Vietnamese name
Vietnamese names usually consist of three names: the family name, the intermediate name and the first name.
family name
There are only about 300 Vietnamese family names. Since in Vietnam the form of address and proper name are considered formal, there is no confusion.
The most common surnames among the Vietnamese are:
- Nguyễn阮 (38.4%)
- Trần陳 (12.1%)
- Lê黎 (9.5%)
- Phạm 范 (7%)
- Huỳnh / Hoàng 黃 (5.1%)
- Phan 潘 (4.5%)
- Vũ / Võ 武 (3.9%)
- Đặng 鄧 (2.1%)
- Bùi 裴 (2%)
- Đỗ 杜 (1.4%)
- Hồ 胡 (1.3%)
- Ngô 吳 (1.3%)
- Dương 楊 (1%)
- Lý 李 (0.5%)
Both partners keep their maiden names at the time of marriage. Children are given the father's surname.
Proper name
The proper name usually consists of two names: the intermediate name and the nickname. The intermediate name can serve several functions. On the one hand, the intermediate name helps to distinguish if the last name and first name occur frequently. On the other hand, you can use it to determine the gender of the wearer if it is not evident from the nickname. In addition, the girls used to be given the intermediate name “Thi” and the boys the intermediate name “Van”. However, this gender segregation has now gone out of fashion. Nowadays, the poetic aspect plays the greatest role when choosing the intermediate name.
Occasionally one finds carriers of two intermediate names (example: Phan Thị Kim Phúc ), rarely also persons without intermediate names (example: Nguyễn Trãi ).
Order of names
As in Korea and China , the family name is written before the proper name in Vietnam . This results in the sequence family name (+ intermediate name) + first name .
- Example Nguyễn Minh Triết
- Example: Nguyễn Trãi
Individual evidence
- ↑ Vietnamese Names. August 1, 1995, accessed February 1, 2019 .
- ↑ Lê Trung Hoa, Họ Và Tên Người Việt Nam ( Vietnamese surnames and proper names ), Social Sciences Publishing House (2005)
- ↑ The Vietnamese first name ( Memento from April 18, 2016 in the Internet Archive )