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TraditionalVietnamese personal names (Vietnamese:họ tên) generally consist of two components including a "surname" and a "given name", follow theEastern name order:

• Asurname: most consist of amonosyllable and normallypatrilineal, althoughmatrilineality is possible.
• Agiven name including:
  • An optionalmiddle name that is typically a monosyllable, although some individuals have a multisyllabic middle name or none at all.
  • A primary name usually consists of one or twosyllables as adouble name.

However, not every name is conformant. For example:

• Nguyễn Trãi has his surnameNguyễn and his primary name isTrãi. He does not have any middle name.
• Phạm Bình Minh has his surnamePhạm and his primary name isBình Minh (lit. 'dawn'). He does not have any middle name, althoughBình is often mistaken for one.
• Nguyễn Văn Quyết has his surnameNguyễn, his middle name isVăn and his primary name isQuyết (lit. 'decide').
• Nguyễn Ngọc Trường Sơn has his surnameNguyễn, his middle name isNgọc (lit. 'gemstone') and his primary name isTrường Sơn (lit. 'long mountain')
• Lâm Thị Mỹ Dạ has her surname isLâm, her middle name isThị and her primary name isMỹ Dạ (lit. 'beautiful night'). Her husband,Hoàng Phủ Ngọc Tường (a Vietnamese poet),[1] has his surname isHoàng Phủ (naturalcompound surname), his middle name isNgọc and his primary name isTường (lit. 'deep understanding'). Due to almost Vietnamese surnames aremonosyllable, his surname is usually confused withHoàng, leading to their two daughters are named asHoàng Dạ Thi andHoàng Dạ Thư instead ofHoàng Phủ Dạ Thi andHoàng Phủ Dạ Thư.
• Trần Lê Quốc Toàn has his surname isTrần, his first middle nameLê is derived from his mother's surname, his second middle name isQuốc (lit. 'country') and his primary name isToàn (lit. 'fully').

The "family name first" written order is usual throughout theEast Asian cultural sphere which Vietnam is a part of. Persons can be referred to by the whole name, the primary name, ora 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 orThanh Trần.

TheVietnamese language is tonal and so are Vietnamese names. Names with the same spelling but different tones represent different meanings, which can confuse people when thediacritics are dropped, as is commonly done outside Vietnam (e.g.Đoàn ([ɗʷà:n]) vsDoãn ([zʷǎ:ˀn]), both becomeDoan when diacritics are omitted). Additionally, some Vietnamese names can only be differentiated via context or with their correspondingchữ Hán, such as 南 ("south") or 男 ("men", "boy"), both are read asNam. Anyone applying for Vietnamese nationality must also adopt a Vietnamese name.^[2] Vietnamese names have corresponding Hán characteradopted early on duringChinese rule. Vietnamese script is fully transliterated (romanized), because the previous script,chữ Nôm, was replaced bychữ Quốc ngữ, which was made compulsory during theFrench colonial era.

The surname (Vietnamese:họ) is positioned first and is passed on by the father to his children in a traditionallypatrilineal 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 nameNguyễn was estimated to be the most common (40%) in 2005.^[3] 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-yearChinese occupation of Vietnam, which began in 111 BCE with theHan Dynasty.^[4] Prior to this, evidence of distinct Vietnamese surnames is scarce due to a lack of written records.^[4] An alternative view suggests that Vietnamese surnames include both indigenous names and those borrowed fromChinese culture.^[4] 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").^[4] 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.^[4] For example, during theTrần dynasty, individuals with the surname Lý (from the overthrown Lý dynasty) were ordered to change their surname to Nguyễn.^[4] TheNguyễn dynasty (1802-1945) further contributed to the prevalence of the Nguyễn surname.^[4] Additionally, surnames were sometimes changed to evade taxes, avoid penalties, or adhere to royal name taboos.^[4]

Vietnamese surnames also have origins from other ethnic groups, includingChinese (Khổng, Lưu, Trương),Khmer (Thạch, Sơn),Cham (Chế, Chiêm), and various ethnic minorities (Linh, Giáp, Ma).^[4]

The following are the most common surnames among Vietnamese, with theirchữ Quốc ngữ spelling, and their corresponding Hán-Nôm characters.^[5] The figures are from a 2022 study100 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.

The following list includes less-common surnames in alphabetical order which make up the other 10% (2005), now 16.3% (2022):

In Vietnamese culture, women keep their surnames after marriage.

Even though it is not required by law, children usually bear the father’s surname. Someone is also given a middle name derived from themother’s surname as a gesture of respect and remembrance (e.g.TrầnLêQuốc Toàn).

In more casual contexts, people are always on a "first-name basis", which involves their primary names, accompanied by properkinship terms.

The given name (Vietnamese:tênor tên riêng) is consist of an optional middle name and a mandatory primary name.

Middle name (Vietnamese:tên đệm, tên lótor chữ đệm,lit. 'padding name orpadding character') in Vietnamese is optional. Although often placed in the "middle" position, Vietnamese middle names have a very different role and usage compared to Western one.

Most Vietnamese people have a monosyllablic middle name, but it is also quite common to have multisyllabic middle name or none at all. A middle name can stand alone (e.g.,Văn orThị), but it is often combined with the primary name to form a more meaningful full name, where the middle name functions as part of the primary name.

In the past, the middle name was selected by parents from a fairly narrow range of options. Almost all women hadThị (氏) as their middle name, and many men hadVăn (文). More recently, a broader range of names has been used, and people namedThị usually omit their middle name because they do not like to call it with their name.

Thị is a most common female middle name, and most common amongst pre-1975 generation but less common amongst younger generations.Thị (氏) is an archaicSino-Vietnamese suffix meaning "clan; family; lineage; hereditary house" and attached to a woman's original surname, but now is used to simply indicate the female sex. For example, the name "Trần Thị Mai Loan" means "Mai Loan, a female person of the Trần family"; meanwhile, the name "Nguyễn Lê Thị An" means "An, a female person of the Nguyễn and Lê families". Some traditional male middle names may includeVăn (文),Hữu (友),Đức (德),Thành (誠),Công (公),Minh (明), andQuang (光).

The middle name can have several uses, with the fourth being most common nowadays:

1. To indicate a person's generation. Brothers and sisters may share the same middle name, which distinguish them from the generation before them and the generation after them (seegeneration name).
2. To separate branches of a large family: "NguyễnHữu", "NguyễnSinh", "TrầnLâm" (middle names can be taken from the mother's surname). However, this usage is still controversial^{[dubious –discuss][citation needed]}. Some people^[who?] consider them to be a part of their surnames, not surname + middle name. Some families may, however, set up arbitrary rules about giving a different middle name to each generation.^{[clarification needed]}
3. To indicate a person's position (birth order) in the family. This usage is less common than others.
4. To provide a poetic and positive meaning. E.g. "Trần Gia Hạnh Phúc" meaning "Happiness to the Trần family".
5. Some children take the father’s (or mother's) surname, their middle name is derived from the mother's (or father's) surname as a gesture of respect and remembrance. E.g.Trần "Lê" Quốc Toàn,Cao "Pendant" Quang Vinh.

The first three are not as common in the present-day as they are seen as too rigid and strictly conforming to family naming systems. Most middle names utilise the fourth, having a name to simply imply some positive characteristics.

In most cases, the middle name is formally part of the primary name (Vietnamese:tên chính). For example, the name "Đinh Quang Dũng" is separated into the surname "Đinh" and the primary name "Quang Dũng". In a normal name list, those two parts of the full name are put in two different columns. However, in daily conversation, the last syllable in a primary name with a title before it is used to call or address a person: "Ông Dũng", "Anh Dũng", etc., with "Ông" and "Anh" being words to address the person and depend on age, social position, etc.

The primary name is the primary form of address for Vietnamese. It is chosen by parents and usually has a literal meaning in theVietnamese language. Names often represent beauty, such as bird or flower names, or attributes and characteristics that the parents want in their child, such as modesty (Khiêm, 謙).

Typically, Vietnamese will be addressed with their primary name, even in formal situations, although an honorific equivalent to "Mr.", "Mrs.", etc. will be added when necessary. That contrasts with the situation in many other cultures in which the surname is used in formal situations, but it is a practice similar to usage inIcelandic usage and, to some degree,Polish. It is similar to the Latin-American and southern European custom of referring to women as "Doña/Dona" and men as "Don/Dom", along with their first name.

Addressing someone by the surname is rare in the current. In the past, women were usually called by their (maiden) surname, withthị (氏) as a suffix, similar toChina andKorea.^{[citation needed]} In recent years, doctors are more likely than any other social group to be addressed by their surname, but that form of reference is more common in the north than in the south. Some extremely famous people are sometimes referred to by their surnames regardless of whether the name is an alias, such asHồ Chí Minh (Bác Hồ—"Uncle Hồ") (although his real name is Nguyễn Sinh Cung),Trịnh Công Sơn (nhạc Trịnh—"Trịnh music"), andHồ Xuân Hương (nữ sĩ họ Hồ—"the poetess with the surname Hồ"). Traditionally, people in Vietnam, particularly North Vietnam, addressed parents using the first child's name.

When being addressed within the family, children are sometimes referred to by their birth number, starting with one in the north but two in the south. That practice is less common recently, especially in the north.

Double names are also common. For example,Phan Thị Kim Phúc has the primary nameKim Phúc.

• Lê Lợi (an Emperor of theLê dynasty) hasLê as his surname andLợi as his primary name. He does not have any middle name.
• Nguyễn Phúc Vĩnh San (EmperorDuy Tân) hasNguyễn as his surname,Phúc as his middle name, andVĩnh San as his primary name (adouble names). The name is similar toNguyễn Phúc Ánh (EmperorGia Long, the first emperor ofNguyễn dynasty), who is commontly called asNguyễn Ánh.
• Tôn Thất Thuyết hasTôn Thất as his surname (a compound surname) andThuyết as his primary name. He does not have any middle name. Sometimes his surname is confused withTôn.
• Nguyễn Tấn Dũng (a formerprime minister) hasNguyễn as his surname,Tấn as his middle name, andDũng as his primary name. In Vietnamese formal usage, he is referred to as Nguyễn Tấn Dũng, but by his primary name ("Mr. Dũng") in English-language text of Vietnamese multimedia, not by his surname ("Mr. Nguyễn"). Informally he is "Ba Dũng" in Vietnamese. He can also be referred to asTấn Dũng.
• Trần Kim Liên (MC of the Voice People of Ho Chi Minh City) hasTrần as her surname,Kim as her middle name, andLiên as her primary name. She can also be referred to asKim Liên.
• Likewise, the famous general and military leader,Võ Nguyên Giáp, is referred to in Vietnamese by his full name (Võ Nguyên Giáp) in formal sources, but by his primary name in English, i.e. "General Giáp". Informally, he is "Ông Giáp" or "Tướng Giáp" in Vietnamese. He can also be referred to asNguyên Giáp.

A baby born in Vietnam can only have one foreign name, or none at allde jure. If the father is foreigner, the foreign name can only be the surname.

Examples:

• For a son born to a Vietnamese mother namedTrần Thị Hậu and a foreign father namedJohn Smith, the son can be namedSmith Quang Hải.
• For a son born to a foreign mother namedJane Smith and a Vietnamese father namedNguyễn Quang Hải, the son can be namedNguyễn Quang John.

Vietnamese Catholics are given asaint's name atbaptism (Vietnamese:tên thánh (holy name) ortên rửa tội (baptism name)). Boys are given male saints' names, while girls are given female saints' names. This name appears first, before the surname, in formal religious contexts. Out of respect, clergy are usually referred to by saints' name. The saint's name also functions as aposthumous name, used instead of an individual's personal name in prayers after their death. The most common saints' names are taken from theNew Testament, such asPhêrô (Peter, or Pierre in French),Phaolô (Paul),Gioan (John),Maria (Mary), andAnna or they may remain as they are without Vietnamisation.^[6]

Saints' names are respelled phonetically according to theVietnamese alphabet. Some more well-known saints' names are derived further into names that sound more Vietnamese or easier to pronounce for Vietnamese speakers.

Some names may appear the same if simplified into a basicASCII script, as for example on websites, but are different names:

• Trịnh Căn (鄭根, 1633–1709) reformist warlord, vs.Trịnh Cán (鄭檊, 1777–1782) infant heir of warlord Trịnh Sâm
• Nguyễn Du (1765–1820) writer, vs.Nguyễn Dữ (c.1550) writer
• Hoàng Tích Chu (1897–1933) journalist, vs.Hoàng Tích Chù (1912–2003) painter
• Nguyễn Văn Tỵ (1917–1992) painter and poet, vs.Nguyễn Văn Tý (1925–2019), composer
• Phan Thanh Hùng (1960) football manager, vs.Phan Thanh Hưng (1987), footballer
• Nguyễn Bình (1906–1951), vs.Nguyễn Bính (1918–1966)
• Nguyễn Văn Hưng (1958) representative of the Vietnam National Assembly, vs.Nguyễn Văn Hùng (1980), martial artist

Typically, as in the above examples, it is middle or the last primary name which varies, as almost anyHán-Nôm character may be used. The number of surnames is limited.

Further, some historical names may be written using differentchữ Hán (Chinese characters), but are still written the same in the modern Vietnamese alphabet.

Due to foreigners’ limited familiarity with writing andtyping Vietnamesediacritics, and to avoid encoding errors that may corrupt font display, Vietnamese names are often written without diacritics in English, such as "Ho Chi Minh" instead of "Hồ Chí Minh", "Vo Nguyen Giap" instead of "Võ Nguyên Giáp". However, this may lead to pronunciation distortions that even Vietnamese speakers cannot accurately verify when the name is transliterated back into Vietnamese with diacritics. For example, surnameĐoàn ([ɗʷà:n]) vsDoãn ([zʷǎ:ˀn]), both becomeDoan when diacritics are omitted and can only distinguish byIPA orrespelling.

Based on the Vietnamese custom of addressing individuals by the last monosyllable of their primary name, the English-languageChicago Manual of Style indexes Vietnamese names according to the "primary-name, surname middle-name", with a cross-reference placed in regards to the surname.Ngô Đình Diệm would be listed as "Diem, Ngo Dinh" andVõ Nguyên Giáp would be listed as "Giap, Vo Nguyen".^[8] In Vietnamese-language sources, names are also generally organized in this manner.^[9]

This indexing method is confusing for the surname due to the middle name is placed in the end, making it look like the "last name". Nowadays, to avoid problems caused by mistakes with surnames, Vietnamese names in English are commonly indexed according to “middle-name primary-name surname” in theWestern order such as “Nguyen Giap Vo” instead of “Giap Vo Nguyen”, to determine exactly the surname "Vo", which corresponds to the true “last name” in English texts (especially in media such as TV on-screen graphics, websites, and social media at sports events). Because if without explanatory notes (for instance,visually emphasizing the surname through bolding orall capitalization), Western readers often mistake the middle name “Nguyen” for the surname and confuse it with the surname “Nguyễn”, instead of the correct surname “Võ.” The traditionalEastern order, such as“Vo Nguyen Giap”, is also applied, mainly when using English in Vietnam.

• However, even when emphasis is applied, mistakenly highlighting the middle name as well can cause misunderstanding among readers, because of the habit of addressing by the last monosyllable of the primary name in Vietnamese custom. For example, emphasizing incorrectly such as “Giap VO NGUYEN” or “VO NGUYEN Giap” may be misinterpreted as acompound surnames, whereas the correct emphasis should be “Nguyen Giap VO” or “VO Nguyen Giap”, because surname is solely “Võ”. Similarly, in instances ofalphabetization by surname with comma according to the "surname, given name", his name must be indexed correctly as “Vo, Nguyen Giap”, and not as "Vo Nguyen, Giap".
  • During in Olympics, name of swimmerNguyễn Thị Ánh Viên was incorrectly displayed on TV on-screen graphics as “Vien NGUYEN THI ANH” at the 2016 Olympics^[10] and “Anh Vien NGUYEN THI ANH” at the 2020 Olympics.^[11] Her name must be displayed correctly as “Thi Anh Vien NGUYEN” or "NGUYEN Thi Anh Vien", because her surname is solely “Nguyễn”.
• InOlympics' events, athletes' name of Vietnam is still displayed in the Western order on TV on-screen graphics, due to Vietnam has not yet been included in the countries list ofUse and rules of each participant name > TV Name “Switching” in the documentLanguage Guidelines & Participant Names of the Olympic Data Feed,^[12] which has included almost countries in theEast Asian cultural sphere such as China, Korea and Japan. Conversely, in almost badminton tournaments ofBWF's system, some players' name from Vietnam is displayed in the traditional Eastern order, while Japan's one is not.
  • For example, name of badminton playerNguyễn Thuỳ Linh is displayed as "Thuy Linh NGUYEN" in Olympics and "NGUYEN Thuy Linh" in BWF's tournaments.

Due to the high frequency of the same surnames in Vietnamese names (having around one-third of the Vietnamese people using the surnameNguyễn), it has also become more popular to be referred by given name in English. For example,Nguyễn Tiến Minh can be referred to as "(Mr.) Tiến Minh" or simply as "(Mr.) Minh". Addressing by surname such as "(Mr.) Nguyễn" is also used, but less commonly when using English in Vietnam.

There are three common types to abbreviate a Vietnamese name:

1. Keep the last syllable in full, and abbreviate remains ininitials.
2. Keep the last two syllables in full, and abbreviate remains in initials.^[A][B]
3. Keep surname in full, and abbreviate remains in initials. Often used in English if surname in full is mandatory.

Since 2023, names inVietnamese passports have been split into two lines: "surname" and "given names", with the middle name treated as a part with the primary name in order to match the format of "given names".^[13]

However, because almost all Vietnamese surnames aremonosyllabic and little attention is given tocompound surnames (such asHoàng Phủ,Tôn Thất,Tôn Nữ,Âu Dương), the first syllable of a compound surname is often designated as the sole surname, while the second syllable is treated as a middle name. For example:

• "Hoàng | Phủ Ngọc Tường" instead of "Hoàng Phủ | Ngọc Tường", due to confusion betweenHoàng Phủ andHoàng.
• "Tôn | Nữ Thị Ninh" instead of "Tôn Nữ | Thị Ninh" , due to confusion betweenTôn Nữ andTôn.

Vietnamese people do not have the practice of usinghyphens (e.g., Hoàng-Phủ Ngọc-Tường) or any other markers to indicate the “partition” of their names, and they may sometimes omit their middle names in Western contexts for simplified translation or presentation. The more syllables a name has, the more complicated it becomes to fill it into the required fields.

The following shows ways to fill Vietnamese names in Western paperwork. The entries highlighted in the green background indicate the recommended method which is to leave the “Middle Name” field blank and fill all parts of given name including middle name + primary name into "First Name" field, to avoid issues such as surname confusion or incorrect order of Vietnamese given name (ensure that the middle name is always positioned before the primary name as same as in Vietnamese) in procedures like visa applications or airline ticketing.

• Surname
• Other similar naming systems:
  • Korean name
  • Chinese name
  • Japanese name
• List of common Vietnamese surnames
• List of common Chinese surnames
• List of Korean surnames
• List of common Japanese surnames
• List of most common surnames

• Vietnamese Naming Customs in Olden Days
• Vietnamese names for girls and boys (limited)
• Introduction to Vietnamese
• Vietnamese names (examples and tonal pronunciation),video lesson

• Names by country
• Vietnamese names
• Vietnamese traditions

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