Vietnamese name
Additionally, some Vietnamese names can only be differentiated via context or with their corresponding chữ Hán, such as 南 ("south") or 男 ("men", "boy"), both are read as Nam.
The family name (tên họ) is positioned first and is passed on by the father to his children in a traditionally patrilineal order, but exceptions are possible.
The following are the most common family names among Vietnamese, with their chữ Quốc ngữ spelling, and their corresponding Hán-Nôm characters, which are now obsolete.
[4] The figures are from a 2022 study 100 họ phổ biến ở Việt Nam (100 Most Popular Surnames/Family Names In Vietnam) from the Vietnamese Social Science Publisher (Nhà xuất bản Khoa học Xã hội).
In more casual contexts, people are always on a "first-name basis", which involves their personal names, accompanied by proper kinship terms.
In a few localities of Vietnam, for examples, in Hanoi's Sơn Đồng commune (Hoài Đức district), Tân Lập commune (Đan Phượng district), Cấn Hữu, Tân Hoà, Cộng Hoà, commune (Quốc Oai district), and in Hưng Yên province's Liên Khê commune (Khoái Châu district), there is a custom of daughters taking the fathers' middle names, not family names, as their surnames; therefore arise such female surnames such as Đắc, Đình, Sỹ, Tri, Ngọc, Văn, Tiếp, Doãn, Quế, Danh, Hữu, Khắc, etc.
In the past, the middle name was selected by parents from a fairly narrow range of options.
For example, the name "Trần Thị Mai Loan" means "Mai Loan, a female person of the Trần family"; meanwhile, the name "Nguyễn Lê Thị An" means "An, a female person of the Nguyễn and Lê families".
Some traditional male middle names may include Văn (文), Hữu (友), Đức (德), Thành (誠), Công (公), Minh (明), and Quang (光).
However, in daily conversation, the last word in a name with a title before it is used to call or address a person: "Ông Dũng", "Anh Dũng", etc., with "Ông" and "Anh" being words to address the person and depend on age, social position, etc.
Typically, Vietnamese will be addressed with their personal name, even in formal situations, although an honorific equivalent to "Mr.", "Mrs.", etc.
It is similar to the Latin-American and southern European custom of referring to women as "Doña/Dona" and men as "Don/Dom", along with their first name.
In the past, women were usually called by their (maiden) family name, with thị (氏) as a suffix, similar to China and Korea.
[citation needed] In recent years, doctors are more likely than any other social group to be addressed by their family name, but that form of reference is more common in the north than in the south.
The most common saints' names are taken from the New Testament, such as Phêrô (Peter, or Pierre in French), Phaolô (Paul), Gioan (John), Maria (Mary), and Anna or they may remain as they are without Vietnamisation.
