Vietnamese name
Encyclopedia
Vietnamese names generally consist of three parts: a family name
, a middle name
, and a given name
, used in that order. The "family name first" order follows the system of Chinese name
s and is common throughout the Sinosphere
(Chinese cultural sphere), but is different from Chinese, Korean
, and Japanese name
s in having a middle name. Persons can be referred to either by the whole name, given name, or a hierarchic name in normal usage.
Due to the ubiquity of the major family names such as Tran and Nguyen, a person is often referred to by their middle name along with their given name in Vietnamese media and youth culture.
The Vietnamese language
is tonal, and so are Vietnamese names. The same spelling with different tones are different names, which can confuse non-Vietnamese people when the diacritics are dropped when used outside of Vietnam.
The most common family names among the Vietnamese are the following (the Chinese characters following each name are their Chinese equivalents). Added together these 15 names account for almost 90% of the people.
The following include some other less common surnames, in no particular order:
In Vietnamese cultural practice, women always keep their family names once they marry, just as in other East Asian cultures, including Chinese culture, to the north and northeast.
Some Vietnamese have dual family names. Dual family name is passed through all people in the family, but sometimes through the male or female line only. In many cases the mother's family name is added behind the father's as a middle name, which does not make a dual family name as the mother's family name isn't passed through the next generation.
In the past, the middle name is selected by parents from a fairly narrow range. Almost all women had Thị (氏) as their middle name, and many men had Văn (文). More recently, a broader range of names have been used, and people named Thị sometimes omit their middle name.
Thị is by far the most common female middle name, this word is to express the possession, for example "Trần Thị Mai Loan" is a person name who has given name as "Mai Loan", surname "Trần", and the combination "Trần Thị" means "A female person who belongs to Trần family"; this combination is similar to western surname formation like "Van" in "Van Helsing", "Mac" in "MacCartney" etc., but not the same gender. Male middle names include Văn (文), Hữu (友), Đức (德), Công (公), Quang (光) and many others.
The middle name can have three usages:
However, nowadays most middle names do not have those usages. They can either have a meaning or just be there to make the full names sound prettier.
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 (Khiem).
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. This contrasts with the situation in many other cultures, where the family name is used in formal situations. This practice is similar to Icelandic
and to some degree to Polish
practice. It is similar to the Latin-American custom of referring to some people as "Don" along with their first name. It contrasts with Japanese
, where the given name is used only by close friends, especially children and young people (and often even here the family name is used) and some family members (though in the family, hierarchical role names, such as 'older brother', are often preferred).
Addressing someone by his or her family name is rare, though not impossible to find. In the past, married women in the north have been called by their family name, with Thị 氏 as a suffix. In recent years, doctors are more likely to be addressed by their family name than any other group of society, though this form of reference is more common in the north than in the south. Some extremely well known people are sometimes referred by their family names, such as Hồ Chí Minh
("Uncle Hồ") (however his real surname is Nguyễn), Trịnh Công Sơn
("Trịnh music"), and Hồ Xuân Hương ("the poetess with the family name Hồ"). In the old days, people in Vietnam, and particularly North Vietnam addressed parents using the first child's name for example Mr and Mrs Anh or Master Minh.
When being addressed within the family, the children are sometimes referred to by their birth number, starting from one in the north but starting with two in the south. This practice is not very common recently, especially in the north.
Family name
A family name is a type of surname and part of a person's name indicating the family to which the person belongs. The use of family names is widespread in cultures around the world...
, a middle name
Middle name
People's names in several cultures include one or more additional names placed between the first given name and the surname. In Canada and the United States all such names are specifically referred to as middle name; in most European countries they would simply be regarded as second, third, etc....
, and a given name
Given name
A given name, in Western contexts often referred to as a first name, is a personal name that specifies and differentiates between members of a group of individuals, especially in a family, all of whose members usually share the same family name...
, used in that order. The "family name first" order follows the system of Chinese name
Chinese name
Personal names in Chinese culture follow a number of conventions different from those of personal names in Western cultures. Most noticeably, a Chinese name is written with the family name first and the given name next, therefore "John-Paul Smith" as a Chinese name would be "Smith John-Paul"...
s and is common throughout the Sinosphere
Sinosphere
In areal linguistics, Sinosphere refers to a grouping of countries and regions that are currently inhabited with a majority of Chinese population or were historically under Chinese cultural influence...
(Chinese cultural sphere), but is different from Chinese, Korean
Korean name
A Korean name consists of a family name followed by a given name, as used by the Korean people in both North Korea and South Korea. In the Korean language, 'ireum' or 'seong-myeong' usually refers to the family name and given name together...
, and Japanese name
Japanese name
in modern times usually consist of a family name , followed by a given name. "Middle names" are not generally used.Japanese names are usually written in kanji, which are characters of usually Chinese origin in Japanese pronunciation...
s in having a middle name. Persons can be referred to either by the whole name, given name, or a hierarchic name in normal usage.
Due to the ubiquity of the major family names such as Tran and Nguyen, a person is often referred to by their middle name along with their given name in Vietnamese media and youth culture.
The Vietnamese language
Vietnamese language
Vietnamese is the national and official language of Vietnam. It is the mother tongue of 86% of Vietnam's population, and of about three million overseas Vietnamese. It is also spoken as a second language by many ethnic minorities of Vietnam...
is tonal, and so are Vietnamese names. The same spelling with different tones are different names, which can confuse non-Vietnamese people when the diacritics are dropped when used outside of Vietnam.
Family name
The family name, positioned first, is passed on by the father to his children (patronymic naming system). It is estimated that there are around one hundred family names in common use, although some are far more common than others. The name Nguyễn is estimated to be used by almost 40% of the Vietnamese population. The top three names are so popular because people tended to take the family name of kings, to show their favor and loyalty. Over many generations, the family names became permanent.The most common family names among the Vietnamese are the following (the Chinese characters following each name are their Chinese equivalents). Added together these 15 names account for almost 90% of the people.
- Nguyễn 阮 (39%)
- TrầnTranTran or TRAN may refer to:* Tran, Bulgaria, a small town in Pernik Province, western Bulgaria* Trần , a Vietnamese surname spelled as Chan in Cantonese or Chen in Mandarin. This is one of the most populated surname in both Vietnam and China. As the descendent of Han Chinese, many immigrated to...
陳 (11%) - LêLêLê is a common Vietnamese family name. In Vietnamese names, the family name comes first. It was ranked the 368th most common surname in the United States.The Hán Tự formerly used for this name is 黎, and the name is equivalent to the Chinese surname Lí...
黎 (9.5%) - Phạm 范 (7.1%)
- Huỳnh/Hoàng 黃 (5.1%)
- PhanPan (surname)Pan is a family name originated from China. Pan also is often romanized as Poon or Pun. The surname is spelled as Poon or Pun in Hong Kong and Macau, Ban in South Korea and Phan in Vietnam....
潘 (4.5%) - Vũ/VõVõVũ or Võ is a common Vietnamese surname.-Academia:*Võ Đình Tuấn - Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Professor of Chemistry, and Director of the Fitzpatrick Institute for Photonics of Duke University. Vo-Dinh has been ranked No...
武 (3.9%) - ĐặngDeng (surname)Deng is an East Asian surname. It is a transcription of 邓 or 鄧 . It is transliteted as Dèng in pinyin and Teng in Wade-Giles. In Cantonese, it is Dahng in Yale and Dang6 in Jyutping. In Minnan or Taiwanese, it is Tēng in Pe̍h-ōe-jī...
鄧(2.1%) - BùiBùiBùi is a Vietnamese surname. The name is transliterated as Pei in Chinese and Bae in Korean.Bui is also an Italian surname.Bùi may refer to:* Bùi Bích Phương, Miss Vietnam in 1988* Bùi Diễm, Ambassador...
裴 (2%) - ĐỗĐỗĐỗ is a Vietnamese family name. According to Lê Trung Hoa, a Vietnamese scholar, approximately 1.4 percent of Vietnamese people have this surname...
杜 (1.4%) - HồHu (surname)Hu 胡 is a Chinese surname or family name. In 2006, it was the 15th most common surname in China.Some other less-common surnames pronounced Hu include 瓠, 護, 戶, 扈, 虎, 呼, 忽, and 斛.-Words:...
胡 (1.3%) - NgôWu (surname)Wu is the Pinyin transliteration of the Chinese surname 吳 , 吴 , which is the tenth most common surname in Mainland China. Several other, less common Chinese surnames with different pronunciations are also transliterated into English as "Wu": 武, 伍, 仵, 烏, 鄔 and 巫...
吳 (1.3%) - DươngDươngDương is a Vietnamese surname. The name is transliterated as Yang in Chinese and in Korean.Duong is the anglicized variation of the surname Dương...
楊 (1%) - LýLi (surname)Li is a common transliteration of several Chinese family names, including 李 , the most common Chinese family name, and the Korean family name Lee...
李 (0.5%)
The following include some other less common surnames, in no particular order:
- BànhPeng (surname)Peng is a common Chinese family name, ranking 35th most common in 2006. Alternate Romanizations include Pang , Phang and Bành ....
: 彭 - CaoGao (surname)Gao is a Chinese family name. There are approximately 16 million living people with this surname. Some places, such as Taiwan, usually romanize this family name into Kao. In Hong Kong, it is romanized to Ko....
: 高 - ChâuZhou (surname)Zhōu is the Hanyu Pinyin transliteration of the Chinese family name 周, which now ranks as the 10th most common surname in Mainland China. It has been one of the ten most common surnames in China since the Yuan Dynasty....
: 周 - ChuZhou (surname)Zhōu is the Hanyu Pinyin transliteration of the Chinese family name 周, which now ranks as the 10th most common surname in Mainland China. It has been one of the ten most common surnames in China since the Yuan Dynasty....
: 周 or 朱 - ChungZhong (surname)Zhong is pinyin transliteration of several Chinese surname, including Zhōng 鍾/钟, Zhòng 种 and Zhòng 仲 etc. It's also transliterated as Tihon and Chung . It is the 56th most common last name in China. People surnamed Zhong are the descendents of Shang Tang...
: 鍾 - DiệpYe (surname)Ye is the 42nd most common Chinese surname. The same Chinese character is commonly romanized as Ye in mainland China and Yeh in Taiwan from the Mandarin pronunciation. In Hong Kong, Macau, and Southeast Asia, it is usually romanized as Yip or Ip from the Cantonese pronunciation, and Yap or Yeap...
: 葉 - DươngYang (surname)Yang is the transcription of the Chinese family name 楊 / 杨. It is the sixth most common surname in Mainland China.- Characters :Yang is most often the transliteration of the character 楊 . The same character can also mean a type of poplar...
: 楊 - ĐàmTan (surname)Tan is a Chinese surname. In a 2006 study of the 100 most common Chinese surnames, Tan was found to be the 67th most common. It is also used in Korea, although very rarely.-Origin:Two origins have been suggested for the Tan surname:...
: 譚 - ĐàoTao (surname)- List of persons with the surname Tao :* Tao Dayu, television actor* Tao Qian, warlord during the late Han Dynasty* Tao Kan, Jin Dynasty general and governor* Tao Luna, sports shooter* Tao Siju, politician* Terence Tao, Australian mathematician...
: 陶 - ĐinhDinh (surname)Dinh is a Vietnamese surname. In Vietnam, the surname is spelled Đinh or Đình but Đình is very rare in Vietnamese. The name Đinh is transliterated as Ding in Chinese.-Notable people with the surname Đinh:...
: 丁 - Đoàn: 段
- GiangJiang (江) (surname)Jiang is a Chinese surname, accounting for 0.26% of the Han Chinese population. It is the 52nd most common Chinese surname and is the 141st surname listed in the Hundred Family Surnames poem...
: 江 - Hà: 何
- HànHan (surname)Han is a common transliteration of the Chinese surname 韩 or 韓 , pronounced Hán, and the Korean surname 한 . The spelling "Han" is based on China's pinyin system and so used throughout Mainland China. Spelling can vary from 'Hon' in Cantonese-speaking areas to 'Hang' in Hainan...
: 韓 - Kiều: 喬
- KimJin (surname)Jin is a Chinese family name. It literally means "gold" and is No. 29 of the Hundred Family Surnames. The surname is also used in Vietnam and Korea, where it is romanized as Kim and in Hong Kong, in Cantonese, Kam...
: 金 - LaLuo (surname)Luo or "Lo" refers to the Mandarin romanizations of the Chinese surnames 羅 and 駱...
: 羅 - LạcLuo (surname)Luo or "Lo" refers to the Mandarin romanizations of the Chinese surnames 羅 and 駱...
: 駱 - LâmLin (surname)Lín Lin is the second most common surname in Taiwan at 9% of the population, second only to Chen. In mainland China , Lin is generally less common.-Name origin:...
: 林 - LiễuLiu劉 is a common Chinese family name. The transliteration Liu can represent several different surnames written in different Chinese characters:*劉 / 刘, pinyin: Liú...
(in northern or central regions): 柳 - Lục: 陸
- LươngLiang (surname)Liang is a Chinese surname common in Taiwan and southern China. Meaning "a beam", "a bridge", or "an elevation", or "a mast", the surname is often transliterated as Leung or Leong according to its Cantonese pronunciation, or Neo / Nio / Niu . It is also common in Korea, where it is pronounced Yang...
: 梁 - LưuLuuLưu or Luu is a Vietnamese surname. It is also the Vietnamese transliteration of the Chinese surname Liu , the fourth most common surname in China. The name is transliterated as Yoo, Yu, or Ryu in Korean....
(in central or southern regions): 劉 - MãMa (surname)Ma is one of the most common Chinese family names. As of 2006, it ranks as the 14th most common Chinese surname in Mainland China and the most common surname within the Chinese Muslim community, specifically the Hui people, Dongxiang people, and Salar people...
: 馬 - Mạch: 麥
- Mai: 梅
- Nghiêm: 嚴
- Phó: 傅
- PhùngPhùngPhùng is a Vietnamese surname. The name is transliterated as Feng in Chinese and Pung in Korean.Phung is the anglicized variation of the surname Phùng.-Notable people with the surname Phùng:*Phùng Hưng*Phung Khac Khoan...
: 馮 - QuáchQuachQuach is a Vietnamese surname: Quách romanized in English: Quach. The name derives from the Chinese surname 郭, which is pronounced Guō in Mandarin and Kwok or Gwok in Cantonese...
: 郭 - Quang: 光
- Quyền: 權
- TạXieXie is a Chinese family name; it is estimated that there are about 2 million people worldwide with this surname, the majority of whom live in southern China, and a 2006 study found that Xie was the 24th most common surname in China, with 0.27% of the population having this surname.The greater...
: 謝 - Thạch: 石
- Thái/SáiCai (surname)Cài is a Chinese surname that derives from the name of the ancient Cai state. It is regionally more common in China's Fujian Province and in countries settled by ethnic Chinese from that province than in China as a whole...
: 蔡 - Thi: 施
- ThânThanThan is a grammatical particle analyzed as both a conjunction and a preposition in the English language. It introduces a comparison, and is associated with comparatives and with words such as more, less, and fewer...
:屍 (All were known to have died out centuries ago) - ThủyThuyThuy is a commune in the Hautes-Pyrénées department in south-western France.Thuy is a very common name in Vietnam for girls; meaning 'pure' in Vietnamese-References:*...
:水 - Tiêu: 蕭
- TôTô (surname)Tô is a Vietnamese surname. The name is transliterated as Su in Chinese and So in Korean.To is the anglicized variation of the surname Tô.-List of persons with the surname:*Tô Hiến Thành, official in the royal court of the Lý Dynasty...
: 蘇 - TônSun (surname)Sun is a transliteration of a common Chinese surname, written 孫 or 孙 in Chinese characters, sūn in Hanyu pinyin...
: 孫 - TrangZhuang (surname)Zhuang is a Chinese surname. It ranked 73rd by population in a 1990 study of 174,900 samples but dropped out of the top 100 in a 2006 study, which included 296 million samples ....
: 莊 - TriệuTriệuTriệu is a Vietnamese surname. The name is transliterated as Zhao in Mandarin , Chiu in Cantonese , and Cho or Jo in Korean.Trieu is the anglicized variation of the surname Triệu.-Notable people with the surname Triệu:...
: 趙 - TrịnhZheng (surname)Zhèng or Cheng is a Chinese family name and is the name of an ancient state in today's Henan. It is written as 鄭 in traditional Chinese script or as 郑 in simplified Chinese script....
: 鄭 (almost exclusively a northern surname, based around Thanh HóaThanh HóaThanh Hóa is the capital city of Vietnam's Thanh Hoa province. The population is nearly 200,000 with an area of only 57.9 square kilometers....
) - TrươngZhang (surname)Zhang is among the most common Chinese surnames. In the 1990 edition of Guinness Book of Records, it was listed as the world's most common surname, with over 100 million people worldwide with this surname. It was also ranked third in the People's Republic of China by the Chinese Academy of...
: 張 - VănWen (surname)Wen is the Pinyin romanization shared by several different Chinese surnames, including 文 , 温 , 闻 , and 问 .-文 :*Wen Zhong , advisor in the state of Yue*Wen Chou Wen is the Pinyin romanization shared by several different Chinese surnames, including 文 (Wén), 温 (Wēn), 闻 (Wén), and 问 (Wèn).-文...
: 文 - Vĩnh: 永
- VươngWang (surname)Wang is a Chinese family name and one of the most common surnames in the world. It is ranked 8th in the Hundred Family Surnames, and first in the People's Republic of China's National Citizen ID Information System . Wang is ranked as the most common surname in mainland China, with 92.88 million...
: 王 - Vưu: 尤
In Vietnamese cultural practice, women always keep their family names once they marry, just as in other East Asian cultures, including Chinese culture, to the north and northeast.
Some Vietnamese have dual family names. Dual family name is passed through all people in the family, but sometimes through the male or female line only. In many cases the mother's family name is added behind the father's as a middle name, which does not make a dual family name as the mother's family name isn't passed through the next generation.
Middle name
Most Vietnamese have one middle name. But they can also have two or more, or no middle names at all.In the past, the middle name is selected by parents from a fairly narrow range. Almost all women had Thị (氏) as their middle name, and many men had Văn (文). More recently, a broader range of names have been used, and people named Thị sometimes omit their middle name.
Thị is by far the most common female middle name, this word is to express the possession, for example "Trần Thị Mai Loan" is a person name who has given name as "Mai Loan", surname "Trần", and the combination "Trần Thị" means "A female person who belongs to Trần family"; this combination is similar to western surname formation like "Van" in "Van Helsing", "Mac" in "MacCartney" etc., but not the same gender. Male middle names include Văn (文), Hữu (友), Đức (德), Công (公), Quang (光) and many others.
The middle name can have three usages:
- To indicate a person's generation — brothers and sisters share the same middle name, which distinguish them from the generation before and after them (see generation nameGeneration nameGeneration name, variously zibei or banci, is one of the characters in a traditional Chinese name, and is so called because each member of a generation share that character, unlike surnames or given names...
). - To separate branches of a big family. For example, "Nguyễn Hữu", "Nguyễn Sinh", "Trần Lâm". However, this usage is still controversial. Some people consider they are dual 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 in the family, also known as birth orderBirth orderBirth order is defined as a person's rank by age among his or her siblings. Birth order is often believed to have a profound and lasting effect on psychological development...
. This usage is less common than others.
However, nowadays most middle names do not have those usages. They can either have a meaning or just be there to make the full names sound prettier.
Given name
In most of the cases, formally, the middle name is actually a part of given name. For example, the name "Đinh Quang Dũng" is separated into surname "Đinh", and given name "Quang Dũng". Like in normal name list, these 2 parts of the full name are put in 2 different columns. However, in daily life conversation, the last word in given name is used to call a person with a title in front, for example "Ông Dũng", "Anh Dũng", etc. where "Ông" and "Anh" are the words to address the person depending 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
Vietnamese language
Vietnamese is the national and official language of Vietnam. It is the mother tongue of 86% of Vietnam's population, and of about three million overseas Vietnamese. It is also spoken as a second language by many ethnic minorities of Vietnam...
. Names often represent beauty, such as bird or flower names, or attributes and characteristics that the parents want in their child, such as modesty (Khiem).
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. This contrasts with the situation in many other cultures, where the family name is used in formal situations. This practice is similar to Icelandic
Icelandic name
Icelandic names differ from most current Western family name systems by being patronymic in that they reflect the immediate father of the child and not the historic family lineage....
and to some degree to Polish
Polish name
A Polish personal name, like names in most European cultures, consists of two main elements: imię, the first name, or given name, followed by nazwisko, the last name, surname, or family name....
practice. It is similar to the Latin-American custom of referring to some people as "Don" along with their first name. It contrasts with Japanese
Japanese name
in modern times usually consist of a family name , followed by a given name. "Middle names" are not generally used.Japanese names are usually written in kanji, which are characters of usually Chinese origin in Japanese pronunciation...
, where the given name is used only by close friends, especially children and young people (and often even here the family name is used) and some family members (though in the family, hierarchical role names, such as 'older brother', are often preferred).
Addressing someone by his or her family name is rare, though not impossible to find. In the past, married women in the north have been called by their family name, with Thị 氏 as a suffix. In recent years, doctors are more likely to be addressed by their family name than any other group of society, though this form of reference is more common in the north than in the south. Some extremely well known people are sometimes referred by their family names, such as Hồ Chí Minh
Ho Chi Minh
Hồ Chí Minh , born Nguyễn Sinh Cung and also known as Nguyễn Ái Quốc, was a Vietnamese Marxist-Leninist revolutionary leader who was prime minister and president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam...
("Uncle Hồ") (however his real surname is Nguyễn), Trịnh Công Sơn
Trinh Cong Son
Trịnh Công Sơn was a Vietnamese composer, musician, painter and songwriter. He, along with Pham Duy and Van Cao, is widely considered one of the three salient figures of modern Vietnamese music. Many of Trinh's songs are long songs...
("Trịnh music"), and Hồ Xuân Hương ("the poetess with the family name Hồ"). In the old days, people in Vietnam, and particularly North Vietnam addressed parents using the first child's name for example Mr and Mrs Anh or Master Minh.
When being addressed within the family, the children are sometimes referred to by their birth number, starting from one in the north but starting with two in the south. This practice is not very common recently, especially in the north.
Example
- Nguyễn Tấn Dũng is the current Prime Minister of VietnamPrime Minister of Vietnam-Office:The Prime Minister of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is the head of the executive branch of the Vietnamese government. The Prime Minister presides over the Vietnamese cabinet, and is responsible for appointing and supervising ministers...
. Nguyễn is his family name, Tấn is his middle name, and Dũng is his given name. In formal usage, he is referred to by his given name ("Mr. Dũng"), not by his family name ("Mr. Nguyễn"). - Likewise, the famous general and military leader, Võ Nguyên GiápVo Nguyen GiapVõ Nguyên Giáp is a retired Vietnamese officer in the Vietnam People’s Army and a politician. He was a principal commander in two wars: the First Indochina War and the Vietnam War...
, is referred to by his given name, eg, "General Giáp."
See also
- Chinese nameChinese namePersonal names in Chinese culture follow a number of conventions different from those of personal names in Western cultures. Most noticeably, a Chinese name is written with the family name first and the given name next, therefore "John-Paul Smith" as a Chinese name would be "Smith John-Paul"...
- Japanese nameJapanese namein modern times usually consist of a family name , followed by a given name. "Middle names" are not generally used.Japanese names are usually written in kanji, which are characters of usually Chinese origin in Japanese pronunciation...
- Korean nameKorean nameA Korean name consists of a family name followed by a given name, as used by the Korean people in both North Korea and South Korea. In the Korean language, 'ireum' or 'seong-myeong' usually refers to the family name and given name together...
- List of common Chinese surnames (lists Vietnamese equivalents)
- List of most common surnames
- SurnameSurnameA surname is a name added to a given name and is part of a personal name. In many cases, a surname is a family name. Many dictionaries define "surname" as a synonym of "family name"...