- Source: Vietnamese name
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).
A middle name (normally a single name but some have no middle name).
A given name (normally single name but some have multiple given names).
But not every name is conformant. For example:
Nguyễn Trãi has his family name Nguyễn and his given name is Trãi. He does not have any middle name.
Phạm Bình Minh has his family name Phạm and his given name is Bình Minh (lit. 'dawn'). 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 (lit. 'decide').
Nguyễn Ngọc Trường Sơn has his family name Nguyễn, his middle name is Ngọc (lit. 'pearl') and his given name is Trường Sơn (lit. 'long mountain').
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 (lit. 'deep understanding'). 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 (lit. 'country') and his given name is Toàn (lit. 'fully').
The "family name first" written order is usual throughout the East Asian cultural sphere or Sinosphere; but "middle names" are less common in Chinese and Korean names and uncommon in Japanese names. 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 or in the Western world, given 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 ([ɗʷà:n]) vs Doãn ([zʷǎ:ˀn]), 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 夏 (Hạ) or 賀 (Hạ). 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.
Surname or Family name
The 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.
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
=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 given 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, commune (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 (Vietnamese: tên chi) 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" (V.: tên đệm) or "borrowed surnames" (V.: họ mượn) and consider the ostensible branch-names - given to daughters - to be their "original surnames" (V.: họ gốc) or main surnames (V.: họ chính); 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
Most Vietnamese have one middle name (tên đệm), 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 given name for a more meaningful overall name, where the middle name is part of the overall given name.
In the past, the middle name was selected by parents from a fairly narrow range of options. Almost all women had Thị (氏) as their middle name, and many men had Văn (文). 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 (氏) 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 (文), Hữu (友), Đức (德), Thành (誠), Công (公), Minh (明), and Quang (光).
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 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 (tên gọi). 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 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 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 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, such as Hồ Chí Minh (Bác Hồ—"Uncle Hồ") (however, his real surname is Nguyễn), 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: 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, Phan Thị Kim Phúc has the given name Kim Phúc.
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 is his family name and Lợi is his given name. He does not have any middle name.
Nguyễn Phúc Vĩnh San (Emperor Duy Tân) 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, the first emperor of Nguyễn dynasty), who is commontly called as Nguyễn Ánh.
Tôn Thất Thuyết has Tôn Thất 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 Tôn.
Nguyễn Tấn Dũng (a former prime minister) 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. He can also be referred to as Tấn Dũng.
Trần Kim Liên (MC of the Voice People of Ho Chi Minh City) has Trần is her family name, Kim is her middle name, and Liên is her given 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 given 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.
Saints' names
Vietnamese Catholics are given a saint's name at baptism (Vietnamese: tên thánh (holy name) or tên rửa tội (baptism name)). 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 given name in prayers after their death. The most common saints' names are taken from the New Testament, such as Phêrô (Peter, or Pierre in French), Phaolô (Paul), Gioan (John), Maria (Mary), and Anna 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 (1980), martial artist
Typically, as in the above examples, it is middle or the last personal given 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 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.
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 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, it has also become more popular to refer by middle and given name, which together officially is the given name. For example, Lê Mạnh Cường can be referred to as Mạnh Cường or simply as Cường. Since 2023, names in Vietnamese passports have been split into two lines, with the middle name treated as part of the given name.
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
Vietnamese names for girls and boys (limited)
Introduction to Vietnamese
Vietnamese names (examples and tonal pronunciation), video lesson
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