Phạm is the fourth most common
Vietnamese family name
Traditional Vietnamese personal names generally consist of three parts, used in Eastern name order.
* A family name (normally patrilineal, The father’s family name may be combined with the mother's family name to form a compound family name) ...
from , which may be rendered as ''Fan'' in Chinese or ''Beom'' (범) in Korean. It is not to be confused with
Phan (潘), another Vietnamese surname.
Origin
Phạm is the
Sino-Vietnamese reading of the
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 Chines ...
(fàn 'plants, grass' or 'models, limits, pattern').
Frequency
Phạm is a very prevalent last name in Vietnam.
Among the global ethnic Vietnamese population, it is the fifth-most common name, accounting for 5% of the approximately 75 million people. It is also quite common in the United States, shared by around 82,000 citizens.
It is the 951st most common surname in
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...
and the 455th most common in Australia.
People
Notable people with the surname Phạm include:
;Science

*
Phạm Tuân
Phạm Tuân ( born 14 February 1947) is a retired Vietnam Air Force aviator and cosmonaut. He became the first Vietnamese citizen and the first person from an Asian country to fly in space when he launched aboard the Soyuz 37 mission as an In ...
, first Vietnamese cosmonaut
*
Frédéric Pham, Vietnamese French mathematician (ref.
Brieskorn–Pham manifold)
*
Kathy Pham, computer scientist
*
Phạm Đình Hổ - inventor of Vietnamese Chinese Characters
Chữ Nôm
Chữ Nôm (, ; ) is a logographic writing system formerly used to write the Vietnamese language. It uses Chinese characters (''Chữ Hán'') to represent Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary and some native Vietnamese words, with other words represen ...
;Politics and Military
*
Phạm Công Trứ, mandarin of the Le and Trinh dynasties
*
Phạm Ngũ Lão, prominent general under Trần Hưng Đạo
*
Phạm Văn Đồng
Phạm Văn Đồng (; 1 March 1906 – 29 April 2000) was a Vietnamese politician who served as Prime Minister of North Vietnam from 1955 to 1976. He later served as Prime Minister of Vietnam following reunification of North and South Vietnam ...
Prime Minister of North Vietnam (1955–1976) and reunified Vietnam (1976–1987)
*
Hung Pham
Hung Pham or Hung Kim Pham (born Phạm Kim Hưng; October 2, 1963 in Saigon) is a former politician and information expert in Alberta, Canada. He formerly served as a member of Legislative Assembly of Alberta, Canada.
Early life
Born and growin ...
, politician from Alberta, Canada
*
Pham Le Bong, foreign minister to
Bảo Đại
Bảo Đại (, vi-hantu, , lit. "keeper of greatness", 22 October 191331 July 1997), born Nguyễn Phúc Vĩnh Thụy (), was the 13th and final emperor of the Nguyễn dynasty, the last ruling dynasty of Vietnam. From 1926 to 1945, he was em ...
(last emperor of Vietnam)
*
Phạm Ngọc Thảo
Colonel Phạm Ngọc Thảo (IPA: , ), also known as Albert Thảo (14 February 1922 – 17 July 1965), was a communist sleeper agent of the Việt Minh (and, later, of the Vietnam People's Army) who infiltrated the Army of the Republic of Viet ...
, colonel in the
Army of the Republic of Vietnam
The Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN; ; french: Armée de la république du Viêt Nam) composed the ground forces of the South Vietnamese military from its inception in 1955 to the Fall of Saigon in April 1975. It is estimated to have suffe ...
, communist spy
*
Phạm Phú Quốc,
Republic of Vietnam Air Force
The South Vietnam Air Force, officially the Republic of Vietnam Air Force (RVNAF; vi, Không lực Việt Nam Cộng hòa, KLVNCH; french: Force aérienne vietnamienne, FAVN) (sometimes referred to as the Vietnam Air Force or VNAF) was the aer ...
pilot involved in
1962 South Vietnamese Independence Palace bombing
On 27 February 1962, the Independence Palace in Saigon, South Vietnam, was bombed by two dissident Republic of Vietnam Air Force pilots, Second Lieutenant Nguyễn Văn Cử and First Lieutenant Phạm Phú Quốc. The pilots targeted the build ...
*
Phạm Văn Phú Major General Phạm Văn Phú (1927, Hà Đông, French Indochina – 30 April 1975, Saigon, South Vietnam) was an officer in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam. He was a graduate of the 8th class of the Dalat Military Academy in 1954.
Militar ...
, ARVN general
*
Phạm Quang Khiêm,
VNAF
The South Vietnam Air Force, officially the Republic of Vietnam Air Force (RVNAF; vi, Không lực Việt Nam Cộng hòa, KLVNCH; french: Force aérienne vietnamienne, FAVN) (sometimes referred to as the Vietnam Air Force or VNAF) was the aer ...
1st lieutenant who was bast known for stealing C-130A for freedom before the
Fall of Saigon
The Fall of Saigon, also known as the Liberation of Saigon by North Vietnamese or Liberation of the South by the Vietnamese government, and known as Black April by anti-communist overseas Vietnamese was the capture of Saigon, the capital of Sou ...
*
Khanh Pham, American politician
;Arts and entertainment
*
Phạm Duy
Phạm Duy (5 October 1921 – 27 January 2013) was one of Vietnam's most prolific songwriters with a musical career that spanned more than seven decades through some of the most turbulent periods of Vietnamese history and with more than one ...
, composer and songwriter
*
Linh Dan Pham
Linh Dan Pham (born ; June 20, 1974) is a Vietnamese-born French actress.
Biography
She was born in Saigon, South Vietnam, but moved with her family to Paris, France, a year later, just before the capture of Saigon by North Vietnamese and Vie ...
, French Vietnamese actress
*
Hoa Pham, Australian author
*
Phạm Phi Nhung, Vietnamese American singer
*
Quang X. Pham
Quang Pham, a Vietnamese American businessman, veteran, author, and community leader, is noted as the first Vietnamese American to earn naval aviator's wings in the U.S. Marine Corps. His family were refugees of the Vietnam War, immigrating to ...
, author
*
Andrew X. Pham
Andrew X. Pham is a Vietnamese-born American author who is the founder of Spoonwiz.
Extended biography
Born in Phan Thiet in 1967, Pham's father Thong was a teacher and his mother a laundress. Pham had two sisters, Chi and Kay, and three younger ...
, author
*
Thái Thanh
Thái Thanh (born Phạm Thị Băng Thanh; August 5, 1934 – March 17, 2020) was a Vietnamese-American singer. She was one of the most iconic singers of the Western-influenced popular music in Vietnam, known as ' New music of Vietnam' ().
...
, 20th century Vietnamese singer, real name Phạm Thị Băng Thanh
*
Phạm Thị Hoài
Phạm Thị Hoài (born 1960 in Gia Lộc, Hải Dương, Vietnam) is an influential contemporary Vietnamese writer, editor and translator, living in Germany.
Biography
Born in Hải Dương province, Phạm Thị Hoài grew up in North V ...
, author
*
Phạm Xuân Thái
Frater (lingua sistemfrater), an ''a posteriori'' international auxiliary language, published in ''Frater (Lingua sistemfrater). The simplest International Language Ever Constructed'', in 1957 by the Vietnamese linguist Phạm Xuân Thái.
Ph� ...
, Vietnamese linguist
*
Phạm Xuân Ẩn, Vietnamese journalist and communist spy from South Vietnam
*Phạm Xuân Nguyên, pen name
Ngân Xuyên, Vietnamese writer and literary translator
*
Elyzabeth Pham, American Miss Wisconsin USA 1999
*
Phạm Hương,
Miss Universe Vietnam 2015 Winner
*
Phạm Thị Thanh Hằng, Actress, TV Host & Model
;Sports
*
Thierry Pham
Thierry Pham (born 28 April 1962) is a former professional tennis player from France.
Career
Pham played in a Davis Cup tie for France in 1986, against Turkey, with they won 5–0. He won both of his singles rubbers, over Alaaddin Karagoz and ...
, French professional tennis player
*
Phạm Thành Lương, Vietnamese football (
Soccer) player
*
Phạm Đức Huy
Phạm Đức Huy (born 20 January 1995) is a Vietnamese footballer who plays as a winger for V.League 1 club Thép Xanh Nam Định. Nicknamed "Prince of Arabia" due to his similar outlook like an Arab prince, he is one of the most popular pl ...
, Vietnamese football (
Soccer) player
*
Phạm Như Phương, Vietnamese artistic gymnast
*
Anathan "ana" Pham, Australian
Dota 2
''Dota 2'' is a 2013 multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) video game by Valve. The game is a sequel to '' Defense of the Ancients'' (''DotA''), a community-created mod for Blizzard Entertainment's '' Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos.'' ''Dota ...
player
*
Tommy Pham
Thomas James Pham (born March 8, 1988) is an American professional baseball outfielder who is a free agent. He has played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the St. Louis Cardinals, Tampa Bay Rays, San Diego Padres, Cincinnati Reds, and Boston ...
, American baseball player
;Religious figures
*
Phạm Công Tắc
Hộ Pháp ("Defender of the Doctrine", commonly translated as "Pope") Phạm Công Tắc (1890–1959) was an important leader in the establishment and development of the Cao Đài religion, founded in 1926.Philippe M. F. Peycam -''The Birth of V ...
, first twelve disciples of Cao Dai
*
Phạm Minh Mẫn Cardinal Priest & Archbishop of Ho Chi Minh City in the Roman Catholic Church.
;Fictional characters
*
Pham Tai, protagonist of the 18th century epic poem,
Phạm Tải – Ngọc Hoa
''The Story of Phạm Tải and Ngọc Hoa'' (''Phạm Tải – Ngọc Hoa'') is an anonymous 18th Century Vietnamese language epic poem of 934 verses.
The poem belongs to the genre of vernacular nôm script verse poems which includes '' Phạ ...
*Pham Thi La, a character in the
Muv-Luv
is a Japanese visual novel developed by âge and originally released as an adult game for Windows on February 28, 2003. Consisting of two parts, and the gameplay in ''Muv-Luv'' follows a linear plot line, which offers pre-determi ...
spin-off series Schwarzesmarken.
;Other
*
Nina Pham
Four laboratory-confirmed cases of Ebola virus disease (commonly known as "Ebola") occurred in the United States in 2014. Eleven cases were reported, including these four cases and seven cases medically evacuated from other countries. The first ...
, U.S. nurse who became the first victim in the U.S. to acquire the Ebola virus disease through transmission in the U.S. during the 2014 West African Ebola outbreak
*
Phạm Đoan Trang Vietnamese human rights activist
See also
*
Fàn (surname)
Fàn () is a Chinese family name. It is also one of the most common surnames in Vietnam, where it is written as Pham (范 - Phạm), and occurs in Korea as Beom (范, 범). It is the 46th name on the '' Hundred Family Surnames'' poem in Chinese. ...
*
Vietnamese name
Traditional Vietnamese personal names generally consist of three parts, used in Eastern name order.
* A family name (normally patrilineal, The father’s family name may be combined with the mother's family name to form a compound family name) ...
References
External links
* https://web.archive.org/web/20070927024735/http://static.namesdatabase.com/names2/P/H/Pham.html
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pham
Vietnamese-language surnames
Surnames of Vietnamese origin