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Names

The term ho is applied to the kin group consisting of relatives, living or dead, who descended from the same ancestor. Persons in the same kin group bear the same lineage name. There are only a limited number of lineage names in use, perhaps no more than a few hundred throughout the entire country. One of the most common is Nguyen. Thus, many different kin groups have the same lineage or family name, but many individuals bearing that name are not of the same ho.

Vietnamese names are usually composed of three elements appearing in the following order: first, the family or clan name (ho); second, the middle name (chulot or cushion word); third; the given name (ten). The given name is not the same for every member of the family. The middle name, if there is one, nearly always tells the sex of the individual, therefore girls' names, most of the time have "thi" as the cushion. However, several family names have long been composed of two words and as such they have no middle name.

The first name given in Vietnamese names is the family name: Nguyen Van Thieu belongs to the Nguyen family; Ngo Dinh Nhu and Ngo Dinh Diem belonged to the Ngo family. In all, there are no more than 200 or 300 ho designations in use, most of them the names of royal dynasties or feudal lords who once ruled over the country. Examples of this. type include Dinh, Le, Tran and, the most common ho of all, Nguyen. But individuals are commonly referred to by their personal names, listed last: Pham Van Dong, Mr. Dong, Mrs. Dong; Nguyen Cao Ky, Mr. Ky, Madame Ky. There are a small number - roughly a dozen - common Vietnamese family names (54% of all Vietnamese are named Nguyen; 31 % are named Tran, Le, Pham, Vu, Ngo, Do, Hoang, Dao, Dang, Duong or Dinh, the Los Angeles Times stylebook notes). Van is a common middle name for men; Thi is a common middle name for women. Married women retain their family name but it is appropriate to identify them by using Mrs. and the last part of their husband's names (see previous examples). There is one important exception to these usage suggestions: Ho Chi Minh (a nom de guerre for "He Who Enlightens"); Ho is the preferred second reference.

The significance of a given name varies; it may represent the child's rank among his siblings as does Nguyen Van Ba (Bar-third born) or suggest & desirable attribute as does Nguyen Van Manh (Manh - the brave). Sometimes the three parts of the name collectively express a single idea, as does Nguyen Hao Dan (Nguyen - who loves letters and culture; Hao - who loves Dang, the hillock where Confucius taught), which indicates that its bearer is a man of intellect and sophistication.