Vietnamese names

Vietnameses names may be confusing to foreigners because not only does the spelling and pronounciation appear complicated, but usages seem complex. Most names consist of a family name, a middle name, and a personal or given name. The personal of given name is the one which always is used, NOT the family name.

Take as an example, a man whose full name is Nguyễn Văn Hùng. "Nguyễn" is family name which is carried from father to son. It always placed first; "Văn" is the middle name, and "Hùng" is the given name, which is always placed last. Nguyễn Văn Hùng is not called Mr. Nguyễn (family name) but Mr. Hùng (given name). When you are introduced to Nguyễn Văn Hùng, you address him as Mr. Hùng. Very informally, Mr. Hùng is called "Hùng". This is the name by which he is known by his parents, uncles, elder brothers, or very close friends. The most common manner of referring to him by friends and colleagues would be "Anh Hùng" (brother Hùng or he may simply be called "Anh" (brother). Since the given name also is the official last name, its use, not preceded by "Ông" (Mr.) or "Anh" (brother) implies much more informality than the use of the American first name.

Full name	Family	Middle	Given
Nguyễn Thị Hạnh	Nguyễn	Thị	Hạnh
Nguyễn Ngọc Quỳnh	Nguyễn	Ngọc	Quỳnh
Nguyễn Trần Trung	Nguyễn	Trần	Trung
Trần Minh	Trần		Minh
Nguyễn Thu Cúc	Nguyễn	Thu	Cúc
Trương Kim Chi	Trương	Kim	Chi
Lê Thị Thu	Lê	Thị	Thu
Nguyễn Minh Tuệ	Nguyễn	Minh	Tuệ
Lê Quang Tuấn	Lê	Quang	Tuấn
Đoàn Đức	Đoàn		Đức
Nguyễn Kim Phượng	Nguyễn	Kim	Phượng
Phạm Phương Linh	Phạm	Phương	Linh
Nguyễn Tuyết Thanh	Nguyễn	Tuyết	Thanh
Phan Thuý Hiền	Phan	Thuý	Hiền
Vũ Minh Quang	Vũ	Minh	Quang
Trần Trí	Trần		Trí
Nguyễn Thị Thu	Nguyễn	Thị	Thu
Trương Kim	Trương		Kim
Lê Thu Hà	Lê	Thu	Hà
Cao Thanh Tuệ	Cao	Thanh	Tuệ

The names for women follow the same rules for men. When one reads the name of Miss "Đặng Thị Mai", the family name is "Đặng", but the person should be addressed as Miss Mai ("Cô Mai" in Vietnamese). From the early 20th century and earlier, when a woman marries, she takes the name of her husband as in the United States. Thus, if Đặng Thị Mai marries Nguyễn Văn Hùng, she becomes Mrs. Nguyễn Văn Hùng or Mrs. Hùng( "Bà Hùng" in Vietnamese). Among friends, however, she is still called "Chị Mai", or just "Mai". However, in nowaday, if she runs a business, and one which is independent of a business operated by her husband, she often adopts her maiden names and then will be addressed as Mrs. Đặng Thị Mai.

There is only one outstanding exception to the above rule: President Hồ Chí Minh is formally addressed as President Hồ. This dates back to the traditional custom of the old days when high officials were addressed formally, by their family names.

Hyphens are often placed between names, whether they are names of persons or places. They are optional, and are used simply to indicate that the different words belong to the same group; since the Vietnamese language is monosyllabic, the hyphen frequently is used to unite the several parts of compound words. Thus in the case of Nguyễn Văn Hùng, it may be written Nguyen-Van-Hung. This in no way changes the general rule concerning the use of the name.