why are the surnames Nguyễn and Trần so popular?
Almost every Vietnamese person I've known and heard about has one of those surnames

From what i know, there are a lot of Nguyen because when the Tran dynasty took power, they forced people with the last name Ly to change it to Nguyen. This is only one reason. There are several more but I can't recall now.

Maybe they like to make lots of offsprings. :]

Try to remmeber

I'm kind of curious too, i've always had it in my mind, but never thought of asking it in here.

i find that nguyen and hoang are the most l33test in popularity. not know aboot this Tranamabob thoug..

A lot of people who have Nguyen last name are actually Tran last name, but actually like half Tran people are actually Ly people, but actually half of LY people are actually something else. Blame the dynastic cycle

I know people with these surnames:
- Nguyen
- Bui
- Pham

I don't know any Trans, lol.

Mines . Lai , Le , Lam ,Ho , ended up with only one though ,, which one??

I'm guessing you're a Ho

You could be right my friend Clean ---

oops, i know a Le too. lol

Le isn't as popuplar though.. I think nugyen and Tran or Ly is by far more popular..

Le is such a super popular last name.

funny, here in canada i don't know of any other...

There are a few Le surnamed people here but not too many. Ly is way more common.

...my sur name is Nguyen....but i agree Li is a popular last name and so is Nguyen...

oops edited.

Both my parents were "Ha"s. So that makes me a full blooded "Ha."

It sucks to have that last name though.

Sometimes people would always laugh HAHAHAHA.

Other times I'd be at an office or on the phone and the receptionist would ask me for my last name and then I'd have to spell it. So then I say...."H"........."A"...... Then the receptionist would ask, "Is that it?" b/c they're expecting a longer last name. Then I'd have to say "um...yeah" . How irritating. Other people don't have to deal with that. It so annoying cuz it happens ALL the time.


Why couldn't I have been born a Nguyen or Tran?

Oh oh, sounds kinda like In breeding though -- .. I would never go for another Lai, Le, Lam or Ho :genius:

I think the worst is Ho. Ho = Hoe. I feel sorry for those people



Almost as bad is Duong, cuz Duong sounds almost like Dung. I used to call my friend "cow dung" all the time.

You do know Ho chiMiinh is also a Ho right???

haha Indeed

my last name is tran prounounced JUN or chun chan etc, why do they use tr for words that sound like ch or j, i dont think vietnamese ever pronounced it that way, maybe we just use tr to differentiate ourselves from being chinese lol, but tr in viet is hard to pronounce no one would try to pronounce the tr.

where i live the current population of vietnamese name is
- nguyen(of course)
-duong(yuong-yeung)
-ho
-tran(jun-chun)
-ngo
-diep(yiep-yip)

thats the current high population of names IVE seen. i've been seeing less and less nguyens i think trans and nguyen parents are probably producing more girls than guys, so less guys to carry on the name? lol.. but i've been seeing less of tran and nguyen, maybe they moved elsewhere. i see the rare names now...

i even see a vietnamese name trac(chac)... very very rare. (cheuk) in chinese i think.

EDIT: i see lots of HO'S nowadays lol...

I've noticed a couple of Hùynhs on this forum

lol!!

Ho = river in Cantonese ("Ha" in Vietnamese and "He" in Mandrin).

It's one of his fake names me took up as time went on. His real last name is Nguyen i think.

Hà = river like in Hà Nội.

Well, he kept that name until now and most likely will forever be known as HO Chi Minh --

i thought there were two ho, one means tiger and one like river or pond or whatever, like ho tam swimming pool..

No. Tiger = Hổ

geez...you guys forgot about: Vu, Minh, Phan, Pham...I'm sure there are more.

haha ok.. ok.. but what IF theres two or three different kinds of ho's for vietnamese surnames..? i went to nomfoundation.org. and i typed in ho-tiger and said it was a surname so thats where i got it.

Ok, let me make it clear. Without accent marks, Hồ and Hổ look the same. So I agree with you on this.
But, look. With accent marks as it's supposed to be, Hồ and Hổ are different words.

Please post all Vietnamese last name you know!

Nguyễn, Trần, Lê, Dương, Ngô, Vương, Trương, Hoàng, Phan, Trịnh, Phạm, Bùi, Hồ, Lý, Triệu, Ðàm, Ôn, Ðặng, Ngụy, Chu, Châu, Ðào, Phùng ...
I will think some more. Temporarily, sleepy.

LOL. This is what I think.

When the Ly took over the Le, the Le changed it to the Ly.

When the Tran took over the Ly, the Ly changed it to the Nguyen.

When the Le took over the Tran, the Tran changed it to the Nguyen.

When the Nguyen took over the Le, the Le changed it to the Truong.

Truong?

Trương is not that popular, well below Nguyễn, Trần, Lê, Ngô and Phạm

Yah, for some reason, I remembered reading it somewhere.

Wait... it was the Truong that changed to the Le. My mistake. My mom is a Le, and she said her family used to be a Truong.

So that's why there are so many of Nguyens

here goes:
bâu, bành, beo, báo, bươu, bùi, cát, cẩu, cảu, càu, cú, câu, câu, cầm, cho, chẩu, chõ, chu, chung, cò, cừu, day, nhai, đặng, đẵng, đựng, nựng, đạc, đác, đàm, đàn, đào, đổng, đỏng, đúng, đủng, đũng, xổng, đồng, giồng, đỗ, đậu, đỏ, đổ, diêm, diêu, rêu, dơ, dư, dờ, dương, dàng, giang, giăng, nhăng, hàn, hãn, hoắc, hoác, hoàn, hoàng, hòang, hổ, hỗn, thêm, thiêm, hùng, kê, khố, kho, khó, khu, khù, lam, chàm, rôm, rườm, lận, lăn, lấn, lật, lặt, lứt, rật, lâm, lăm, lầm, lim, lom, lùm, lâu, sau, lã, lả, lỡ, lử, lữa, rả, rứa, trả, trở, lê, lí, lý, liêu, lộc, lư, lờ, lừ, lương, lưu, lũ, lụ, mai, môi, mui, mã, mứa, mựa, mõ, nạo, nữu, nam, nga, ngoẹo, thiêu, ngô, ngo, ngư, ngơ, ngớ, ngừ, nguồn, nguyên, nguỵ, nguyễn, ngán, ngón, ngoãn, ngũ, phắc, phác, vóc, phó, quách, quí, táo, táu, tảo, tang, tân, tào, thầm, thòm, xầm, thìa, thì, thôi, thoi, thòi, tía, tử, tống, tôn, trang, đồ, dưa, trần, rần, trằn, trườn, trịnh, chạnh, trọng, vô, vu, vương, vướng, xâu, yết, khổng, hỏng, hổng, khỏng, khủng, hùynh, minh

seems like its missing a diep, maybe more...

I think one of his other names was Nguyen Sinh Cong or something like that. One of the main street in Hue is named that.

You mean Trinh lol not Truong

i think all vietnamese should change their last name to Ly

Wow, it would sound like a massive incest orgy '' hehhehhe

Then howabout all Canadains change ther thier surnames to Johnson

all vietnamese should change their last names, to their ancestors last name, so the rare ones wouldn't be so rare, and the nguyen and stuff wouldn't be so popular.... it would be just normal lol.

Yea, thats a shame.. there should be a alot of Viets wearing X caps just like malcom X

I think Nguyen is definitely most popular in Vietnam. Ly and Ho are popular too. Anybody knows what their Surname means? Like Nguyen is supposed to be a type of musical instrument.

Nguyễn is an ancient musical instrument
Nguyên means "spring" or "source"
my surname, Khổng, means "opening" or "hole"