân: 雲 * Vi: 韋 * Vĩnh: 永 *

Vũ Vũ or Võ ( 武 or rarely 禹) is a common Vietnamese surname. Vũ is primarily used by Vietnamese who live in the north, while Võ mostly is used by Vietnamese who live in the south (from Quảng Bình Province to the south). The latinized v ...

: 巫 *

Vũ Văn Vũ or Võ ( 武 or rarely 禹) is a common Vietnamese surname. Vũ is primarily used by Vietnamese who live in the north, while Võ mostly is used by Vietnamese who live in the south (from Quảng Bình Province to the south). The latinized ...

: 武文 *

Vương Vương or Vuong (Chữ Nôm: ) is a Vietnamese surname, meaning King. In the United States, Vuong was the 7,635th most common surname during the 1990 census and the 4,556th most common during the year 2000 census.US Census Bureau. Op. cit. Publ ...

: 王 * Vưu: 尤 * Xà: 佘 * Xầm: 諶 (almost exclusively a northern surname) * Xế: 車 * Yên: 鄢 * Yến: 燕 In Vietnamese culture, women tend to keep their family names once they marry, whilst the progeny tend to keep the father's family name, although names can often be combined from father's and mother's family name e.g. Nguyễn Lê, Phạm Vũ, Kim Lý etc. In formal contexts, people are referred to by their full name. In more casual contexts, people are always on a "first-name basis", which involves their given names, accompanied by proper

kinship terms Kinship terminology is the system used in languages to refer to the persons to whom an individual is related through kinship. Different societies classify kinship relations differently and therefore use different systems of kinship terminology; ...

. In some regions of Vietnam, the daughter's last name is taken from her father's middle name instead. In Son Dong commune (Hoai Duc district), Tan Lap commune (Dan Phuong district), Cong Hoa commune (Quoc Oai district) of Hanoi, and Lien Khe commune, Khoai Chau district, Hung Yen province, there is a custom of girls not bearing the father's last name, but taking the father's middle name instead. From there arise surnames such as Dac, Dinh, Sy, Tri, Ngoc, Van, Tiep, Doan, Que, Danh, Huu, Khac, etc. This custom does not apply to boys. The people in these localities believe that the father's surname was a "borrowed" surname, not the original surname, and that the father's middle name is the real, original surname. Meanwhile in these communes, boys always take their father's last name and middle name, while girls take their father's middle name as their last name.

Middle name

Most Vietnamese have one middle name, but it is quite common to have two or more or to have no middle name at all. In the past, the middle name was selected by parents from a fairly narrow range of options. Almost all women had ''Thị'' () as their middle name, and many men had ''Văn'' (). More recently, a broader range of names has been used, and people named ''Thị'' usually omit their middle name because they do not like to call it with their name. ''Thị'' is a most common female middle name, and most common amongst pre-1975 generation but less common amongst younger generations. ''Thị'' is an archaic Vietnamese suffix meaning surname of the husband for a married woman, but now is used to simply indicate the female sex. For example, "Trần Thị Mai Loan" is a person who has the given name "Mai Loan" and the surname "Trần". Altogether, the name means "Mai Loan, a female person of the Trần family". Some traditional male middle names may include ''Văn'' (), ''Hữu'' (), ''Đức'' (), ''Thành'' (), ''Công'' (), ''Minh'' (), and ''Quang'' (). The middle name can have several uses, with the fourth being most common nowadays: # To indicate a person's generation. Brothers and sisters may share the same middle name, which distinguish them from the generation before them and the generation after them (see

generation name Generation name (variously zibei or banci in Chinese; tự bối, ban thứ or tên thế hệ in Vietnamese; hangnyeolja in Korea) is one of the characters in a traditional Chinese, Vietnamese and Korean given name, and is so called because ea ...

). # To separate branches of a large family: "Nguyễn ''Hữu''", "Nguyễn ''Sinh''", "Trần ''Lâm''" (middle names can be taken from the mother's family name). However, this usage is still controversial. Some people consider them to be a part of their family names, not family name + middle name. Some families may, however, set up arbitrary rules about giving a different middle name to each generation. # To indicate a person's position (

birth order Birth order refers to the order a child is born in their family; first-born and second-born are examples. Birth order is often believed to have a profound and lasting effect on psychological development. This assertion has been repeatedly challen ...

) in the family. This usage is less common than others. #To provide a poetic and positive meaning e.g. "Trần Gia Hạnh Phúc" meaning "Happiness to the Trần family". The first three are no longer in use, and seen as too rigid and strictly conforming to family naming systems. Most middle names utilise the fourth, having a name to simply imply some positive characteristics.

Given name

In most cases, the middle name is formally part of the given name. For example, the name "Đinh Quang Dũng" is separated into the surname "Đinh" and the given name "Quang Dũng". In a normal name list, those two parts of the full name are put in two different columns. However, in daily conversation, the last word in a given name with a title before it is used to call or address a person: "Ông Dũng", "Anh Dũng", etc., with "Ông" and "Anh" being words to address the person and depend on age, social position, etc. The given name is the primary form of address for Vietnamese. It is chosen by parents and usually has a literal meaning in the

. Names often represent beauty, such as bird or flower names, or attributes and characteristics that the parents want in their child, such as modesty (''Khiêm'', 謙). Typically, Vietnamese will be addressed with their given name, even in formal situations, although an honorific equivalent to "Mr.", "Mrs.", etc. will be added when necessary. That contrasts with the situation in many other cultures in which the family name is used in formal situations, but it is a practice similar to usage in Icelandic usage and, to some degree, Polish. It is similar to the Latin-American and southern European custom of referring to women as " Doña/Dona" and men as " Don/Dom", along with their first name. Addressing someone by the family name is rare. In the past, women were usually called by their (maiden) family name, with ''thị'' (氏) as a suffix, similar to

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

and

Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic ...

. In recent years, doctors are more likely than any other social group to be addressed by their family name, but that form of reference is more common in the north than in the south. Some extremely famous people are sometimes referred to by their family names, such as

Hồ Chí Minh (: ; born ; 19 May 1890 – 2 September 1969), commonly known as ('Uncle Hồ'), also known as ('President Hồ'), (' Old father of the people') and by other aliases, was a Vietnamese revolutionary and statesman. He served as Pri ...

(''Bác Hồ''—"''Uncle Hồ'') (however, his real surname is Nguyễn),

Trịnh Công Sơn Trịnh Công Sơn (February 28, 1939 – April 1, 2001) was a Vietnamese, musician, songwriter, painter and poet. He is widely considered to be Vietnam's best songwriter. His music explores themes of love, loss, and anti-war sentiments during ...

(''nhạc Trịnh''—"''Trịnh music''), and

Hồ Xuân Hương Hồ Xuân Hương (wikt:胡, 胡wikt:春, 春wikt:香, 香; 1772–1822) was a Vietnamese people, Vietnamese poet born at the end of the Lê dynasty. She grew up in an era of political and social turmoil – the time of the Tây Sơn dynast ...

(''nữ sĩ họ Hồ''—"''the poetess with the family name Hồ''). Traditionally, people in Vietnam, particularly North Vietnam, addressed parents using the first child's name: Mr and Mrs Anh or Master Minh. When being addressed within the family, children are sometimes referred to by their birth number, starting with one in the north but two in the south. That practice is less common recently, especially in the north. Double names are also common. For example, has the given name .

Examples

* Lê Lợi (a king of the

Lê dynasty The Lê dynasty, also known as Later Lê dynasty ( vi, Hậu Lê triều, chữ Hán: 後黎朝 or vi, nhà Hậu Lê, link=no, chữ Nôm: 茹後黎), was the longest-ruling Vietnamese dynasty, ruling Đại Việt from 1428 to 1789. The Lê ...

) has ''Lê'' is his family name and ''Lợi'' is his given name. He does not have any middle name. *Nguyễn Phúc Vĩnh San (Emperor

Duy Tân Emperor Duy Tân (, vi-hantu, 維新, lit. "renovation"; 19 September 1900 – 26 December 1945), born Nguyễn Phúc Vĩnh San, was the 11th emperor of the Nguyễn dynasty in Vietnam, who reigned for nine years between 1907 and 1916. Early c ...

) has ''Nguyễn'' is his family name, ''Phúc'' is his middle name, and ''Vĩnh San'' is his given name (a double names). The name is similar to Nguyễn Phúc Ánh (Emperor

Gia Long Gia Long ( (''North''), ('' South''); 8 February 1762 – 3 February 1820), born Nguyễn Phúc Ánh (阮福暎) or Nguyễn Ánh, was the founding emperor of the Nguyễn dynasty, the last dynasty of Vietnam. His dynasty would rule the unifi ...

, the first emperor of

Nguyễn dynasty The Nguyễn dynasty (chữ Nôm: 茹阮, vi, Nhà Nguyễn; chữ Hán: 阮朝, vi, Nguyễn triều) was the last Vietnamese dynasty, which ruled the unified Vietnamese state largely independently from 1802 to 1883. During its existence, ...

), who is commontly called as Nguyễn Ánh. *

Tôn Thất Thuyết Tôn Thất Thuyết ( 尊室説; 12 May 1839 in Huế – 1913 in Longzhou) was the leading mandarin of Emperor Tự Đức of Vietnam's Nguyễn dynasty. Thuyết later led the Cần Vương movement which aimed to restore Vietnamese i ...

has ''

'' is his family name (a compound surname) and ''Thuyết'' is his given name. He does not have any middle name. Sometimes his family name is confused with ''

''. *

Nguyễn Tấn Dũng Nguyễn Tấn Dũng (born 17 November 1949) is a Vietnamese politician who served as the Prime Minister of Vietnam from 2006 to 2016. He was confirmed by the National Assembly on 27 June 2006, having been nominated by his predecessor, Phan Vă ...

(a former

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is ...

) has ''Nguyễn'' is his family name, ''Tấn'' is his middle name, and ''Dũng'' is his given name. In Vietnamese formal usage, he is referred to as Nguyễn Tấn Dũng, but by his given name ("Mr. Dũng") in English-language text of Vietnamese multimedia, not by his family name ("Mr. Nguyễn"). Informally he is "Ba Dũng" in Vietnamese. * Likewise, the famous general and military leader,

Võ Nguyên Giáp Võ Nguyên Giáp (; 25 August 1911 – 4 October 2013) was a Vietnamese general and communist politician who is regarded as having been one of the greatest military strategists of the 20th century. He served as interior minister in President ...

, is referred to in Vietnamese by his full name (Võ Nguyên Giáp) in formal sources, but by his given name in English, i.e. "General Giáp". Informally, he is "Ông Giáp" or "Tướng Giáp" in Vietnamese.

Saints' names

Vietnamese Catholics Vietnamese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia ** A citizen of Vietnam. See Demographics of Vietnam. * Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam ** Overse ...

are given a saint's name at

baptism Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost ...

( vi, tên thánh (holy name) or . Boys are given male saints' names, while girls are given female saints' names. This name appears first, before the family name, in formal religious contexts. Out of respect, clergy are usually referred to by saints' name. The saint's name also functions as a

posthumous name A posthumous name is an honorary name given mostly to the notable dead in East Asian culture. It is predominantly practiced in East Asian countries such as China, Korea, Vietnam, Japan, and Thailand. Reflecting on the person's accomplishm ...

, used instead of an individual's given name in prayers after their death. The most common saints' names are taken from the

New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Chris ...

, such as (Peter, or Pierre in French), (Paul), (John), (Mary), and or they may remain as they are without Vietnamisation. Saints' names are respelled phonetically according to the

Vietnamese alphabet The Vietnamese alphabet ( vi, chữ Quốc ngữ, lit=script of the National language) is the modern Latin writing script or writing system for Vietnamese. It uses the Latin script based on Romance languages originally developed by Portuguese m ...

. Some more well-known saints' names are derived further into names that sound more Vietnamese or easier to pronounce for Vietnamese speakers.

Near-homonyms distinguished by vowel or tones

Some names may appear the same if simplified into a basic

ASCII ASCII ( ), abbreviated from American Standard Code for Information Interchange, is a character encoding standard for electronic communication. ASCII codes represent text in computers, telecommunications equipment, and other devices. Because ...

script, as for example on websites, but are different names: *

Trịnh Căn Trịnh Căn ( Hán tự: 鄭根; 18 July 1633 – 17 June 1709) ruled northern Vietnam from 1682 to 1709 (he ruled with the title ''Định Vương''). Trịnh Căn was one of the Trịnh lords who ruled Vietnam. With the Trịnh–Nguyễn W ...

(鄭根, 1633–1709) reformist warlord, vs.

Trịnh Cán Điện Đô Vương Trịnh Cán ( vi-hantu, , 1777 – 17 December 1782) was a child heir of northern Vietnam's Trịnh lords and the ninth Trịnh lord. His mother was Đặng Thị Huệ who undertook a war to retain his place as lord, but he ...

(鄭檊, 1777–1782) infant heir of warlord Trịnh Sâm *

Nguyễn Du Nguyễn Du (; 3 January 1766 – 16 September 1820), pen names Tố Như () and Thanh Hiên (), is a celebrated Vietnamese poet. He is most known for writing the epic poem ''The Tale of Kiều''. Biography Youth Nguyễn Du was born in a gre ...

(1765–1820) writer, vs. Nguyễn Dữ (c.1550) writer *

Hoàng Tích Chu Hoàng Tích Chu (, 1897 - 1933) was a Vietnamese journalist. Biography Hoàng Tích Chu was born on 1 January 1897 at Phù Lưu village, Từ Sơn district, Bắc Ninh province. His pennames were Kế Thương, Hoàng Hồ, Văn Tôi.Hy V. Luon ...

(1897–1933) journalist, vs.

Hoàng Tích Chù Hoàng Tích Chù (Từ Sơn; 1912 in Bắc Ninh Bắc Ninh () is a city in the northern part of Vietnam and is the capital of Bắc Ninh province. The city is the cultural, administrative and commercial center of the province. The city area is ...

(1912–2003) painter * Nguyễn Văn Tỵ (1917–1992) painter and poet, vs. Nguyễn Văn Tý (1925–2019), composer * Phan Thanh Hùng (1960) football manager, vs. Phan Thanh Hưng (1987), footballer * Nguyễn Bình (1906–1951), vs. Nguyễn Bính (1918–1966) * Nguyễn Văn Hưng (1958–) representative of the Vietnam National Assembly, vs. Nguyễn Văn Hùng (1980), martial artist, Typically, as in the above examples, it is middle or the last personal given name which varies, as almost any Sino-Vietnamese character may be used. The number of family names is limited. Further, some historical names may be written using different

Chữ Hán Chữ Hán (𡨸漢, literally "Chinese characters", ), Chữ Nho (𡨸儒, literally "Confucian characters", ) or Hán tự (漢字, ), is the Vietnamese term for Chinese characters, used to write Văn ngôn (which is a form of Classical Chinese ...

(

Chinese characters Chinese characters () are logograms developed for the writing of Chinese. In addition, they have been adapted to write other East Asian languages, and remain a key component of the Japanese writing system where they are known as ''kanji ...

), but are still written the same in the modern Vietnamese alphabet.

Indexing and sorting in English

According to the English-language ''

Chicago Manual of Style (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

'', Vietnamese names in are indexed according to the "''given name'', then ''surname'' + ''middle name''", with a cross-reference placed in regards to the family name.

Ngô Đình Diệm Ngô Đình Diệm ( or ; ; 3 January 1901 – 2 November 1963) was a South Vietnamese politician. He was the final prime minister of the State of Vietnam (1954–1955), and then served as the first president of South Vietnam ( Republic ...

would be listed as "Diệm, Ngô Đình" and

would be listed as "Giáp, Võ Nguyên". In Vietnamese, Vietnamese names are also typically sorted using the same order. But at the present, Vietnamese names are commonly indexed according "''middle-name'' ''given-name'' then ''SURNAME''" in Western name order, or "''SURNAME'' then ''middle-name given-name''" in

, to determine exactly the part of surname, especially in media (TV, website, SNS) at events of sports games. This method is similar to

s or

Korean name A Korean name (Hangul: ; Hanja: ) consists of a family name followed by a given name, as used by the Korean people in both South Korea and North Korea. In the Korean language, ''ireum'' or ''seongmyeong'' usually refers to the family name (''seo ...

s in events. For example:

References

External links

Vietnamese Naming Customs in Olden Days

Introduction to Vietnamese

Vietnamese names
(examples and tonal pronunciation),

video lesson A video lesson or lecture is a video which presents educational material for a topic which is to be learned. The format may vary. It might be a video of a teacher speaking to the camera, photographs and text about the topic or some mixture of th ...

{{Vietnam topics Names by culture Vietnamese traditions