how come a lot of viet last names are so common? Like Dinh, or Nguen or tran? how come?

haha.. thats nguYen..
maybe coz everyones related..
incest u kno.. haha

i have two girls in my english class, and one is my best friend and they both have the same last name but they never ever met before.

yeah, i think Nguyen is by far the most popular viet last name. but you know, it's sorta like that in china and japan too. i mean, japan, their most popular last name (i don't know the japanese pronounciation) is the chinese character for Li, which also happens to be a common last name. then there's Zhang for chinese, and Krn...dunnoo... lol, only korean person i know iss half...

It's Lee,Li that is the most popular surname in Chinese while its ,Cruz,dela Cruz and Reyes for Hispanic. As for Vietnamese is is Nyuyen that is considered as common.

I guess 'tanaka' is one of the most common names in Japan. I even know three japanese named 'tanaka' and they don't know each other.

In Finland lots of people (it has only 5 million inhabitants *g*) are named like...-lainen, which means 'inhabitant'.

how come it's so common?

well, my theory (this probably only works in china or some other country with a history somewhat like china's) is that all the lords' (well, not lords, but not emporers either...) concubines probably had lots of children, and they all end up with the guy's last name, and they all go out and do the same, and ect. and do you really thing the concubines are all gonna just have sex with the one guy? i don't...

Yes, That may be one theory. Another one is that some Chinese change their surnames to more popular ones or another. In some country like Philippines some Chinese change their surnames to Filipino sounding like Urlanda,Yuchengco, Jayoma , Gomonilla, Cojuangco, Uychico,Tanyu maybe to adopt themselves to the local populance.

Yes, every countries have some popular and common surname,
in Italy there are a lot!!!

In Naples : Esposito
In Milan: Brambilla
in all Italy a lot of : Bianchi or Rossi like the mother of my wife!!!

every region a lot of common surnames!!!

koreans are all about the Kims or Choi or Li i think

Yes, Its Kim ,Lee, Choi and Li in Korea I had a Korean friend with a surname of Kim

Here in the Netherlands I think it's Jansen/Janssen.......

But Dutch are kinda Cheesy

ORRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!! perhaps we're all related??? ...hmm maybe a long LOOOOOOONG time ago...us azn were all from the same family ....argh...what is this leading to....

"koreans are all about the Kims or Choi or Li i think"

Your just saying names from the Korean team in King of Fighters! Next you will say Chang and May Lee.

Actually, Kim, Lee or Li is very common Korean surname.

in the hmong culture we have about 18 last names... the most popular ones are: yang, vang and lee.

It seems to me that the surnames are Chinese in origin .Could you elaborate in this ? Is this tribe from China , Vietnam or northern Thailand? I think this group is scattered in these countries? Am I right?

According to what Hmong elders say: Hmong people originated in China. Many fled China during the mid 1880s because of persecution by the Chinese. They went to countries such as: Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam, some even formed small villages in the mountains. After that, the united states CIA (center intelligence agency) recruited Hmong people to help the Americans during the Vietnam War. Many Hmong people died fighting beside the Americans. After the war ended, Vietnam declared itself a communist country. Hmongs are persecuted because of their aid to the Americans in the Vietnam war. And so they fled to Thailand and lived in refugee camps there before they emigrated to the United States. Right now, they are scattered throughout. Many are now living in the United States.

Did that kind of help you? I hope so.

I have that in mind, because I lived in southeast asia .So this group is now considered as a minorities in these countries.

yup!!

Does your surname fit in the common Hmong surnames or not?

My last name is "Her". It is in the Hmong culture. I would say, it's getting pretty common now. Ahaha. Oh by the way, I'm sorry I answered your question, you were referring to no_comment, right?!?! I just thought I would tell you what I know. I hope you don't mind.

my last name is Nguyen

once again you guys do not answer the question: why are there so many nguyen last names for vietnamese?

Chinese: liu, ni, chang, chen, sun, tsai, ling, lei, and theres like tons, but for vietnamese it seems like theres only tranh and nguyen.

maybe a long time ago there used to be "clans" or villages that had the names of Li, so people just took the name of their village to represent.

Oh, I see .

wow...sooo many nguyen...even virt celebs r mostly nguyen...trish nguyen, cardin nguyen(asia4), nguyen hung, nguyen thang, spencer nguyen(asia4), james nguyen(asia4)....even da mc's r nguyens....like...nguyen ngoc nga, nguyen cao ky duyen

but im not a nguyen...im a le^....le..dats a common 1 as well....

other viet surnames...cao, bui, tran, vo, truong, ha, do, le, nguyen....theres more but thses r da 1 i no

the NGUYEN's were probably very horny people! Same goes for all of the descendents of common last names.

I see the name "LEE (or Li)" in the chinese, korean, japanese, and ALL OVER asian. The name "Lee" far out numbered any common vietnamese last name!

hehe yep and the viet equivalent is Le ..

What about Pham and Phan? Those are the most popular surnames in my class for viets.

What about Ho as in Ho Chi Minh? hahaaaa

Yes, It could be.

...... wtf

Ummm.....how old are you guys? Anyways, the reason about 50% (no, really) of the viet population has the last name Nguyen is because the last emperor/dynasty that took over in Vietnam in 1802 was named Nguyen Anh. And when a new emperor overthrew the last emperor and started his own dynasty, he had a tendency to kill off the last emperor's traces and lineage. So a bunch of people changed their names to Nguyen. Some did it for safety cuz they had the last emperor's last name, and others did it to basically suck up. My mom said most did it cuz they really liked that new emperor, but whatever.

Most of the Viet vocabulary and last names come directly from Chinese. Nguyen is clearly Chinese. It's pronounced Yuen in Cantonese and Ruan in Mandarin.

For the Chinese, 40% of the population belong to the top ten last names, like Huang (Wong for Canto), Zhao (Chow), Li (Lee for Canto, Le/Ly for Viet), Zhang (Chang for Canto, Trang for Viet...I think), Chan (Tran for Viet) and so on. I think it's even more extreme for the Koreans, where like 60 - 80% of the people belong to the top ten names, like Choi, Lee, Hyung, and yeah, Kim. Defintely Kim. I've ran into a million of those. And I'm pretty sure most of the Korean names come from Chiense, too.

So yeah, there's your mystery solved.

Nguyen is not the only popular last name. You guys ever heard of story of an emperor forced people to changed their last names ? or People automatically changed their last names to the Emperor last name ? It happened in VietNam long ago. by the way , my last name is Kie^`u and i'm not chinese.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

NGUYEN is the MOST popular name in vietnam.....but only in vietnam
just like KIM is the MOST popular name (JIN in chinese) in korea......only in korea
but "LEE" (LY in vietnamese.....YI or LEE in korean.....LEE in cantonese......LI in mandarin) has the most population among all chinese-related last name
its one of most popular lastname not only in china-hong kong-taiwan but also in korea and vietnam

you hardly can find any chinese or vietnamese with lastname "KIM" which is the most popular lastname in korean and i believe you cant find anyone with last name "NGUYEN" in korea and it is a very rare lastname among chinese while being the most popular name in vietnam
but what i found interesting is more than half of most popular lastnames among chinese are also most popular lastname among korean and vietnamese
few notable examples are

CHINESE VIETNAMESE KOREAN

HUANG HYANH HWANG

ZHANG TRANG CHANG

WU NGO YOO (i believe which i am not sure)

LI LY LEE

ZHENG TRINH JONG

etc etc



and i wonder whats "KIEU" in chinese ?? LOLZ
sure you are not chinese but your lastname.....like all other vietnamese
came from CHINESE only
thats a FACT you cant deny it !!!!!!!

how does..

WU=NGO=YOO .. i cant really see how they're the same?? esp.. ngo.. hmmm

NGO is vietnamese equivalent of "WU" and YOO is korean equivalent of "WU"

of course they sound different coz its purnounce by different language !!!!!!

for example you dont purnounce the name "JIN" like same way in korean

as in chinese.......

you say "KIM" in korean......by the way JIN means gold

also i wanna add one

CAI in chinese is what "THAI" in vietnamese and "CHAE" in korean

I think Tran is the most popular last name for the vietnamese.

I'm pretty sure "Ng" is the Cantonese equivalent of Mandarin's "Wu." As for Ngo, I think that's actually Vietnamese, but I'm not sure. I got some friends and neighbors with that last name, and I think they're half Viet half Chinese. Darn, my mom told me about that name before.

And oh yeah, Nguyen is the most common Viet last name. We just said it's about 50% of the population.

yeah thats right....."NGO" is "WU" in chinese
and the last name nguyen does constitute a little more than half of entire
vienamese population in vietnam
vietnamese have some really weird last name where in chinese theres nobody have that kind of name

for example "NGHIEM" in chinese is "GUANG"....guang for guangdong's "GUANG".....guangdong is a province in china
"TRUNG" in chinese is "ZHONG".....means loyal
also among chinese theres no one have that kind of last name

"THUC" is "SHU" in chinese.......a non-existen last name among chinese....it means a dynasty during three kingdom period
"BUI" is "BEI" in chinese.....means shell etc etc
"BANH" is "BIN" in chinese.....means biscuits
"CHE" is "ZHI" in chinese.....means system
"DANG" is "YANG" in chinese.....means shape.....also its not the usual "YANG" among chinese.....its a totally different word which among chinese....no one have that as a last name.
"CU" is "GOU" in chinese.....means some kind of aspen
"DAM" is "GAN" in chinese.....means venture
"DAO" is "XIAO" in chinese.....means yeast
"VANH" is "CI" in chinese......means to support
"THIEU" is "SHAO" in chinese......means less......few
"TANG" is "SANG" in chinese.....means mulberry tree
"PHUNG" is "FANG" in chinese.....means release

as you can see all those vietnamese last name above are either non-existen or very rare last name among chinese population
those are unique vietnamese last name even though theres chinese writing
its unique coz no chinese have that kind of last name

you can even translate korean or japanese name into vietnamese
for example

"HWANGBO IL SUNG" in korean is "HOANGPHU NHAT THANH" in vietnamese
"SUZUKI ICHIRO" in japanese is "LINH MOC NHAT LANG" etc etc

can anyone post a link where i can find all vietnamese last name ?????
i am sure only just a few last names.....the most notable chinese last names such as "LI"....."LIU"....."ZHANG"....."CHEN"....."WU"....."ZHENG"......"CAI"....."HUANG"
can be found among all groups.....korean.....viet and chinese
and among all vietnamese last names.....i am sure some of them cant be find among chinese population such as ones i have mentioned above
and same with chinese last name vice versa

if you want to find vietnamese last names in chinese character
try this
http://nomfoundation.org/nomdb/lookup.php
its a nom look up
you can find chinese last name in vietnamese......just type in chinese
purnounciation in roman spell then you can see all on the list
if you try to find vietnamese last name in chinese it will be a little difficult
as you know vietnamese word have tongue to it.....such as ^....~....."."......
'.....
you can not just type in someone's last name in vietnamese and then expect to find the character in chinese without know the tongue of the word

so plz do help me get source for all vietnamese last name
something like vietnamese hundred family name list can be help a lot

tran is not the most popular last name in vietnam......its "NGUYEN"
tran is very popular in vietnam though.....i believe its one of top 4 last name in vietnam......it is even more popular in china....its "CHEN" in chinese.......
but is a rare last name in korea.......

who in here has "Mai" as their last name? Am I the only one?

^ hahaha

tran and ngyuen are both very popular..

i`m thach..i dun even kno if dat is viet..is it ?

mine is Chu and people think i'm chinese, but it's not too rare for vietnamese to have this last name either.




the fact that vietnamese is closed to chinese meaning they can be translated directly from one into the other Even without losing the canotations. And the reason that you see those vietnamese names are either non-existen or rare in chinese is because you've incorporated those Chinese names into the English writing system and pitted them against the vietnamese last name. I mean, what kind of last name is Ng? looking from the chinese perspective, it's not possible to have such a last name, but that's how it is when it's being translated into english. therefore, it's no supprise that no body in chinese has such name as Guang, Zhong, Shu, bei, etc.



Again, i'm sure that if you use the cheek and tongue from vietnamese to chinese and vice versa, then i think it wouldn't sound as weird as or as rare as to go from chinese to english then comparing it to original version of the word in vietnamese. And you know how it is to translate two completely different language from one into the other: the meaning is lost.

um............one question, what is nguyen in chinese?

Nguyen is as Yuen in Cantonese or Ruan in Mandarin and interpreted in Chinese character as:

Illegal,

"I`m thach..i dun even kno if dat is viet..is it ? "

Thach is clearly Cambodian last name. Are you Cambodian?