Family Name
The family name, positioned first, is passed on by the father to his children. It is estimated that there are around one hundred family names in common use, although some are far more common than others. The name Nguyễn is estimated to be used by almost 40% of the Vietnamese population. The top three names are so popular because people tended to take the family name of kings, to show their favor and loyalty. Over many generations, the family names became permanent.
The most common family names among the Vietnamese are the following (the Chinese characters following each name are Hán tự). Added together these 14 names account for 90% of the people.
- 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%)
The following include some other, less common, surnames, in no particular order:
- Bành: 彭
- Cao: 高
- Châu: 周
- Chu: 周 or 朱
- Chung: 鍾
- Diệp: 葉
- Dương: 楊
- Đàm: 譚
- Đào: 陶
- Đinh: 丁
- Đoàn: 段
- Giang: 江
- Hà: 何
- Hàn: 韓
- Kiều: 喬
- Kim: 金
- La: 羅
- Lạc: 駱
- Lâm: 林
- Liễu (in northern or central regions): 柳
- Lục: 陸
- Lương: 梁
- Lưu (in central or southern regions): 劉
- Mã: 馬
- Mạch: 麥
- Mai: 梅
- Nghiêm: 嚴
- Phó: 傅
- Phùng: 馮
- Quách: 郭
- Quang: 光
- Quyền: 權
- Tạ: 謝
- Thạch: 石
- Thái/Sái: 蔡
- Thi: 施
- Thân:屍 (All were known to have died out centuries ago)
- Thảo: 叨
- Thủy:水
- Tiêu: 蕭
- Tô: 蘇
- Tôn: 孫
- Trang: 莊
- Triệu: 趙
- Trịnh: 鄭 (almost exclusively a northern surname, based around Thanh Hóa)
- Trương: 張
- Văn: 文
- Vĩnh: 永
- Vương: 王
- Vưu: 尤
In Vietnamese cultural practice, women always keep their family names once they marry, just as in other East Asian cultures, including Chinese culture, to the north and northeast.
Some Vietnamese have dual family names. This dual family name is usually passed through all people in the family, but sometimes through the male or female line only. In many cases the mother's family name is added behind the father's as a middle name, which does not make a dual family name, as the mother's family name isn't passed through to the next generation.
Read more about this topic: Vietnamese Name
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