Vietnamese name
Vietnamese names (Vietnamese: họ tên) generally consist of two components including a "surname" and a "given name", follow the Eastern name order:
- A surname: most consist of a monosyllable and normally patrilineal, although matrilineality is possible.
- A given name including:
- An optional middle name that is typically a monosyllable, although some individuals have a multisyllabic one or none at all.
- A primary name usually consists of one or two syllables as a double name.
However, not every name is conformant. For example:
- Nguyễn Trãi has his surname Nguyễn and his primary name is Trãi. He does not have any middle name.
- Phạm Bình Minh has his surname Phạm and his primary name is Bình Minh (lit. 'dawn'). He does not have any middle name, although Bình is often mistaken for one.
- Nguyễn Văn Quyết has his surname Nguyễn, his middle name is Văn and his primary name is Quyết (lit. 'decide').
- Nguyễn Ngọc Trường Sơn has his surname Nguyễn, his middle name is Ngọc (lit. 'gemstone') and his primary name is Trường Sơn (lit. 'long mountain')
- Lâm Thị Mỹ Dạ has her surname Lâm, her middle name is Thị and her primary name is Mỹ Dạ (lit. 'beautiful night'). Her husband, Hoàng Phủ Ngọc Tường (a Vietnamese poet), has his surname is Hoàng Phủ (natural compound surname), his middle name is Ngọc and his primary name is Tường (lit. 'deep understanding'). As almost every Vietnamese surname is monosyllablic, his surname is usually confused with Hoàng, leading to their two daughters being named as Hoàng Dạ Thi and Hoàng Dạ Thư instead of Hoàng Phủ Dạ Thi and Hoàng Phủ Dạ Thư.
- Trần Lê Quốc Toàn has his surname Trần, his first middle name Lê is derived from his mother's surname, his second middle name is Quốc (lit. 'country') and his primary name is Toàn (lit. 'fully').
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. Tam Dinh or Khoa Tran.
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, due to homonymy, some Vietnamese names can only be distinguished through context or by reference to their corresponding chữ Hán, such as 南 (lit. 'south') or 男 (lit. '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. The modern Vietnamese writing system, chữ Quốc ngữ, popularized during the French colonial era, is fully romanized and has replaced the earlier, Chinese character–based script, chữ Nôm.