Vietnamese name

Vietnamese personal names generally consist of three parts: one patrilineal family name, one or more middle name(s) (one of which may be taken from the mother's family name), and one given name, used in that order. The "family name first" order follows the system of Chinese names and is common throughout the Chinese cultural sphere. However, it is different from Chinese, Korean, and Japanese names in the usage of "middle names," as they are less common in China and Korea and do not exist in Japan. 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, in normal usage.

Due to the frequency of the major family names such as Nguyễn, Trần, and Lê, persons are 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. Names with the same spelling (ignoring diacritics) but with different tones are different names, which can confuse non-Vietnamese people when the diacritics are dropped, as is commonly done outside Vietnam.

Anyone applying for Vietnamese nationality must adopt a Vietnamese name.[1]

Family name

The family name is positioned first and is passed on by the father to his children. It is estimated that there are around 100 family names in common use, but 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 family names of emperors to show their loyalty. Over many generations, family names became permanent.

The most common family names among the Vietnamese are the following (the Chinese characters following each name are Hán tự).[2] Altogether, the 14 names account for 90% of the people.

Distribution of Vietnamese family names
  1. Nguyễn 阮 (39%)
  2. Trần 陳 (11%)
  3. Lê 黎 (9.5%)
  4. Phạm 范 (7.1%)
  5. Huỳnh/Hoàng 黃 (5.1%)
  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 other less-common surnames in alphabetical 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 the northeast.

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, accompanying with proper kinship terms. There is no such thing as a "last name basis," or family name basis, in Vietnam.

Middle name

Most Vietnamese have one middle name, but it is quite possible to have either two or more of them or even to have no middle name at all.

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 have been used, and people named Thị sometimes omit their middle name.

Thị is by far the most common female middle name. That word expresses possession. For example, "Trần Thị Mai Loan" is a person who has the given name of "Mai Loan" and the surname "Trần", and the combination "Trần Thị" means "a female person belonging to the Trần family." The combination is similar to Western surname formation like "Van" in "Van Helsing," "Mac" in "MacCartney," etc. Male middle names include Văn (文), Hữu (友), Đức (德), Thành (誠), Công (公), and Quang (光).

The middle name can have three uses:

  1. To indicate a person's generation. Brothers and sisters share the same middle name, which distinguish them from the generation before them and the generation after them (see generation name).
  2. 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 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 (birth order) in the family. This usage is less common than others.

However, most middle names now do not have those uses. They can have a meaning or only make the full name sound better.

Given name

In most cases, the middle name is formally part of the given name. 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 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 some people as "Don," along with their first name.

Addressing someone by the family name is rare. In the past, married women in the north were called by their (maiden) family name, with Thị (氏) as a suffix. 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 common among females, especially in combination with the name Kim. For example, Phan Thị Kim Phúc has the given name Kim Phúc.

Examples

  • Nguyễn Tấn Dũng is the former 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, i.e. "General Giáp".

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:

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

Further, some historical names may be written using different Chinese characters (Sino-Vietnamese), but are still written the same in the modern Vietnamese alphabet.

Indexing

According to the Chicago Manual of Style, Vietnamese names are indexed according to the final given name and not according to the family name, with a cross-reference placed in regards to the family name. Ngo Dinh Diem would be listed as "Diem, Ngo Dinh" and Vo Nguyen Giap would be listed as "Giap, Vo Nguyen".[3]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Viet name is mandatory for citizenship
  2. ↑ Lê Trung Hoa, Họ Và Tên Người Việt Nam (Vietnamese Family and Personal Names), Social Sciences Publishing House (2005) "Archived copy". Archived from the original on January 31, 2008. Retrieved March 26, 2014.
  3. ↑ "Indexes: A Chapter from The Chicago Manual of Style" (Archived 2015-02-18 at WebCite). Chicago Manual of Style. Retrieved on December 23, 2014. p. 28 (PDF document p. 30/56).
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