Common Vietnamese Names And Nicknames
When talking or writing an email to a Vietnamese person, it is important to pronounce and spell his or her name correctly because no one likes their name to be misspelled. That is why learning some common Vietnamese names is worth your time.
In addition, knowing the meaning of some Vietnamese names, Vietnamese nicknames or the way a Vietnamese name should be written may help you learn more about the Vietnamese culture. Let’s get started!
The Structure Of Vietnamese Names
Compared to most Western names such as English names or Serbian names, Vietnamese names have an opposite order of given name, middle name, and family name. A Vietnamese name has three parts put in the following order:
FAMILY NAME + MIDDLE NAME + GIVEN NAME
For example, “Hồ Chí Minh” (written in English as “Ho Chi Minh”) is a full Vietnamese name. “Hồ” is the family name or surname, “Chí” is the middle name, and “Minh” is the given name or first name.
A Vietnamese name is usually 3-word long but it could have 2, 4, or even more words. For example:
Nguyễn Kim (2 words)
Phan Văn Trường (3 words, popular)
Nguyễn Thị Minh Khai (4 words)
Lê Hoàng Hiếu Nghĩa Đệ Nhất Thương Tâm Nhân (9 words, aka the longest Vietnamese name so far).
Vietnamese people use their first name in daily conversation, not their family name. When it comes to formal situations, such as a conference, a full name will be used and pronounced after a job title. For instance:
“Chào mừng Ngài Giám Đốc Điều Hành Nguyễn Văn A!”
“Welcome the CEO Nguyen Van A!”
So, if you talk to a Vietnamese friend, call him or her with the first name which is actually written at the last of a Vietnamese name
Common Vietnamese Given Names
Because first names (personal names) are usually used in the daily language in Vietnam, we will start first with some common Vietnamese given names and their meaning. The names are listed in two separate sections below but kindly note that some names can be used for both genders such as “Minh”, “Ninh” and “Quý”.
Vietnamese Names For Females (Women, girls, etc.)
Below are some popular Vietnamese names for women or females in general:
An — peace
Anh — peace, safety
Ánh (high tone) — light
Bích /beek/ — jade, jewelry
Châu /chou/ — pearls
Chi /chee/- a tree branch
Cúc /cook/- chrysanthemum
Dương /dzuang/ — the ocean
Dung /dzoong/ — generous
Đào /down/ — pink or red cherry blossoms
Hồng — roses
Hà — river
Hoa /hwa/- flowers
Hằng /hung/ — the moon
Hạnh — beautiful and moral
Hiền /hian/ — gentle; quiet
Huyền /hwian/- dark
Huệ /hwe/ — lily
Hường /huang/ — pink rose
Kim — metal
Lan — orchids
Ly /lee/ — lily
Linh — bell
Lê — pear
Liên /lian/ — lotus
Mai /my/ — yellow cherry blossoms
My /me/ — Nightingale
Mỹ /me/ (high broken tone) — beauty
Ngọc — jade
Nguyệt /ngwiat/ — the moon
Nga — the princess from the moon
Nhung /nhoong/ — velvet
Phương /fuang/ — destiny
Quý /kwee/ (high tone) — precious
Tâm — heart
Thuỷ /twee/ — water
Thanh — bright blue
Thảo — respectful of parents
Thi /tee/ — poem
Thu /too/ — autumn, fall
Trúc /trook/- bamboo
Tú /too/ — stars
Vân — cloud
Xuân — spring
Yến — Swifts
Yên — peaceful
Vietnamese Names For Males (Men, boys, etc.)
Vietnamese names for males are listed below:
An — peace
Anh — peace, safety
Bảo — protection
Bình — peaceful
Cường /kuang/- strength
Chiến /chian/- fighter, warrior
Chính — righteousness
Đại /di/ (heavy tone) — great, big
Danh /dzanh/- famous, prestigious
Đỉnh — summit
Đông — the East
Đức — moral, good
Dũng /dzoong/ — brave; heroic
Dương /dzuang/ — the ocean
Duy /dzee/ — moral, only one
Gia /dzaa/ — family
Hải /hi/ — the sea
Hiếu /hiaw/- respectful
Hoàng /hwang/ — royal
Hùng /hoong/ — spirit of hero; brave
Huy /hwee/ — glorious
Lâm — full understanding; knowledge
Lập — independent
Long — dragon
Minh — transparent, bright
Nam — the south
Nghĩa /ngia/ — forever
Phong /fong/ — wind
Phúc /fook/ — blessings; luck
Phước /fuak/ — good luck
Quân /kwan/ — soldier; warrior
Quang /kwang/ — clear
Quốc /kwuak/ — nation
Quý /kwee/ — precious
Sơn /sern/ — mountain
Tài — prosperous; talented
Tân — new
Thái — many, multiple
Thắng /tung/ — victorious
Thành — finished
Thịnh — prosperous
Tiến — move forwards
Toàn — complete; secure
Trọng — respected
Trung /troong/ — middle; central
Việt — from Vietnam
Vinh — glory
Popular Vietnamese Middle Names
We have learned a lot of first names in Vietnamese. How about middle names in the Vietnamese language? As introduced earlier, a Vietnamese is usually 3-word long, which means that it has a one-word middle name. However, sometimes you can find a Vietnamese that doesn’t have a middle name or have more than 1-word long middle name.
The most common Vietnamese middle names are “Thị” /tee/ (heavy tone) for females and “Văn” for males.
Nowadays, Vietnamese people prefer to not use “Thị” or “Văn” to name their girls or boys respectively. Instead, they use other different middle names to make a beautiful and meaningful Vietnamese name. For example, “Khánh” — a bell, “Minh” — transparent/bright, “Ngọc” — jade.
First names or Last names can be used as middle names as well. For example, “Đặng Lê Nguyên Vũ” is a name that actually is a combination of four Vietnamese family names (Đặng, Lê, Nguyên, and Vũ).
Most Common Vietnamese Family Names
It estimated that about 100 Vietnamese family names are commonly used. Among them, “Nguyễn” is the most common surname with about 40% of the population of Vietnam has this name. That’s why you should not call someone with their surname in Vietnam, such as “Mr. Nguyen” because many people will be confused if you are calling them.
There are about 14 family names accounting for 90% of the Vietnamese population, according to Wikipedia.org:
Nguyễn 阮 (39%)
Trần 陳 (11%)
Lê 黎 (9.5%)
Phạm 范 (7.1%)
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%)
In Vietnamese culture, the family name of the father will be used to name his children. Sometimes, the parents will put their surnames in their children’s name but the father’s surname is still considered the main family name of the children. For example, “Nguyễn Lê Ngọc Hà” has “Nguyễn” as the family name from dad’s and “Lê” as the family name from mom’s.
A Vietnamese woman still keeps her family name when she marries.
Do Vietnamese Use Nicknames?
In Vietnam, nicknames are commonly used for boys and girls. Nicknames are usually cute names such as “Mèo” (a cat), “Tít” (small eyes), “Heo” (a pig in Southern Vietnamese dialect), “Tí” (little, tiny) and “Bô Bô” (the sound when a baby starts to speak).
Vietnamese people also add an adjective after a first name to make a nickname. The adjective usually describes something about the name’s owner but sometimes it is used just because the first consonant of the adjective matches the first consonant of the name.
For example, “Trang trọc”, “Trang” is a girl’s name, “trọc” means not much hair. The girl whose name is Trang might not have a lot of hair when she was a baby.
Here are some other nicknames that include an adjective: Cường béo (a chubby guy named Cường), Nga Ngố (the consonant “Ng” is used in both the name and the adjective).
In modern life, many people also use an English word as a nickname for their kids, such as “Tôm” (Tom), “Cupid”, “Min” (mint), and Bin (Bill).
Do Vietnamese adults use their nicknames? Yes but only in informal cases and when you know them well.
We have learned many Vietnamese first names, family names, middle names, and nicknames. Which names do you like the most and why? Imagine if you travel to Vietnam, would you like to get a Vietnamese name? And if so, what Vietnamese name do you want people to call you? Don’t forget to learn how to greet people in Vietnamese or learn more Vietnamese today with Ling App.
Original blog post: https://ling-app.com/vi/vietnamese-names/
