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*[[Triệu]]: 趙
*[[Triệu]]: 趙
*[[Zheng (surname)|Trịnh]]: 鄭 (almost exclusively a northern surname, based around [[Thanh Hóa]])
*[[Zheng (surname)|Trịnh]]: 鄭 (almost exclusively a northern surname, based around [[Thanh Hóa]])
*[[Chang (surname)|Trương]]
*[[Wen (surname)|Văn]]: 文
*[[Wen (surname)|Văn]]: 文
*Vĩnh: 永
*Vĩnh: 永

Revision as of 17:42, 12 July 2012

Template:Contains Vietnamese text 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 names and is common throughout the Sinosphere (Chinese cultural sphere), but is different from Chinese, Korean, and Japanese names 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 Nguyen, Le, and Pham, 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.

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 Hán tự).[1] Added together these 15 names account for 99% of the people.

  1. Nguyễn 阮 (38.4%)
  2. Phạm 范 (12.9%)
  3. Lê 黎 (9.5%)
  4. Trần 陳 (7.5%)
  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 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.

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:

  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", "Phạm Văn". 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. 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. 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.

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, e.g., "General Giáp."

See also

References

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

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