Tôn Thất (''Ton That'' or ''Ton-That'', often simplified to ''Tonthat'' in English-language text) is a two-character Vietnamese compound surname, originating from the

Nguyễn dynasty The Nguyễn dynasty (chữ Nôm: 茹阮, vi, Nhà Nguyễn; chữ Hán: 阮朝, vi, Nguyễn triều) was the last Vietnamese dynasty, which ruled the unified Vietnamese state largely independently from 1802 to 1883. During its existence, ...

. This surname was originally ''Tông Thất'' (), which is derived from a Sino-Vietnamese word, meaning "clan members" or "

royal family A royal family is the immediate family of kings/queens, emirs/emiras, sultans/ sultanas, or raja/ rani and sometimes their extended family. The term imperial family appropriately describes the family of an emperor or empress, and the term pa ...

members". The surname was changed to ''Tôn Thất'' () after Thiệu Trị became the emperor due to naming taboo (Nguyễn Phúc Miên ''Tông''). It is pronounced in

Hanoi Hanoi or Ha Noi ( or ; vi, Hà Nội ) is the capital and second-largest city of Vietnam. It covers an area of . It consists of 12 urban districts, one district-leveled town and 17 rural districts. Located within the Red River Delta, Hanoi i ...

, in Hue and in

Saigon , population_density_km2 = 4,292 , population_density_metro_km2 = 697.2 , population_demonym = Saigonese , blank_name = GRP (Nominal) , blank_info = 2019 , blank1_name = – Total , blank1_ ...

; the closest English approximation is "tong-tuk" or "tong-tut". Tôn Thất (Tôn Nữ for females): Surname for members of the Nguyễn imperial family that were not direct first born descendants of the Emperor, and therefore collateral relatives of the Nguyen dynasty.

Notable people

Tôn Thất Đính Lieutenant General Tôn Thất Đính (, ; November 20, 1926 – November 21, 2013) was an officer who served in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN). He is best known as one of the key figures in the November 1963 coup that led to the ...

, Army of the Republic of Vietnam general * Tôn Thất Xứng, Army of the Republic of Vietnam general *

Tôn Thất Thuyết Tôn Thất Thuyết ( 尊室説; 12 May 1839 in Huế – 1913 in Longzhou) was the leading mandarin of Emperor Tự Đức of Vietnam's Nguyễn dynasty. Thuyết later led the Cần Vương movement which aimed to restore Vietnamese i ...

(1839–1913), Nguyễn Dynasty regent * Tôn Thất Đính (mandarin), father of Tôn Thất Thuyết * Tôn-Thất Tiết (born 1933), music composer * Tôn Thất Thiện (born 1924), Vietnamese nationalist * Hoan Ton-That, Vietnamese-Australian programmer/entrepreneur * Tôn Nữ Thị Ninh, Vietnamese diplomat and educator

Notable people

See also