# Vietnamese: middle name



## PixelPower

1. Is there a set of middle names that are more common or nowadays any syllable can be used as middle name?
2. How does a person write his name if he goes abroad? Do he use the middle name first and then the given name? (Vi Hung or Hung Vi?)
3. Can a middle name have multiple syllables?
4. Can there be no middle name at all?


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## MuiBo

1. "văn" for guys and "thị" for girls used to be the norm but "thị" is now out of favor being considered 'provincial'. There are no hard and fast rules as to which syllable can be used as a middle name, however male middle-names often carry notions of strength and bravery, such as "mạnh" = strong, "quyết" = "willful", whereas female ones are, well, feminine, such as "thuỳ" = gentle, "thu" = "autumn".
2. The middle-name, if there is no dedicated space for it, will go after the family name in the box provided. For example: the Vietnamese name 'Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng' whereby "Nguyễn" is the family name and "Hùng" the first name and "Mạnh" the middle name will be written as Hung Nguyen Manh in English.
3. Certainly, and those names are usually considered poetic (or cheesy).
4. Of course, many names go without a middle name, when the parents want a simple one, or just by the naming tradition of that specific family line, examples are Lê Cường, Nguyễn Hiển, etc.

Hope that helps. Feel free to contact me. Cheers!


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## v slim shady

1. In the past, middle names were important because they were used to indicate a person's generation, to separate branches of a big family or  to indicate a person's position in the family. But these days middle names does not have those usages anymore. giving middle names nowadays just make the full names more euphonious.
2. When a Vietnamese goes to a country that using English as their language, a person's name will be write as #2 mention above. Im not sure what about other language.
3 & 4. Middle names are no more important in Vietnam these days. a person can have 1, 2 or more middle names, some others have no middle names.


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## PixelPower

Thank you very much for your answers! 
I also saw something else: Nguyễn (as family name) and Nguyên (as middle name). Is it always the case or can Nguyễn in rare cases be a middle name?
 Can family name syllables be used as middle names or first names?


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## v slim shady

Many young couples in Vietnam these days use the mother's familly name as their son/daughter's middle name. So in these case, if the mother's family name is Nguyễn, her son's middlle name will be Nguyễn.
Also, in some rare cases, familly name can be used as middle names or first names.


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## Radioh

I agree with v slim shady. I've got my mother's family name as one my middle names. It's pretty common to do this.


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