Vietnamese Names Options

[Nam Quoc Son Ha]

What’s in a name?
10:17' 11/02/2004 (GMT+7)

VietNamNet - Exploring Vietnamese names is a nice way to venture into the culture of Vietnam.




In conjunction with the Western thinking, Rose is a popular name for Vietnamese women.
Like anywhere else, under the influence of patriarchy, Vietnamese children bear their fathers’ surnames. However, sometimes people combine both the father and mother’s names, thus the children have a double family name.



Vietnamese surnames are limited to just a few hundred, which means that millions of Vietnamese may have a same surname such as Nguyen or Tran. Nguyen was also the last feudal monarch of Vietnam.



The meanings of Vietnamese given names is a mystical forest for language explorers, since they are no longer characters to identify somebody, but they also carry honourable meanings, as well as the hopes and expectations of the parents.



Most Vietnamese names have Chinese origin, as well as Chinese meanings. However, sometimes parents don’t include such meanings in their children’s names intentionally, they simply choose those names because they sounds beautiful.



Structurally, Vietnamese names come in a reverse order compared to Western names. In general, most of Vietnamese names have three parts:



- The family name (equivalent to surname) comes first.

- The middle name (optional, but common) comes second.

- The given name (equivalent to first name) comes last.



This reflects an important difference in terms of philosophy between the West and the East: Individuality is considered as the core of Western society, while in the East, the community, particularly the family, takes the central position.

On the contrary, some names are chosen because of their ugliness. This mostly occurs in the countryside, where parents fear that children with beautiful name will not grow up healthily, or might be taken away by devils.



In naming, the thinking of the West and the East meet in such a nice way. Flowers and precious stones, for example are favoured by both as beautiful names. While the West has Rose or Rosa, Vietnam has Hong, while mirrors appear as Daisy and Cuc, Esmeralda or Jemma and Ngoc.



Influenced by a nature-oriented philosophy, naming children after Mother Nature is a choice of many Vietnamese parents. Everywhere and every time you can meet people who are named Fragrance, Flower, Mountain, Cloud, and many more like that.



There used to be a time when most Vietnamese people bore the middle name Thi for women and Van for men. In recent years, this practice has fallen from favour, since it is thought that these two names are now characterless or even rustic. Many women have omitted the middle name Thi from their CVs.



However, it is not a Bourgeois Gentilhomme style, just a normal trend caused by the change of views in the society. Together with increases in living standards, people find many other things to care about, like fashion, vehicles, food, and of course their own names.



Another interesting thing is that most Vietnamese names are less commonly gender specific. The majority of western names have gender qualities, but this rule doesn’t exist in Vietnam: Ha (River) or Hai (Ocean) can be named for both boys and girls. Of course, there are certain names, which are mainly used for boys like Hung (Hero) or Tuan (Handsome).



Some nice naming rules of the past are no longer adhered to in Vietnam, continued only by a handful of families.



For example, middle names are sometimes is used to identify the rank of one person in a large family, which means that people of the same generation have the same middle name. The second king of Nguyen dynasty wrote a twenty-word poem, each word of which will be used as the middle name for his sons, grandsons, great grandsons and so on. Sometimes children will bear the same given name, but it is again the middle name that is changed to identify them.



In many cases, the names of brothers and sisters are in some way tied to each other, or to their parent’s names. A father whose name is Dragon might call his son or daughter Phoenix, since these form a pair of legendary animals in Vietnamese culture. Likewise, two sisters might be named Golden Branch and Jade Leaf.



In a style contrary to Western practice, Vietnamese avoid naming their children after their friends or relatives, since such an action is considered as lacking respect. In feudal times, naming after the real names and title of kings was banned, and violations would demand stiff punishment.



In short, there are many things you can tell, or even discover about a Vietnamese if you know his or her name. A man whose surname is Nguyen Phuoc, is most likely a descendant of the royal Nguyen family. When you meet a lady named Cam Thi, which means Harp and Poetry, you can be sure that her father, or her grandfather would be a scholar, since an ordinary person would not create such a name.



Vietnamese names are the crystallisation of humanity, philosophy, and parental love, the characteristics of the society that created them.



Lam Thien


EDIT: Here we might list some family names we've found while researching family trees.
Bang (Ba`ng)
Bui(Bu`i)
Cao
Che (Che^')
Chu-Chau (Châu)
Chung
Du (Du+)
Duong (Du+o+ng)
Dang (DDa(.ng)
Dinh (DDinh)
Do (DDo^~)
Ha (Ha`)
Hoang-Huynh (Hoa`ng-Huy`nh)
Khong (Kho^?ng)
Ho (Ho^`)
Lam (La^m)
Le (Le^)
Lieu (Lie^u)
Luong (Lu+o+ng)
Luu (Lu+u)
Ly (Ly')
Ma
Ma (Ma~)
Mai
Manh (Ma.nh)
Nghiem (Nghie^m)
Ngo (Ngo^)
Nguyen (Nguye^~n)
Nhan
Phan
Pham (Pha.m)
Phung (Phu`ng)
Quach(Qua'ch)
Quan
Su (Su*?)
Ta (Ta.)
Thach (Tha.ch)
Tran (Trâ`n)
Truong (Tru+o+ng)
Trinh (Tri.nh)
Vu-Vo (Vu~ - Vo~)
Vuong (Vu+o+ng)

This post has been edited by Nam Quoc Son Ha: May 11 2004, 05:30 PM

[supernovasp]

kdjfkd

This post has been edited by supernovasp: May 24 2007, 08:25 PM

[Nam Quoc Son Ha]

My mum is Huynh Thi Kim Phuong. (IMG:http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

[supernovasp]

Thach is cambodian-vietnamese last name
che is cham last name given by the nguyen emperor

[vIeTpRidEs_wOrLd...]

My mum is Huynh Thi Kim Phuong. (IMG:http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

lolz , my mom's is Tran Thi Kim Phuong (IMG:http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

[DragonMP]

So Supernova & Byron are from the same lineage (IMG:http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/embarassedlaugh.gif)

[Nam Quoc Son Ha]

Thach is cambodian-vietnamese last name
che is cham last name given by the nguyen emperor

Yes I've realised that. But this is a list of the surnames in Vietnam, not just for us ethnic Kinh people.

BtW here's an article about the origin of the Nguyen surname:

Descendents of Ben Tao were rewarded the Ruan kingdom (south east of Jing Chuan in Gansu Province). The Ruan kingdom was eliminated by Zhou Wen Wang during the Shang Dynasty and its people began to bear the last name of Ruan. Another origin of Ruan came from the Shi (stone, rock) family who changed their name to Ruan.
In Vietnamese, the surname Ruan is known as Nguyen, which is the most popular family name. Although not all Vietnamese who bear this family name can trace their roots back to their Chinese ancestors, Nguyen is clearly a Chinese name. Many Vietnamese with this surname claim their ancestor to be a man called Ruan Cho, who was a governor of ChiaoChih (North Vietnam) during the Chen Dynasty (~600 A.D.). (Ruan means a musical instrument)

[supernovasp]

Thach is cambodian-vietnamese last name
che is cham last name given by the nguyen emperor

Yes I've realised that. But this is a list of the surnames in Vietnam, not just for us ethnic Kinh people.

BtW here's an article about the origin of the Nguyen surname:

Descendents of Ben Tao were rewarded the Ruan kingdom (south east of Jing Chuan in Gansu Province). The Ruan kingdom was eliminated by Zhou Wen Wang during the Shang Dynasty and its people began to bear the last name of Ruan. Another origin of Ruan came from the Shi (stone, rock) family who changed their name to Ruan.
In Vietnamese, the surname Ruan is known as Nguyen, which is the most popular family name. Although not all Vietnamese who bear this family name can trace their roots back to their Chinese ancestors, Nguyen is clearly a Chinese name. Many Vietnamese with this surname claim their ancestor to be a man called Ruan Cho, who was a governor of ChiaoChih (North Vietnam) during the Chen Dynasty (~600 A.D.). (Ruan means a musical instrument)

Don't believe that yutopian.com source sucks

[Nam Quoc Son Ha]

Thach is cambodian-vietnamese last name
che is cham last name given by the nguyen emperor

Yes I've realised that. But this is a list of the surnames in Vietnam, not just for us ethnic Kinh people.

BtW here's an article about the origin of the Nguyen surname:

Descendents of Ben Tao were rewarded the Ruan kingdom (south east of Jing Chuan in Gansu Province). The Ruan kingdom was eliminated by Zhou Wen Wang during the Shang Dynasty and its people began to bear the last name of Ruan. Another origin of Ruan came from the Shi (stone, rock) family who changed their name to Ruan.
In Vietnamese, the surname Ruan is known as Nguyen, which is the most popular family name. Although not all Vietnamese who bear this family name can trace their roots back to their Chinese ancestors, Nguyen is clearly a Chinese name. Many Vietnamese with this surname claim their ancestor to be a man called Ruan Cho, who was a governor of ChiaoChih (North Vietnam) during the Chen Dynasty (~600 A.D.). (Ruan means a musical instrument)

Don't believe that yutopian.com source sucks

But it is what also written in books.


Anyway here's one for Ly':

Origin of Li*, Lee*, Yi* (Korean), Ly* (Vietnamese)
Famous People in History

The 2nd most common last name in China. The origin of the Li last name was quite complicated, having to do with the official title and tree name. There was a descendent of Shao Hao known as Ben Tao, who was an official of the Justice Department. Ben Tao was given the title of Da Li (Li which has the same pronouncement as the last name Li, means reasoning, and justice). According to the legend, Ben Tao has an unicorn which could distinguish criminals from innocent people. When brought in front of a lineup, the unicorn would point to the guilty party with its horn. Ben’s descendents held the office of justice for generations from Xia to Shang Dynasty, and was known as the Li’s (justice). At the end of Shang Dynasty, Li Zheng was executed by Zhou Wang for making a bad judgment. His wife and son Li Zhen escaped to ruins of Yi Hou. They found a lot of pear trees which helped them to escape starvation. To commemorate this, they change their last name from the Li of justice to the Li of pear. During the Tang Dynasty, many people (including Xu, Bing, Dong, An, Ge, Du, Wu, Ma, Zhang, and Hong) were give the name of Li for their contributions in establishing the Tang Dynasty, and Li became a big family.

Hometown: Lan Zhou, Gong Chang, and Qin Zhou of Gan Su Province.

[supernovasp]

http://www.vietnamgiapha.com/

more reliable sources of vietnamese last names and names

[Nam Quoc Son Ha]

I don't understand that site. (IMG:http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/icon_confused.gif)





Vietnamese Names
Vietnamese personal names are usually composed of three elements appearing in the following order: first, the family or clan name (ho), such as Nguyen, Tran, Le, etc.;second, the middle name(chu dem or chu lot). 'cushion world,' such as Van, Dinh, Huu, etc,; and third, the personal or given name (ten). Example: Nguyen Van Nam, in which Nguyen, the family name, i.e. the appellation of the remote clan ancestor - a god or a hero - is transmitted from generation through male offspring. Van is the middle or "cushion" name. Nam, the given name, always placed last, corresponds to the first or Christian name in Western societies.

Sometimes there is no middle or cushion elements: Ly Cam, Ly Tien, Le Loi, Nguyen Trai, etc. This is true only of men's names, and represent 22% of a corpus of 3,282 names (Pham Tat Thang 1988, 185).

Family Names

There are, according to tradition, one hundred surnames or family names in all: tram ho, cf. Chinese bai sying. The real number is, however, unknown although it has been said that the maximum is there hundred(Huard, Durand 1954, 92). In the Red River delta of North Vietnam, Gourou (1936, 127) counted no more than 202 different family names.

The most frequently encountered family names are single word such as Nguyen, Tran, Le, Vu, Vo, Hoang, Huynh, Pham, Ngo, Truong, Phan, Doan, Thai, Trinh, Dang, Bui, Lam, Cao, Duong, Dinh, Do, Luu, Ly, etc.

A study conducted in the province of Bac-ninh in North Vietnam revealed 99 different family names, with forty-four percent of the families bearing the name Nguyen (Gourou 1936, 124). According to the French geographer, several villages in the Tonkin delta house only individuals bearing the same clan name (1936, 124)

The majority of family names can be traced to Chinese clans, and indeed "can be written in Chinese charaters (Nguyen Khac Kham 1973, 196). But there are also family names that came from Cham people (Ong, Ma, Tra, Che, Lang, Sam) in the south (Nguyen Bat-Tuy 1954, 50)

Other family names may have two words, which are hyphenated in the conventional orthography (Nguyen-Tan, Nguyen-Khoa, Ho-Dac, etc.). In such compounds the first word indicates the family which has adopted the individual, whereas the second word denotes the family of origin: thus the double family name Vu-Pham means that the person, of the Pham clan, was later adopted by the Vu clan. Another explanation for compound family names is that the second element, originally a middle name, came to be used jointly with the family name to identify members of one family among so many Nguyen's or Tran's, after the clan got broken up because of urbanization and displacement. Thus, we have such family names as Tran-Dinh, Tran-Thanh, Tran-Nhu, Ngo-Dinh, Nguyen-Dinh, Nguyen-Khoa, etc. The two examples (Uat-tri, Gia-cat) given in Huard, Durand (1954, 92) are Chinese, not Vietnamese names. Male members of the royal family who are not in direct line with the ruling Nguyen family take the name Ton-that 'Revered Family'. The women have the name Ton-nu.

Middle Names

The middle element, when there is one, nearly always tells you about the individual's sex, since girls' names - 100% before 1945 and 87% after 1945 - have Thi ( < Chinese shi) (Pham 1988, 187). Middle names for men are usually Van, Huu, Duc, Dinh, Xuan, Ngoc, Quang, Cong. The middle name may remain the same for all male members of one family. Only one set of three middle elements indicates the relative ages of the siblings. Brothers with manh, trong, qui as middle names are respectively the first, the second and the third in the family, all the following ones taking gia. An older brother may be identified with ba, and his younger brother with thuc.

As a rule the middle names does not indicate generation. Some families may, however, set up arbitrary rules about giving a different middle name to each generation. The case of the last royal family, founded by Nguyen (-Phuc) Anh in 1802, is an often quote example. Emperor Gia-Long's fourth son, upon ascending the throne in 1820 under the dynastic tittle of Minh-Mang, established a list of middle names to be given to his descendants successively (Laborde 1920, 388-389). These names were arranged in four lines of verse with five word each:

Mien Huong Ung Buu Vinh

Bao Dinh Qui Long Tuong

Hien Nang Kham Ke The

To Quoc Bao Gia Xuong

Minh-Mang's son, Thieu-Tri (1841-47), and his collaterals had Mien. In fact, Thieu-Tri's full name was Nguyen(-Phuc) Mien-Thi. Nguyen(-Phuc) Huong-Nham was the name of Thieu-Tri's descendant (Tu-Duc), who reigned from 1847 to 1883. In the next generation, Ham-Nghi, as well as Duc-Duc, Hiep-Hoa, Kien-Phuc had the name Nguyen(-Phuc) Ung- ...The former Chief-of-State Bao-Dai is the seventh descending generation, so his name is Nguyen(-Phuc) Bao-Long. Overseas, members of the former royal family have dropped the family name Nguyen(-Phuc), thus making it difficult to identify one individual and his uncles (or nephews): people have to refer to the above quatrain to realize that Buu Hoan, for instance, calls Ung Trinh his uncle, and Vinh Dan his newphew. Another example is the Le family, with the generation makers Cam, Hong, Phuoc (Huard, Durand 1954, 93).

[DAI_VIET]

My title and name is Hùng Thắng Hầu Trần Uy Tuấn Đại Nguyên Sóai.


(IMG:http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Nam Quoc Son Ha]

My title and name is Hùng Thắng Hầu Trần Uy Tuấn Đại Nguyên Sóai.


(IMG:http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

My title and name would be Việt Cao Tổ Nguyễn Thành Chương aka Nguyễn Thành Chương Đại Đế. LOL

[DAI_VIET]

My title and name is Hùng Thắng Hầu Trần Uy Tuấn Đại Nguyên Sóai.


(IMG:http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

My title and name would be Việt Cao Tổ Nguyễn Thành Chương aka Nguyễn Thành Chương Đại Đế. LOL

LOL. That's okay with me, as long as you know how to take care of the people and love them. Just give me full command of the military and I'll take down any resistance and expand the frontiers. LOL.

LOL. Byron would take the title Phạm Byron Đại Vương. LOL.


(IMG:http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

[Nam Quoc Son Ha]

My title and name is Hùng Thắng Hầu Trần Uy Tuấn Đại Nguyên Sóai.


(IMG:http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

My title and name would be Việt Cao Tổ Nguyễn Thành Chương aka Nguyễn Thành Chương Đại Đế. LOL

LOL. That's okay with me, as long as you know how to take care of the people and love them. Just give me full command of the military and I'll take down any resistance and expand the frontiers. LOL.

LOL. Byron would take the title Phạm Byron Đại Vương. LOL.


(IMG:http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

Well you better take good care of the military... or else bị lăng trì.

Anyway, I command you to take over Cao Miên so I could make Byron Cao Miên Đại Vương. (IMG:http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

[ngo.ngochy]

My title and name is Hùng Thắng Hầu Trần Uy Tuấn Đại Nguyên Sóai.


(IMG:http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

My title and name would be Việt Cao Tổ Nguyễn Thành Chương aka Nguyễn Thành Chương Đại Đế. LOL

wat would i be? my full name is Ngo Thi Ngoc Hy (IMG:http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[DragonMP]

Tiểu Muội Ngô Thị Ngọc Hy (IMG:http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[ngo.ngochy]

Tiểu Muội Ngô Thị Ngọc Hy (IMG:http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Không chịu đâu, ai cũng chức to chức bự.. còn Hy thì chỉ là em thôi (IMG:http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/cry2.gif)

[sailador]

Tiểu Muội Ngô Thị Ngọc Hy (IMG:http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

i think that is a great name for you..sounds soo cute..tieu muoi muoi

[tam_ca]

Tiểu Muội Ngô Thị Ngọc Hy (IMG:http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

i think that is a great name for you..sounds soo cute..tieu muoi muoi

hell yeahz...