How many surnames does Vietnam have? The most complete family lineages in Vietnam

How many surnames do Vietnamese people have?

Associate Professor, Dr. Le Trung Hoa has compiled a list of all recorded surnames in our country's territory in the book Vietnamese Surnames and Names (Social Sciences Publishing House). Through reprints, the number of surnames in our country has increased.

In the first printing in 1992, there were 769 surnames in Vietnam listed, of which the Kinh people had 164 surnames.

In the 2022 edition, the number of surnames nationwide increased to 931, of which 165 surnames belonged to the Kinh people, the majority of the increased surnames belonged to people of other ethnicities.

In the third edition (2005), the number of surnames in our country was increased to 1020, in which the number of Kinh surnames remained the same.

However, the research team discovered three more families after the book was printed. So by that time, there were 1,023 families recorded in the territory of Vietnam.

Common surnames in our country

1. Nguyen: 38.4%
2. Ceiling: 12.1%
3. Pears: 9.5%
4. Pham: 7%
5. Hoang/Huynh: 5.1%
6. Phan: 4.5%
7. Dance/Martial Arts: 3.9%
8. Deng: 2.1%
9. Bui: 2%
10. Pass: 1.4%
11. Lake: 1.3%
12. Corn: 1.3%
13. Duong: 1%
14. Ly: 0.5%

Thus, more than 90% of Vietnamese people belong to the 14 major families mentioned above, the remaining families only account for less than 10% of the population.

Why are there so many Nguyen surnames?

At least one out of every 3 Vietnamese people has the surname Nguyen, the reason comes from history.

In the 5th century, a part of the Nguyen family in China (Anhui, Zhejiang, Hubei provinces.) migrated to Vietnam to flee. In the early 10th century, many other people with the surname Nguyen in China also migrated to Vietnam, increasing the number of Vietnamese people with the surname Nguyen.

Many times, when a new dynasty was established, people from the previous dynasty's clan often changed their surnames to avoid disaster or pressure, and very often changed their surname to Nguyen. This causes the Nguyen family to become more and more numerous.

Marvin Fry

Update 17 November 2023