Vietnamese name

Vietnamese names (Vietnamese: họ tên) generally consist of two components including a surname followed by a given name:

• A surname most is a monosyllable and normally patrilineal, although matrilineality is possible.
• A composite given name consists of an optional padding name precedes a mandatory primary name:
  • Padding name: typically a monosyllable, although some individuals have more than one. Due to be placed at the "middle" of the full name, it is often mistakenly considered to serve the same role as a middle name in Western naming conventions.
  • Primary name: usually consists of one or two syllables as a double name.

However, not every name is conformant. For example:

The Eastern name order with the surname placed first is the standard naming convention throughout the East Asian cultural sphere which Vietnam is a part of. The structure of Vietnamese names is similar to that of Chinese and Korean names, in that they share many common monosyllabic surnames (e.g., Lý/Lee, Trần/Chen), while full names typically consist of two to four monosyllabic elements corresponding to Sino-Xenic morphemes historically derived from Chinese characters. The key difference is that Vietnamese people may be referred to by their full name, their primary name, or a kinship pronoun indicating the speaker's relationship to them, but the primary name is the most common form of address (by contrast, in Chinese and Korean, people are more commonly addressed by their surname or full name, depending on the social context). In the Western world and among many Vietnamese diaspora communities, Vietnamese names may also be written in the Western order with the surname placed last after the given name, for example Tam Dinh or Filip Nguyen.

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 () vs Doãn (), both become Doan when diacritics are omitted). Additionally, through homonymy, some names can only be distinguished through context or by reference to their corresponding chữ Hán (Chinese characters), such as 南 (lit.'south') or 男 (lit.'men, boy'), both are read as "Nam". Vietnamese names have corresponding chữ Hán adopted early on during Chinese rule. The modern Latin-based writing system, chữ Quốc ngữ, popularized during the French colonial era, is fully romanized and has replaced the earlier, chữ Hán–based script, chữ Nôm.

As part of the criteria for naturalization as a Vietnamese citizen, foreigners applying for Vietnamese nationality must also adopt a Vietnamese name.