why is nguyen so common

After all, there were tons of those mid-level bureaucrats handing out family names. The existence of last names in Vietnam dates to 111 BC, the beginning of a lengthy thousand-year occupation of the country by the Han Dynasty in China. Well, it's complicated. IMAGE COURTESY OF NICK WALKER. They chose this name due to it being the final monarchy in Vietnam. 6 years ago. But the key is that pronunciation of Nguyen varies pretty widely. level 2 Given that the global Vietnamese population totals about 94 million people, this means that some 38 million of them answer to "Nguyen." Either way, it seems likely that some mid-level Chinese bureaucrat, in seeking to figure out who actually lived in his newly conquered Vietnamese territory, simply decided that everyone living there would also be named Ruan—which became Nguyen. It's just ridiculous here, because roads and businesses and everything so often include the name as well. In the United States, the most popular last name is Smith. Every weekday we compile our most wondrous stories and deliver them straight to you. Many people, particularly those in the US, have dropped the diacritic from the ễ. Well before the time of China’s occupation of Vietnam, the Chinese had a sophisticated system of family names for a pretty basic reason: taxes. Roughly 40% of Vietnam population having “Nguyen” last name. Esther Tran Le, a Vietnamese-American journalist based in New York, said that the name ‘Nguyen’ was the last name of the last dynasty of Vietnamese emperors. They assigned these surnames pretty much randomly, but the original pool of last names largely came from Chinese last names, or Vietnamese derivations of them. As per the 2010 census, about 0.8 percent of Americans have it. Dung') in the media and even in formal occasions. Unlike western custom, the Prime Minister is usually referred to as 'Dung' (or 'Mr. “The surname itself has nothing to do with social class, unless it's combined with, say, Phúc which is a combination of [the names of] the last royal family,” said Dr. Nguyen-vo Thu-huong, associate professor in the departments of Asian Languages and Cultures and Asian American Studies at University of California, Los Angeles. Dr. Quang Phu Van of the Council on Southeast Asia Studies at Yale University also said that throughout Vietnamese history, due to dynastic changes, clans of royalty and loyal subjects changed their family names to protect their identity in order to avoid persecution by the new rulers. We depend on ad revenue to craft and curate stories about the world’s hidden wonders. If you search, you’ll find dozens of extremely confident declarations about the correct way to say the name. From Lan Nguyen: I enjoyed much these discussions. Fewer than 6 percent. It was seen as a way to show loyalty, a notion which required the relatively frequent changing of names with the succession of rulers. Prior to the 18th century, much of the world did not use family names. On the reason why Nguyen came to be so popular, O'Harrow makes the connection with the last ruling dynasty in Vietnam: “[The] tradition of showing loyalty to a leader by taking the family name is probably the origin of why there are so many Nguyens in Vietnam.” The Nguyen family ran the country from 1802 to 1945; during this period, the popularity of Nguyen as a surname also shot up. “It’s a signifier for being Vietnamese, but when 40 percent of the Vietnamese population is Nguyen, it doesn’t really mean that much,” says Kevin Nguyen, a friend of mine who works as the digital deputy editor of GQ. Cameron.' The Reasons behind Many Vietnamese Have the Nguyen Surname The use of surname did not appear until the colonial period. Other surnames – including Tran, Le and Pham – also circulate heavily among the Vietnamese, but Nguyen remains the undisputed champ by a wide margin. After two centuries of binomial nomenclature, scientists are nowhere close to running out of things to document. A lot of people are named Nguyen because their parents were named Nguyen. During the chaotic 1960s, when Vietnam was engulfed in a bloody civil war that involved the U.S. military, the country’s leaders included: Nguyen Ngoc Tho, Nguyen Khánh, Nguyen Xuân Oánh, Nguyen Cao Ky, Nguyen Van Thieu and Nguyen Văn Loc. Vietnam is one of those. Please click below to consent to the use of this technology while browsing our site. So the French decided to give those people a last name, and they chose Nguyen. Finally, the most famous Vietnamese figure of the 20th century -- revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh -- was actually christened Nguyen Sinh Con. Indeed, Nguyen is the most common surname in Vietnam -- an estimated 40 percent of people in the country (and the Vietnamese diaspora) carry the name, according to Vietnam's Tuoi Tre News. The former president of the country, who ruled from 2006 to 2011, was named Nguyen Minh Triet. None of that explains why Nguyen is such a popular family name in Vietnam. The 14 most popular last names in Vietnam account for well over 90 percent of the population. According to World Geography, the surname ‘Nguyen’ ranks the fourth most popular one in the world. Vietnam has a few different dialects, with the biggest division between them being geographical, namely north-south. ", Dove further noted that Australian migrants from other parts of the world -- including Greece, Cyprus and Italy -- tend to have a wider array of surnames, whereas many East Asian surnames (like Vietnam's Nguyen) are more widely dispersed among their peoples. I just want to add some relevant issues from my experience working with Sino – … Back to taxes and bureaucrats. This last name is … Vietnamese surname Nguyen to overtake Smith as most common metropolitan surname THE most common surname in Australia in the twentieth century has always been Smith. In Australia, Nguyen was reportedly so common that it is predicted to overtake, or get very close to, Smith in the next decade in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide. Those conquerors included the Romans, the Normans, the Chinese, and later the Spanish, the Portuguese, the Germans, and the Americans. But most of these places didn’t have family names, which made them a real pain to monitor. Offer subject to change without notice. Last October, one the country’s greatest military generals, Vo Nguyen Giap, died at the age of 102. Indeed, Nguyen is the most common surname in Vietnam -- an estimated 40 percent of people in the country (and the Vietnamese diaspora) carry the name, according to Vietnam's Tuoi Tre News. KPMG demographer Bernard Salt boldly predicted to News Limited Network then: "Nguyen will [overtake Smith] in Melbourne and Sydney within 10 years.". Thus, it is reasonable to assume that now, in 2014, Nguyen has climbed to the very top of the name charts in Australia’s urban centers. Follow us on Twitter to get the latest on the world's hidden wonders. Presumably, as Vietnamese communities in Australia, France, Canada and the United States increase in number and political influence, we may see a new wave of lawmakers and other prominent public figures with the ‘Nguyen’ surname. Finally, the most famous Vietnamese figure of the 20th century -- revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh -- was actually christened Nguyen Sinh Con. During the chaotic 1960s, when Vietnam was engulfed in a bloody civil war that involved the U.S. military, the country’s leaders included: Nguyen Ngoc Tho, Nguyen Khánh, Nguyen Xuân Oánh, Nguyen Cao Ky, Nguyen Van Thieu and Nguyen Văn Loc. Last October, one the country’s greatest military generals, Vo Nguyen Giap, died at the age of 102. “Others adopted the Nguyen name for political and personal reasons, including opportunities for jobs, privileges, power, affiliation, and so forth,” he added. Consider the situation in Australia, which has a Vietnamese population of some 220,000. Nguyen H. Tran (S'10-M'11) received the BS degree from Hochiminh City University of Technology and Ph.D degree from Kyung Hee University, in electrical and computer engineering, in 2005 and 2011, respectively. The 14 most popular last names in the US? Look Toward Employers. By June 2003, Australian media reported that Nguyen was on pace to supplant Smith as the most popular surname in urban areas by the following decade. See. That is about to change. In Vietnam, the most popular last name is Nguyen. I asked them why they used such a combination and they said that since Nguyen was so common in Vietnam, they had used Nguyen Mac as their family name so when they came to America, they just turned it around. 1 of 3. (Keep an eye out for “surnames” ending in “-sson” or including “Ben” or “Ibn.” Those are patronymic names.). They can indicate where you’re from, right down to the village; the profession of a relative deep in your past; how long it’s been since your ancestors emigrated; your religion; your social status. “Many of the Vietnamese [peoples’] last names derive from the former Emperors' last names.”. The French had a large scale population investigation during that period and faced a huge challenge which was that many Vietnamese people didn’t have a correct last name. one of the most popular Vietnamese last names and basically no one except viet people can pronounce it. "There is much more diversity of Greek names and Italian names than in Vietnamese, Chinese and Hong Kong names," Dove said. Atlas Obscura and our trusted partners use technology such as cookies on our website to personalise ads, support social media features, and analyse our traffic. “I’d be interested, but I just don’t think there’d be a way to learn much more.”. Offer available only in the U.S. (including Puerto Rico). But that tendency to trace one’s name has baggage attached to it that not all Americans will have considered. As Vietnamese people have migrated over the years, the family name has become even more popular. That dynasty, which "awarded" their surname to many people, ruled the country until the end of World War II. The same thing happened in Korea with the name Park, originally the name of King Hyeokgeose Park, the founder of the thousand-year dynasty of one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea. Even this tendency to take on the last name of the ruler is not totally unique to Vietnam. Winner will be selected at random on 03/01/2021. Like Atlas Obscura and get our latest and greatest stories in your Facebook feed. The top three names are so common as people tended to take family names of emperors to show loyalty. "There is much more diversity of Greek names and Italian names than in Vietnamese, Chinese and Hong Kong names," Dove said. Periodically, during both periods of Chinese rule as well as Vietnamese dynastic power in Vietnam, the name Nguyen was either forced upon the public (sometimes by threat of violence and even pain of death) by new regimes or adopted by the subjects voluntarily for various reasons. My own last name doesn’t seem to have existed before my great-grandfather came to the U.S. in the early 20th century; searches stop abruptly at the ship’s manifest. Basically, a series of very powerful rulers in Vietnam ordered or encouraged people to change their surname to 'Nguyễn'. To learn more or withdraw consent, please visit our cookie policy. Nguyễn is the most common Vietnamese family name. In any case, from what I can tell the name Nguyen was always relatively common in Vietnam, but during the country's tumultuous history a number of deposed ruling dynasties changed their names to Nguyen in order to disguise themselves and avoid retribution. Somewhere between 30 and 40 percent of the country’s population. Our beloved Kacy’s (Kacy Nguyen Thi Kim Chi) time on Earth is no longer. All rights reserved.

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