The city now known as Ho Chi Minh City ( ) has gone by several different names during its long history, reflecting settlements by different ethnic, cultural and political groups.
Originally known as Prey Nôkôr while being a part of the Khmer Empire, it came to be dubbed Sài Gòn () informally by Vietnamese settlers fleeing the Trịnh–Nguyễn Wars in the north. In time, control of the city and the area passed to the Vietnamese, who gave the city the name of Gia Định. This name remained until the time of French conquest in the 1860s, when the occupying force adopted the name Saïgon for the city, a westernized form of the traditional Vietnamese name.
The current name was given after the Fall of Saigon in 1975, and honors Hồ Chí Minh, the first leader of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. However, the informal name of Sài Gòn remains in daily speech both domestically and internationally, especially among the Vietnamese diaspora and local Vietnamese.
Khmer name The area where present-day Ho Chi Minh City is located was likely inhabited long since prehistory; the kingdom of Funan and later Chenla maintained a presence in the Mekong Delta for centuries. The city was known as Prey Nôkôr () to the Khmer Empire, which likely maintained a settlement centuries before its rise in the 11th and 12th centuries."At the height of the Angkorian Empire's economic and political strength, during the eleventh and twelfth centuries, its rulers established and fostered the growth of Prey Nokor[...] It is possible that there already had been a settlement at this location in the Mekong marshes for some centuries, depending, as Prey Nokor did, on the handling of goods traded between the countries bordering the South China Sea and the interior provinces of the empire." The most popular interpretation of the name, and one supported by former Cambodian King Norodom Sihanouk, suggests that the name means "forest city" or "forest kingdom"—prey meaning forest or jungle, and nôkôr being a Khmer word of Sanskrit origin meaning city or kingdom."The Khmer name for Saigon, by the way, is Prey Nokor; prey means forest, nokor home or city." The name Krŭng Prey Nôkôr (; "Prey Nôkôr City") is currently used to refer to Ho Chi Minh City in the Khmer language.
Vietnamese names Sài Gòn
Beginning in the 1620s, Prey Nôkôr was gradually settled by Vietnamese refugees fleeing the Trịnh–Nguyễn War further to the north. In 1623, Khmer King Chey Chettha II (1618–1628) allowed the Vietnamese to settle in the area, which they colloquially referred to as Sài Gòn, and to set up a custom house at Prey Nôkôr. The increasing waves of Vietnamese settlers which followed overwhelmed the Khmer kingdom—weakened as it was due to war with Thailand—and slowly Vietnamized the area. Upon capturing the city during the Cochinchina Campaign in 1859, the French officially westernized the city's traditional name into "Saigon" ().
Since the time of original Vietnamese settlement, the informal name of Sài Gòn has remained in daily speech; apart from official matters, it is still the most common way to refer to the city inside Vietnam, despite an official name change after the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. Sài Gòn continued to informally refer to the central district, District 1, a portion of which was officially designated as Saigon ward in 2025. Sài Gòn Railway Station, the main railway station serving the city, retains the name, as well as the city's zoo. The name is also found in company names, book titles and even on airport departure boards: the IATA code for Tân Sơn Nhất International Airport is SGN.
There is much debate about the origins of the name, the etymology of which is analyzed below. The Vietnamese most often write the name as Sài Gòn, in two words, following the traditional convention in Vietnamese spelling. Some, however, exceptionally write the name of the city as "SaiGon" or "Saigon" in order to save space or give the name a more Westernized look.
In addition, both the names Saigon and Ho Chi Minh City appear within the official seal of the city.see
Etymology
Khmer etymology
The etymology of Saigon is uncertain.
The original toponym behind Sài Gòn, was attested earliest as 柴棍, with two phonograms whose Sino-Vietnamese readings are sài and côn respectively, in Lê Quý Đôn's Phủ biên tạp lục (撫邊雜錄 "Miscellaneous Chronicles of the Pacified Frontier", c. 1776), wherein Lê relates that, in 1674, Cambodian prince Ang Nan was installed as uparaja in 柴棍 (Sài Gòn) by Vietnamese forces.Lê Quý Đôn (1776), Phủ Biên Tạp Lục (撫邊雜錄), "Book One". 2007 Vietnamese translation by Viện Sử Học (Institute of History), p. 76. quote: "Đức Nguyên năm thứ 1 (), Giáp Dần, [...] lập Nặc Nộn làm phó quốc vương đóng ở Sài Gòn, [...]"
柴棍 also appears later in Trịnh Hoài Đức's Gia Định thành thông chí (嘉定城通志 "Comprehensive Records about the Gia Định Citadel", c. 1820),Trịnh Hoài Đức, Gia Định thành thông chí (嘉定城通志), "chapter 3" Nam quốc địa dư giáo khoa thư (南國地輿教科書 "Textbook on the Geography of the Southern Country", 1908), etc.
Adrien Launay, in the chapter "Documents Historiques II: 1728 - 1771" of Histoire de la Mission de Cochinchine (1688−1823), cites 1747 documents containing the toponyms: provincia Rai-gon (for Sài Gòn), Rai-gon thong (for *Sài Gòn thượng "Upper Saigon"), & Rai-gon-ha (for *Sài Gòn hạ "Lower Saigon").Launay, Adrien (1924) Histoire de la Mission de Cochinchine (1688−1823) "Documents Historiques II: 1728 - 1771", p. 190
It is probably a transcription of Khmer ព្រៃនគរ (Prey Nokôr), or Khmer ព្រៃគរ (Prey Kôr).
This name may have originated from the many Bombax ceiba (kapok) trees that the Khmer people had planted around Prey Nôkôr, and which can still be seen at Cây Mai temple and surrounding areas."Saigon, signifieraient bois des ouatiers, contenant ainsi une allysion aux nombreux kapokiers qui se rencontraient, parait-il, autregois dans la région. [...] Lê Van Phát avait cru pouvoir pousser cette interprétation très loin, et en déduire que là Plaine des Tombeaux avait été jadis une forêt inépuisable. [...] Sài Gòn pouvait être dérivé du nom cambodgien Prei Kor qui signigie fores des kapokiers (sic). Il pouvait être aussi l'adaptation des mots siamois Cai-ngon, c'est-àdire brousse des kapokiers, que les Laotiens emploient encore, affirmait-il, pour désigner la capitale de la Cochinchine." Another explanation is that the etymological meaning "twigs" (sài) and "boles" (gòn) refers to the dense and tall forest that once existed around the city, a forest to which the Khmer name, Prey Nokor, already referred.
Cantonese etymology In Chinese, the city is referred to as 西貢, which is pronounced Sāigung in Cantonese and which 20th-century Vietnamese scholar proposed to be a transcription of Vietnamese Sài Gòn;Likely based on Southern Vietnamese pronunciation /ʂaːj˨˩ ɣɔŋ˨˩/ 西貢 is also pronounced Tây Cống in Sino-Vietnamese, Sai-kòng in Teochew, Xīgòng in Mandarin, etc. But 西貢 has never been written in Vietnamese records, only 柴棍 (Sài Gòn).
French officer Francis Garnier proposes that Sài Gòn's etymology is in the Cantonese name of Chợ Lớn (chữ Nôm: 𢄂𡘯), the Chinese district of Saigon. The Cantonese (and original) name of Cholon is "Tai-Ngon" (堤岸), which means "embankment" (French: quais). The theory posits that "Sài Gòn" derives from "Tai-Ngon"."Un siècle plus tard (1773), la révolte des TÁYON (sic) [qu'éclata] tout, d'abord dans les montagnes de la province de Qui-Nhon, et s'étendit repidement dans le sud, chassa de Bien-Hoa le mouvement commercial qu'y avaient attiré les Chinois. Ceux-ci abandonnèrent Cou-lao-pho, remontèrent de fleuve de Tan-Binh, et vinrent choisir la position actuele de CHOLEN. Cette création date d'envinron 1778. Ils appelèrent leur nouvelle résidence TAI-NGON ou TIN-GAN. Le nom transformé par les Annamites en celui de SAIGON fut depuis appliqué à tort, par l'expédition francaise, au SAIGON actuel dont la dénomination locale est BEN-NGHE ou BEN-THANH." Francis Garnier, quoted in: Vương (1960) favored this etymology. quotes: "Cắt nghĩa 'Sài Gòn' do 'Thầy Ngồnn' của Tàu cũng thông và nghe lọt tai hơn! [...] Danh từ 'Đề Ngạn' (đọc giọng Tàu là Tai Ngòn, Tin Gan, Thầy Ngồnn) rất có thể là đầu mối đẻ ra hai chữ 'Sài Gòn'. " Rough translations: "The explanation that 'Sài Gòn' was from Chinese 'Thầy Ngồnn' sounds more straightforward and reasonable! [...] The noun [sic] 'Đề Ngạn' (in Chinese pronunciations: Tai Ngòn, Tin Gan, Thầy Ngồnn) was very likely the source of the two words 'Sài Gòn'."
The proposal that Sài Gòn is from non-Sino-Vietnamese reading of Chinese 堤岸 tai4 ngon6 (“embankment”, SV: đê ngạn), the Cantonese name of Chợ Lớn, (e.g. by Garnier, 1866 and Vương, 1960) has been critiqued as folk-etymological, as: Sài Gòn's underlying toponym had been known to Vietnamese as early as 1674 and was then transcribed as 柴棍, which was preserved in Lê Quý Đôn's Phủ biên tạp lục (c. 1776), while, according to Garnier, the Chinese settlement Tai-ngon or Tin-gan (i.e. 堤岸 Đê Ngạn ~ Đề Ngạn) – known to Vietnamese as Chợ Lớn – was found in 1778; 堤岸 has variant form 提岸, thus suggesting that both were transcriptions of a local toponym and thus are cognates to, not originals of, Sài Gòn;An Chi, (2016). Rong chơi miền chữ nghĩa (Roving in the Land of Words), p. 367-368 (in Vietnamese) Nam Quốc địa dư giáo khoa thư (南國地輿教科書) lists Chợ Lớn 𢄂𢀲 separately from 柴棍 Sài Gòn.
Thai etymology According to Lê Van Phát, a Vietnamese military officer, a similar source for the name may have developed from the Thai words Cai-ngon, meaning "cotton bush" or "cotton plant". Lê stated that Laotians refer to Saigon as "Cai-ngon".
Gia Định The name of Prey Nôkôr, along with Cambodia's rule over the area, remained until the 1690s, when Nguyễn Hữu Cảnh, a Vietnamese noble, was sent by the Nguyen rulers of Huế to establish Vietnamese administrative structures in the Mekong Delta and its surroundings. This act formally detached the area from Cambodia, which found itself too weak to intervene due to its ongoing conflict with Thailand. Prey Nôkôr was officially renamed Gia Định (chữ Hán: 嘉定), and the region was placed firmly under Vietnamese administrative control. With the city's capture by the French in 1859, the name Gia Định was discarded and replaced by the name "Saigon", which had always been the popular name. Most maps in Literary Sinitic were not updated to use the newer name until at least 1891, with the name of the city written as 嘉定 until then.
Etymology The origin of the name Gia Định has not been firmly established. One possible etymology may relate to the Chinese characters used to spell the name in chữ Hán: 嘉, which means "joyful", "auspicious", or "pretty", and 定, which means "decide" or "pacify". Another possible etymology, based on the fact that Malay speakers existed in the region during the era of Vietnamese settlement, relates the name to the Malay words ya dingin or ya hering, meaning "cool and cold" or "cold and clear", respectively—perhaps referring to the appearance of the area's many waterways.
Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh On August 27, 1946, Viet Minh's official newspaper Cứu Quốc (National Salvation) published the article Thành Phố SÀI-GÒN Từ Nay Sẽ Đổi Tên là thành phố HỒ-CHÍ-MINH (Saigon City is Now Renamed Ho Chi Minh City). This was the first time that proclaiming the city to be renamed after Hồ Chí Minh, the first leader of North Vietnam.
On July 2, 1976, upon the formal establishment of the modern-day Socialist Republic of Vietnam, the new government eventually renamed the city.