Vietnamese Names

Traditional Vietnamese personal names generally consist of three parts, used in Eastern name order.

* A family name (normally patrilineal, although matrilineality is possible, in cases such as divorce, children of a single mother, or if a child didn't want to have the father's surname. The father's family name may be combined with the mother's family name to form a compound family name).
* An optional middle name (normally a single name, some have no middle name).
* A personal name (normally single name, some have multiple names, mostly double name).

But not every name is conformant. For example:
* '' Nguyễn Trãi'' has his family name '' Nguyễn'' and his personal name is ''Trãi''. He does not have any middle name.
* '' Phạm Bình Minh'' has his family name ''Phạm'' and his personal 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 personal name is ''Quyết'' ().
* '' Nguyễn Ngọc Trường Sơn'' has his family name ''Nguyễn'', his middle name is ''Ngọc'' () and his personal 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 personal name is ''Tường'' (). Sometimes his family name is confused with '' Hoàng''.
* '' Trần Lê Quốc Toàn'' has his compound family name combined from ''Trần'' (from his father) and ''Lê'' (from his mother), his middle name is ''Quốc'' () and his personal name is ''Toàn'' ().

The "family name first" written order is usual throughout the East Asian cultural sphere or Sinosphere; but "middle names" are less common in Chinese, Korean names, and uncommon in Japanese names. Persons can be referred to by the whole name, the personal name, or a hierarchic pronoun, which usually connotes a degree of family relationship or kinship – but referring via the personal name is most common, as well as if degree of family relationship or kinship is unknown. In more informal contexts or in the Western world, the personal name can be written first then family name e.g. ''Châu Bùi'' or ''Thanh Trần''.

The Vietnamese language is tonal and so are Vietnamese names. Names with the same spelling but different tones represent different meanings, which can confuse people when the diacritics are dropped, as is commonly done outside Vietnam (e.g. ''Đoàn'' () vs ''Doãn'' (), both become ''Doan'' when diacritics are omitted). Additionally, some Vietnamese names can only be differentiated via context or with their corresponding chữ Hán, such as 南 ("south") or 男 ("men", "boy"), both are read as ''Nam''. Anyone applying for Vietnamese nationality must also adopt a Vietnamese name. Vietnamese names have corresponding Hán character adopted early on during Chinese rule. Vietnamese script is fully transliterated (romanized), because the previous script, chữ Nôm, was replaced by '' chữ Quốc ngữ'', which was made compulsory during the French colonial era.

Surnames

The surname or family name (tên họ) is positioned first and is passed on by the father to his children in a traditionally patrilineal order, but exceptions are possible. It is estimated that there are around 100 family names in common use, but some are far more common than others. The name '' Nguyễn'' was estimated to be the most common (40%) in 2005. The reason the top three names are so common is that people tended to take the family names of emperors, to show loyalty to particular dynasties in history. Over many generations, those family names became permanent.

History

Some scholars argue that all Vietnamese surnames are of Chinese origin, introduced during the thousand-year Chinese occupation of Vietnam, which began in 111 BCE with the Han Dynasty. Prior to this, evidence of distinct Vietnamese family names is scarce due to a lack of written records. An alternative view suggests that Vietnamese surnames include both indigenous names and those borrowed from Chinese culture. Hypotheses propose that indigenous surnames may have evolved from place-names in the Red River delta (e.g., ''Nguyễn'' from "nguồn, ngòi" meaning spring or canal) or from traditional totems (e.g., ''Gà'' for "chicken tribe"). Historically, individuals sometimes adopted the surname of the ruling dynasty as a sign of loyalty, or were compelled to do so, particularly after dynastic changes. For example, during the Trần dynasty, individuals with the surname Lý (from the overthrown Lý dynasty) were ordered to change their surname to Nguyễn. The Nguyễn dynasty (1802-1945) further contributed to the prevalence of the Nguyễn surname. Additionally, surnames were sometimes changed to evade taxes, avoid penalties, or adhere to royal name taboos.

Vietnamese surnames also have origins from other ethnic groups, including Chinese (''Khổng, Lưu, Trương''), Khmer (''Thạch, Sơn''), Cham (''Chế, Chiêm''), and various ethnic minorities (''Linh, Giáp, Ma'').

Common family names

The following are the most common family names among Vietnamese, with their ''chữ Quốc ngữ'' spelling, and their corresponding Hán-Nôm characters, which are now obsolete. The figures are from a 2022 study ''100 họ phổ biến ở Việt Nam'' (100 Most Popular Surnames/Family Names In Vietnam) from the Vietnamese Social Science Publisher (''Nhà xuất bản Khoa học Xã hội''). In 2005, these 14 names had accounted for around 90% of the Vietnamese 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: 白
* Bành: 彭
* Bao: 包
* Biên: 邊
* Biện: 卞
* Cam: 甘
* Cảnh: 耿
* Cảnh: 景
* Cao: 高
* Cái: 蓋
* Cát: 葛
* Chân: 甄
* Châu: 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
* Hạ: 夏
* Hác: 郝
* Hàn: 韓
* Hầu: 侯
* Hình: 邢
* Hoa: 花
* Hoắc: 霍
* Hoạn: 宦
* Hồng: 洪
* Hứa: 許
* Hướng: 向
* Hy: 郗
* Kha: 柯
* Khâu: 邱
* Khổng: 孔
* Khuất: 屈
* Kiều: 喬
* Kim: 金
* Kỳ: 祁
* Kỷ: 紀
* La: 羅
* Lạc: 駱
* Lại: 賴
* Lam: 藍
* Lăng: 凌
* Lãnh: 冷
* Lâm: 林
* Lận: 藺
* Lệ: 酈
* Liên: 連
* Liêu: 廖
* Liễu: 柳 (in northern or central regions)
* Long: 龍
* Lôi: 雷
* Lục: 陸
* Lư: 盧
* Lữ: 呂
* Lương: 梁
* Lưu: 劉 (in central or southern regions)
* Mã: 馬
* Mạc: 莫
* Mạch: 麥
* Mai: 梅
* Mạnh: 孟
* Mao: 毛
* Mẫn: 閔
* Miêu: 苗
* Minh: 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: 馮
* Phương: 方
* Quách: 郭
* Quan: 關
* Quản: 管
* Quang: 光
* Quảng: 鄺
* Quế: 桂
* Quyền: 權
* Sài: 柴
* Sầm: 岑
* Sử: 史
* Tạ: 謝
* Tào: 曹
* Tăng: 曾
* Tân: 辛
* Tần: 秦
* Tất: 畢
* Tề: 齊
* Thạch: 石
* Thai: 邰
* Thái: 蔡
* Thang: 湯
* Thành: 成
* Thảo: 草
* Thân: 申
* Thầm / Kham: 諶 (almost exclusively a northern surname)
* Thi: 施
* Thích: 戚
* Thiện: 單
* Thiệu: 邵
* Thôi: 崔
* Thủy: 水
* Thư: 舒
* Thường: 常
* Tiền: 錢
* Tiết: 薛
* Tiêu: 焦
* Tiêu: 蕭
* Tô: 蘇 (Chinese Diaspora Surname)
* Tôn: 孫
* Tôn Thất: 尊室
* Tông: 宗
* Tống: 宋
* Trác: 卓
* Trạch: 翟
* Tái: 賽
* Trang: 莊
* Trầm: 沈
* Trâu: 鄒
* Trì: 池
* Triệu: 趙 (Chinese Diaspora surname)
* 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
* Vu: 于
* Vũ Văn: 宇文
* Vương: 王
* Vưu: 尤
* Xà: 佘
* Xa: 車 (Chinese Vietnamese write it as Xế)
* Yên: 鄢
* Yến: 燕

In Vietnamese culture, women keep their family names once they marry, whilst the progeny tend to have the father's family name, although names can often be combined from a 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 personal names, accompanied by proper kinship terms.

In a few localities of Vietnam, for examples, in Hanoi's Sơn Đồng commune (Hoài Đức district), Tân Lập commune (Đan Phượng district), Cấn Hữu, Tân Hoà, Cộng Hoà communes (Quốc Oai district), and in Hưng Yên province's Liên Khê commune (Khoái Châu district), there is a custom of daughters taking the fathers' middle names, not family names, as their surnames; therefore arise such female surnames such as Đắc, Đình, Sỹ, Tri, Ngọc, Văn, Tiếp, Doãn, Quế, Danh, Hữu, Khắc, etc. Sons, in contrast, bear their fathers' family names as surnames. There exist several explanations for this custom:
*Nghiêm Quốc Đạt, a teacher and Sơn Đồng's village-historian, believes that this custom is a vestige of outdated feudal misogynistic practices: in the past, sons were valued more than daughters; therefore, in the present, a son receives his family's surname as his surname, while a daughter only receives her father's branch-name () as her surname.
*Others contend that this custom did not stem from misogynistic discrimination:
**The Sơn Đồng government states that this custom's original purpose was to merely help distinguish the different branches of one same family; however, when a woman bears her father's surname and branch-name, that will still indicate which family and which branch she belongs to.
**Many Sơn Đồng's elders and people's commissar Nguyễn Chí Mậu state that those families consider the ostensible surnames - given to sons - to be the "additional names" () or "borrowed surnames" () and consider the ostensible branch-names - given to daughters - to be their "original surnames" () or main surnames (); in fact, many families with the same "borrowed surnames" are not blood-related at all and their current "main surnames" result from their true ancestral surnames being changed in the past. Therefore, daughters bear the "main surnames" to remind themselves of their origins after getting married, according to Nguyễn Danh Hữu, the keeper of So village's shrine in Quốc Oai.

Middle name

Middle name (''tên đệm'') in Vietnamese is optional. Most Vietnamese have one middle name, but it is quite common to have two or more or to have no middle name at all. Middle names can be standalone (e.g. ''Văn'' or ''Thị''), but is often combined with the personal name for a more meaningful overall name, where the middle name is part of the overall personal name.

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 Sino-Vietnamese suffix meaning "clan; family; lineage; hereditary house" and attached to a woman's original family name, but now is used to simply indicate the female sex. For example, the name "Trần Thị Mai Loan" means "Mai Loan, a female person of the Trần family"; meanwhile, the name "Nguyễn Lê Thị An" means "An, a female person of the Nguyễn and Lê families". 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).
# 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) 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 not as common in the present-day as they are 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.

Personal name

In most cases, the middle name is formally part of the personal name (tên gọi). For example, the name "Đinh Quang Dũng" is separated into the family name "Đinh" and the personal 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 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 personal name is the primary form of address for Vietnamese. It is chosen by parents and usually has a literal meaning in the Vietnamese language. 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 personal 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 current. In the past, women were usually called by their (maiden) family name, with ''thị'' (氏) as a suffix, similar to China and Korea. 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 regardless of whether the name is an alias, such as Hồ Chí Minh (''Bác Hồ''—"''Uncle Hồ'') (although his real name is Nguyễn Sinh Cung), Trịnh Công Sơn (''nhạc Trịnh''—"''Trịnh music''), and Hồ Xuân Hương (''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.

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 personal name .

The Rade people in Vietnam's Central Highlands have a unique first name structure, with male names starting with the letter Y, and female names starting with the letter H. For examples, Y-Abraham, Y-Samuel, H'Mari, H'Sarah.

Examples

* Lê Lợi (a Emperor of the Lê dynasty) has ''Lê'' as his family name and ''Lợi'' as his personal name. He does not have any middle name.
*Nguyễn Phúc Vĩnh San (Emperor Duy Tân) has ''Nguyễn'' as his family name, ''Phúc'' as his middle name, and ''Vĩnh San'' as his personal name (a double names). The name is similar to Nguyễn Phúc Ánh (Emperor Gia Long, the first emperor of Nguyễn dynasty), who is commontly called as Nguyễn Ánh.
* Tôn Thất Thuyết has '' Tôn Thất'' as his family name (a compound surname) and ''Thuyết'' as his personal name. He does not have any middle name. Sometimes his family name is confused with '' Tôn''.
* Nguyễn Tấn Dũng (a former prime minister) has ''Nguyễn'' as his family name, ''Tấn'' as his middle name, and ''Dũng'' as his personal name. In Vietnamese formal usage, he is referred to as Nguyễn Tấn Dũng, but by his personal name ("Mr. Dũng") in English-language text of Vietnamese multimedia, not by his family name ("Mr. Nguyễn"). Informally he is "Ba Dũng" in Vietnamese. He can also be referred to as ''Tấn Dũng''.
*Trần Kim Liên (MC of the Voice People of Ho Chi Minh City) has ''Trần'' as her family name, ''Kim'' as her middle name, and ''Liên'' as her personal name. She can also be referred to as ''Kim Liên''.
* Likewise, the famous general and military leader, Võ Nguyên Giáp, is referred to in Vietnamese by his full name (Võ Nguyên Giáp) in formal sources, but by his personal name in English, i.e. "General Giáp". Informally, he is "Ông Giáp" or "Tướng Giáp" in Vietnamese. He can also be referred to as ''Nguyên Giáp.''

Foreign names

A baby born in Vietnam can only have one foreign name. If the father is foreigner, the foreign name can only be the family name.

Examples:
* For a son born to a Vietnamese mother named ''Trần Thị Hậu'' and a foreign father named ''John Smith'', the son can be named ''Smith Quang Hải''.
* For a son born to a foreign mother named ''Jane Smith'' and a Vietnamese father named ''Nguyễn Quang Hải'', the son can be named ''Nguyễn Quang John''.

Saints' names

Catholic Church in Vietnam, Vietnamese Catholics are given a saint's name at baptism ( 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, used instead of an individual's personal name in prayers after their death. The most common saints' names are taken from the New Testament, 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. 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 script, as for example on websites, but are different names:
* Trịnh Căn (鄭根, 1633–1709) reformist warlord, vs. Trịnh Cán (鄭檊, 1777–1782) infant heir of warlord Trịnh Sâm
* Nguyễn Du (1765–1820) writer, vs. Nguyễn Dữ (c.1550) writer
* Hoàng Tích Chu (1897–1933) journalist, vs. Hoàng Tích Chù (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 (martial artist), Nguyễn Văn Hùng (1980), martial artist

Typically, as in the above examples, it is middle or the last personal name which varies, as almost any Hán-Nôm character may be used. The number of family names is limited.

Further, some historical names may be written using different chữ Hán (Chinese characters), 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'', Vietnamese names in are Subject indexing, indexed according to the "''given name'', then ''surname'' + ''middle name''", with a cross-reference placed in regards to the family name. Ngô Đình Diệm would be listed as "Diệm, Ngô Đình" and Võ Nguyên Giáp would be listed as "Giáp, Võ Nguyên". In Vietnamese, Vietnamese names are also typically sorted using the same order.

In the present, Vietnamese names are commonly indexed according "''middle-name'' ''personal-name'' then ''SURNAME''" in Personal name#Western name order, Western name order, or "''SURNAME'' then ''middle-name given-name''" in Eastern name order, to determine exactly the part of surname, especially in media (TV, website, SNS) at events of sports games. This method is similar to Chinese names or Korean names in events. For example:

Presentation

Due to the high frequency of the same surnames in Vietnamese names (having around one-third of the Vietnamese people using the surname Nguyễn), it has also become more popular to be referred by both middle and first name, which together officially is the personal name. For example, ''Nguyễn Văn An'' can be referred to as ''Văn An'' or simply as ''An'', but is impractical to be "Mr. or Miss, Ms. ''Nguyễn''". Since 2023, names in Vietnamese passport, Vietnamese passports have been split into two lines, with the middle name treated as integral part of the personal name, however, having little consideration for compound surnames and middle names, having the first syllable of the name usually ends up being designated as the sole surname. Vietnamese people have no practice of using Hyphen, hyphens or any other designations in the "partition" of their names, and may sometimes disregard their own middle names in Western context for a simplified translation.

See also

*Surname
*Other similar naming systems:
**Korean name
**Chinese name
**Japanese name
*List of common Vietnamese surnames
*List of common Chinese surnames
*List of Korean surnames
*List of common Japanese surnames
*List of most common surnames

References

External links

Vietnamese Naming Customs in Olden Days



Introduction to Vietnamese

Vietnamese names
(examples and tonal pronunciation), video lesson

{{Vietnam topics

Names by country
Vietnamese names,
Vietnamese traditions