Vietnamese name

Traditional Vietnamese personal names (Vietnamese: họ tên) generally consist of two components and follow the Eastern name order:

However, not every name is conformant. For example:

The "family name first" written order is usual throughout the East Asian cultural sphere which Vietnam is a part of. Persons can be referred to by the whole name, the primary name, or a hierarchic pronoun, which usually connotes a degree of family relationship or kinship – but referring via the primary name is most common, as well as if degree of family relationship or kinship is unknown. In more informal contexts or in the Western world, the primary name can be written first then surname e.g. Châu Bùi or Thanh Trần.

The Vietnamese language is tonal and so are Vietnamese names. Names with the same spelling but different tones represent different meanings, which can confuse people when the diacritics are dropped, as is commonly done outside Vietnam (e.g. Đoàn ([ɗʷà:n]) vs Doãn ([zʷǎ:ˀn]), both become Doan when diacritics are omitted). Additionally, some Vietnamese names can only be differentiated via context or with their corresponding chữ Hán, such as 南 ("south") or 男 ("men", "boy"), both are read as Nam. Anyone applying for Vietnamese nationality must also adopt a Vietnamese name. Vietnamese names have corresponding Hán character adopted early on during Chinese rule. Vietnamese script is fully transliterated (romanized), because the previous script, chữ Nôm, was replaced by chữ Quốc ngữ, which was made compulsory during the French colonial era.

The surname (Vietnamese: họ) is positioned first and is passed on by the father to his children in a traditionally patrilineal order, but exceptions are possible. It is estimated that there are around 100 surnames in common use, but some are far more common than others. The name Nguyễn was estimated to be the most common (40%) in 2005. The reason the top three names are so common is that people tended to take the surnames of emperors, to show loyalty to particular dynasties in history. Over many generations, those surnames became permanent.

Some scholars argue that all Vietnamese surnames are of Chinese origin, introduced during the thousand-year Chinese occupation of Vietnam, which began in 111 BCE with the Han Dynasty. Prior to this, evidence of distinct Vietnamese surnames is scarce due to a lack of written records. An alternative view suggests that Vietnamese surnames include both indigenous names and those borrowed from Chinese culture. Hypotheses propose that indigenous surnames may have evolved from place-names in the Red River delta (e.g., Nguyễn from "nguồn, ngòi" meaning spring or canal) or from traditional totems (e.g., Gà for "chicken tribe"). Historically, individuals sometimes adopted the surname of the ruling dynasty as a sign of loyalty, or were compelled to do so, particularly after dynastic changes. For example, during the Trần dynasty, individuals with the surname Lý (from the overthrown Lý dynasty) were ordered to change their surname to Nguyễn. The Nguyễn dynasty (1802-1945) further contributed to the prevalence of the Nguyễn surname. Additionally, surnames were sometimes changed to evade taxes, avoid penalties, or adhere to royal name taboos.

Vietnamese surnames also have origins from other ethnic groups, including Chinese (Khổng, Lưu, Trương), Khmer (Thạch, Sơn), Cham (Chế, Chiêm), and various ethnic minorities (Linh, Giáp, Ma).

The following are the most common surnames among Vietnamese, with their chữ Quốc ngữ spelling, and their corresponding Hán-Nôm characters. The figures are from a 2022 study 100 họ phổ biến ở Việt Nam (100 Most Popular Surnames In Vietnam) from the Vietnamese Social Science Publisher (Nhà xuất bản Khoa học Xã hội). In 2005, these 14 names had accounted for around 90% of the Vietnamese population.