Vietnamese names generally consist of three parts: a family name, a middle name, and a given name, used in that order. Like their Chinese, Korean, and other counterparts, this is in accordance to the East Asian system of personal names. In a deviation from the East Asian naming system, a person will be referred to either by their whole name or by their given name in normal usage. A family name, surname, or last name is the part of a persons name that indicates to what family he or she belongs. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Look up Appendix:Most popular given names by country in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

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. Vietnamese (tiếng Việt, or less commonly Việt ngữ[2]), formerly known under the French colonization as Annamese (see Annam), is the national and official language 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. A patronymic is a personal name based on the name of ones father. ...   (IPA:// in Vietnamese; English approximation: win) is the most common Vietnamese family name. ...

Virtually all family names are Chinese in origin, although a few (particularly in the south) have been traced to Cham origins, but presumably have been Vietnamized. The surname Nguyễn is rare among Chinese family names, appearing as (Mandarin) Ruan or (Cantonese) Yuen, mostly in Guangdong province, possibly among those with partial or distant Vietnamese ethnic ancestry (also termed Gin ethnicity). This article is about the Cham people of Asia. ... This article is on all of the Northern and Southwestern Chinese dialects. ... This article is about all of the Cantonese (Yue) dialects. ... Guangdong, often spelt as Kwangtung, is a province on the south coast of the Peoples Republic of China. ... Gin, or Jing Nationality (京族; Pinyin: JÄ«ngzú) is the name given to ethnic Vietnamese living in China. ...

The most popular family names among the Vietnamese are (the Chinese characters following each name are their Chinese equivalents)^[1]:

1. Nguyễn 阮 (38.4%)
2. Trần 陳 (11%)
3. Lê 黎 (9.5%)
4. Huỳnh/Hoàng 黃 (5.1%)
5. Phạm 范 (5%)
6. Phan 潘 (4.5%)
7. Vũ/Võ 武 (3.9%)
8. Đặng 鄧(2.1%)
9. Bùi 裴 (2%)
10. Đỗ 杜 (1.4%)
11. Hồ 胡 (1.3%)
12. Ngô 吳 (1.3%)
13. Dương 楊 (1%)
14. Lý 李 (0.5%)

The following include some other less common surnames, in no particular order:   (IPA:// in Vietnamese; English approximation: win) is the most common Vietnamese family name. ... 陳; Chén Chén (Simplified Chinese: 陈, Traditional Chinese: 陳; Wade-Giles: Chen) is one of the most common Chinese family names. ... Lê is a common Vietnamese family name. ... Huang is the transliteration of the Chinese surname (Simplified Chinese: 黄; Traditional Chinese: 黃; Hanyu Pinyin: ), which also has the literal meaning yellow. ... Phạm is a common Vietnamese family name. ... This page is a candidate to be copied to Wiktionary using the Transwiki process. ... Võ (æ­¦, in chữ nôm) is a common Vietnamese surname. ... Dang is a Vietnamese, Chinese, Indian and German surname. ... Đỗ Mười (born February 2, 1917 in Dong My) was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam from 1991 to 1997. ... Hu is a Chinese family name represented by the character 胡. The spelling Hu can be used by numerous less common Chinese family names including but not limited to 胡,ç“ ,è­·,戶,扈,虎,呼,忽,æ–› etc. ... Wu is the Pinyin transliteration of the Chinese surname 吳 (Traditional Chinese), 吴 (Simplified Chinese), which is 10th most common surname in Mainland China. ... Vietnamese names generally consist of three parts: a family name, a middle name, and a given name, used in that order. ... 李 Lǐ Li, Lee or Ly is a common transliteration of several Chinese family names, including that of 李 (pinyin Lǐ), the most common Chinese family name, and other less common surnames such as 黎 (Lí); 理 and 里 (both pronounced as Lǐ); 郦, (é…ˆ), æ —, 厉, (厲), and 利 (all pronounced as Lì). Calligraphically, Li (李) is the same character as...

• Lâm 林
• Đinh: 丁
• Nghiêm: 嚴
• Đào: 陶
• Vương: 王
• Trịnh: 鄭 (almost exclusively a northern surname, based around Thanh Hoa)
• Phùng: 馮
• Chung: 鍾
• Triệu: 趙
• Đoàn: 段
• Trương: 張
• Tôn: 孫
• Liễu (in northern or central regions): 柳
• Lưu (in central or southern regions): 劉
• Mai: 梅
• La: 羅
• Văn: 文
• Tạ: 謝
• Lương: 梁

In Vietnamese cultural practice, women almost always keep their family names once they marry, just as in other East Asian cultures, including Chinese culture, to the north and northeast. Lin can be a pinyin transcription of one of several Chinese surnames, with 林 (pinyin Lín) being overwhelmingly the most common. ... Thanh Hoa is a city in Vietnam. ... The surname Feng descended from the 15th son of Zhou Wen Wang, Bi Gong Gao, whose last name was Ji. ... Chung may be: Jeong (Korean name), alternate transcription Zhong (surname), a Chinese surname, alternate transcription Chung (philosophy) Category: ... Luu is the Vietnamese transliteration of the Chinese surname Liu. ... East Asia is a subregion of Asia. ... Chinese culture has roots going back over five thousand years. ...

Some Vietnamese have a dual family name. Usually it is a combination of the father's family name and the mother's family name. For example, "Nguyễn Phạm", "Nguyễn Lê".

Intercalary name

The middle name, or more correctly, intercalary name, (tên đệm or tên lót), is selected by parents from a fairly narrow range. In the past, almost all women had Thị as their middle name, and many men had Văn. 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. Male middle names include Văn, Hữu, Đức, Công, Quang and many others.

Generally, the middle name has three usages:

1. 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 name).
2. 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.
3. To indicate a person's position in the family, also known as birth order.

The last usage is less common than others. It seems that just the Chinese still keep this convention. Generation name is half of the two-Chinese character given name given to newborns in the same generation of one surname lineage. ... The phrase birth order is defined as a persons rank by age among his or her siblings. ...

Given name

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. For women, names often represent beauty, such as bird or flower names. For men, names often reflect attributes and characteristics that the parents want in their child, such as modesty. Vietnamese (tiếng Việt, or less commonly Việt ngữ[2]), formerly known under the French colonization as Annamese (see Annam), is the national and official language of Vietnam. ...

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.

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 last name, with Thị 氏 as a postfix. 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 last name is Nguyễn), Trịnh Công Sơn ("Trịnh music"), and Hồ Xuân Hương ("the poetess with the family name Hồ"). In the old days, people in North Vietnam called parents using the first child's name. For the city named after him, see Ho Chi Minh City. ... Trinh Cong Son Trinh Cong Son (Trịnh Công SÆ¡n) (February 28, 1939 – April 1, 2001) was a Vietnamese composer, musician, painter and songwriter. ... Hồ Xuân HÆ°Æ¡ng (1772-1822) (胡春香, read as Hú ChÅ«nxiāng in Mandarin) was a Vietnamese poet born at the end of the Later Lê Dynasty who wrote poetry in chữ nôm. ...

Example

• Nguyễn Tấn Dũng is the current Prime Minister of Vietnam. 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 Giáp], is referred to by his given name, eg, "General Giáp."

Nguyễn Tấn Dũng (born November 17, 1949 in Ca Mau province) is the prime minister of Vietnam. ... The Prime Minister of Vietnam is the head of the executive branch of the Vietnamese government. ...

See also

• Japanese name
• Korean name
• Names in world cultures
• List of most common surnames
• Name

Yamada Tarō (), a typical Japanese name (male), equivalent to John Smith in English. ... A Korean personal name consists of a family name followed by a given name. ... Family names can be unique or come in large numbers. ... For other uses, see Name (disambiguation). ...

External links

• Vietnamese names
• Vietnamese names
• Attitude towards the self
• Vietnamese names for girls and boys

References

1. ^ Lê Trung Hoa, Họ Và Tên Người Việt Nam (Vietnamese Family and Personal Names), Social Sciences Publishing House (2005) [1]