Throughout its history, Vietnam has been referred to by many names, either for the whole country or parts of it.
History
Throughout the history of Vietnam, official and unofficial names have been used in reference to the territory of Vietnam. Its early northern polity was called Văn Lang during the Hồng Bàng dynasty, Âu Lạc under Thục dynasty, Nam Việt during the Triệu dynasty, Vạn Xuân during the Early Lý dynasty, Đại Cồ Việt during the Đinh dynasty and Early Lê dynasty. Starting in 1054, the country was called Đại Việt (Great Việt). During the Hồ dynasty, Vietnam was called Đại Ngu.
Việt Nam ( in Vietnamese) is a variation of Nam Việt (Southern Việt), a name that can be traced back to the Triệu dynasty (2nd century BC, also known as Nanyue Kingdom). The word Việt originated as a shortened form of Bách Việt, a word used to refer to a people who lived in what used to be southern China, during ancient times. The name Việt Nam, with the syllables in the modern order, first appears in the 16th century in a poem attributed to Nguyễn Bỉnh Khiêm. Vietnam was mentioned in Josiah Conder's 1834 Dictionary of Geography, Ancient and Modern as the other name to refer to Annam.
Annam, which originated as a Chinese name in the seventh century, remained the common name for the country until and during the French colonial period. Nationalist writer Phan Bội Châu revived the name Vietnam in the early 20th century. From 1945, when rival communist and anti-communist governments were established, both adopted this as the country's official name. In English, the two syllables are usually combined into one word, Vietnam. However, Viet Nam is still recognized as the standard name by the United Nations, by ISO and by the Vietnamese government, with the government even recently endorsing using Viet Nam over Vietnam. In the past, the hyphenated spelling "Viet-Nam" was the standardized spelling for the country being recognized by all three Vietnamese governments (Democratic Republic of Viet-Nam, Republic of Viet-Nam and Republic of South Viet-Nam), however this spelling has become obsoleted in modern context.
Origin of Vietnam
The term "" (Yue) () in Early Middle Chinese was first written using the logograph "戉" for an axe (a homophone), in oracle bone and bronze inscriptions of the late Shang dynasty ( BC), and later as "越". At that time it referred to a people or chieftain to the northwest of the Shang.Theobald, Ulrich (2018) "Shang Dynasty - Political History" in ChinaKnowledge.de - An Encyclopaedia on Chinese History, Literature and Art. quote: "Enemies of the Shang state were called fang 方 "regions", like the Tufang 土方, which roamed the northern region of Shanxi, the Guifang 鬼方 and Gongfang 𢀛方 in the northwest, the Qiangfang 羌方, Suifang 繐方, Yuefang 戉方, Xuanfang 亘方 and Zhoufang 周方 in the west, as well as the Yifang 夷方 and Renfang 人方 in the southeast." In the early 8th century BC, a tribe on the middle Yangtze were called the Yangyue, a term later used for peoples further south. Between the 7th and 4th centuries BC Yue/Việt referred to the State of Yue in the lower Yangtze basin and its people.
From the 3rd century BC the term was used for the non-Chinese populations of south and southwest China and northern Vietnam, with particular states or groups called Minyue, Ouyue (Vietnamese: Âu Việt), Luoyue (Vietnamese: Lạc Việt), etc., collectively called the Baiyue (Bách Việt, ; ). The term Baiyue/Bách Việt first appeared in the book Lüshi Chunqiu compiled around 239 BC.The Annals of Lü Buwei, translated by John Knoblock and Jeffrey Riegel, Stanford University Press (2000), p. 510. . "For the most part, there are no rulers to the south of the Yang and Han Rivers, in the confederation of the Hundred Yue tribes."
According to Ye Wenxian (1990), apud Wan (2013), the ethnonym of the Yuefang in northwestern China is not associated with that of the Baiyue in southeastern China.Wan, Xiang (2013) "A Reevaluation of Early Chinese Script: The Case of Yuè 戉 and Its Cultural Connotations: Speech at The First Annual Conference of Society for the Study of Early China" Slide 36 of 70
In 207 BC, former Qin dynasty general Zhao Tuo/Triệu Đà founded the kingdom of Nanyue/Nam Việt () with its capital at Panyu (modern Guangzhou). This kingdom was "southern" in the sense that it was located south of other Baiyue kingdoms such as Minyue and Ouyue, located in modern Fujian and Zhejiang. Several later Vietnamese dynasties followed this nomenclature even after these more northern peoples were absorbed into China.
In 968, the Vietnamese leader Đinh Bộ Lĩnh established the independent kingdom of Đại Cồ Việt (大瞿越) (possibly meaning "Great Gautama's Viet", as Gautama's Chữ Hán transcription 瞿曇 is pronounced Cồ Đàm in Sino-Vietnamese);Trần, Trọng Dương. (2009) "Investigation on 'Đại Cồ Việt' (Việt nation - Buddhist nation)" originally published in Hán Nôm, 2 (93) p. 53–75. online version (in Vietnamese)Pozner P.V. (1994) История Вьетнама эпохи древности и раннего средневековья до Х века н.э. Издательство Наука, Москва. p. 98, cited in Polyakov, A.B. (2016) "On the Existence of the Dai Co Viet State in Vietnam in the 10th - the Beginning of 11th Centuries" Vietnam National University, Hanoi's Journal of Science Vol 32. Issue 1S. p. 53 (in Vietnamese) over the former Jinghai state. In 1054, Emperor Lý Thánh Tông shortened the country's name to Đại Việt ("Great Viet"). However, the names Giao Chỉ and An Nam were still the widely known names that foreigners used to refer the state of Đại Việt during medieval and early modern periods,. For examples, Caugigu (Italian); Kafjih-Guh (Arabic: كوة ك); Koci (Malay); Cauchy (Portuguese); Cochinchina (English); Annam (Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish and French). In 1787, US politician Thomas Jefferson referred to Vietnam as Cochinchina for the purpose of trading for rice.
"Sấm Trạng Trình" (The Prophecies of Principal Graduate Trình), which are attributed to Vietnamese official and poet Nguyễn Bỉnh Khiêm (1491–1585), reversed the traditional order of the syllables and put the name in its modern form "Việt Nam" as in "Vietnam's founding ancestor lays its basis"Nguyễn Bỉnh Khiêm (attributed), Sấm Trạng Trình "1939 Mai Lĩnh version", line 7 or "Vietnam's founding ancestor builds it up".Nguyễn Bỉnh Khiêm (attributed), Sấm Trạng Trình "1930 Sở Cuồng version", line 7 At this time, the country was divided between the Trịnh lords of Đông Kinh and the Nguyễn lords of Thừa Thiên. By combining several existing names, Nam Việt, Annam (Pacified South), Đại Việt (Great Việt), and "Nam quốc" (southern nation), the oracles' author[s] created a new name that referred to an aspirational unified state. The word "Nam" no longer implies Southern Việt, but rather that Vietnam is "the South" in contrast to China, "the North". This sentiment had already been in the poem "Nam quốc sơn hà" (1077)'s first line: 南國山河南帝居 "The Southern country's mountains and rivers the Southern Emperor inhabits".Vuving, A.L. "The References of Vietnamese States and the Mechanisms of World Formation" ASIEN, 79. p. 65. Archived from the original Researcher Nguyễn Phúc Giác Hải found the word 越南 "Việt Nam" on 12 steles carved in the 16th and 17th centuries, including one at Bảo Lâm Pagoda, Haiphong (1558).Thành Lân, "Ai đặt quốc hiệu Việt Nam đầu tiên? ", Báo Đại đoàn kết, March 14, 2003. Lord Nguyễn Phúc Chu (1675–1725), when describing Hải Vân Pass (then called Ải Lĩnh, lit. "Mountain-Pass's Saddle-Point"), apparently used "Việt Nam" as a national name in his poem's first line , which was translated as "This mountain's pass is the most dangerous in Vietnam".Nguyễn Phúc Chu, "Ải lĩnh xuân vân" (Spring Clouds on the Mountain Pass's Saddle-Point). cited in Đại Nam Nhất Thống Chí 2nd Edition (2006). Translated by Phạm Trọng Điềm. Rectified by Đào Duy Anh. Huế: Thuận Hóa Publishing House. p. 154-155. Việt Nam was used as an official national name by Emperor Gia Long in 1804–1813. The Vietnamese asked permission from the Qing dynasty to change the name of their country. Originally, Gia Long had wanted the name Nam Việt and asked for his country to be recognized as such, but the Jiaqing Emperor refused since the ancient state of the same name had ruled territory that was part of the Qing dynasty. The Jiaqing Emperor refused Gia Long's request to change his country's name to Nam Việt, and changed the name instead to Việt Nam in 1804. Gia Long's Đại Nam thực lục contains the diplomatic correspondence over the naming.
In his account about the meeting with Vietnamese officials in Hue on January 17, 1832, Edmund Roberts, American embassy in Vietnam, wrote :
"Trung Quốc" 中國, (literally "Middle Country" or "Central Country"), was also used as a name for Vietnam by Gia Long in 1805. Minh Mang used the name "Trung Quốc" 中國 to call Vietnam. Vietnamese Nguyen Emperor Minh Mạng sinicized ethnic minorities such as Cambodians, claimed the legacy of Confucianism and China's Han dynasty for Vietnam, and used the term Han people 漢人 to refer to the Vietnamese. Minh Mang declared that "We must hope that their barbarian habits will be subconsciously dissipated, and that they will daily become more infected by Han [Sino-Vietnamese] customs." This policies were directed at the Khmer and hill tribes. The Nguyen lord Nguyen Phuc Chu had referred to Vietnamese as "Han people" in 1712 when differentiating between Vietnamese and Chams; meanwhile, ethnic Chinese were referred to as Thanh nhân 清人 or Đường nhân 唐人.Choi Byung Wook (2004). Southern Vietnam Under the Reign of Minh Mạng (1820-1841): Central Policies and Local Response. SEAP Publications. pp. 137–
The use of "Vietnam" was revived in modern times by nationalists including Phan Bội Châu, whose book Việt Nam vong quốc sử (History of the Loss of Vietnam) was published in 1906. Chau also founded the Việt Nam Quang Phục Hội (Vietnam Restoration League) in 1912. However, the general public continued to use Annam and the name "Vietnam" remained virtually unknown until the Yên Bái mutiny of 1930, organized by the Việt Nam Quốc Dân Đảng (Vietnamese Nationalist Party). By the early 1940s, the use of "Việt Nam" was widespread. It appeared in the name of Ho Chi Minh's Việt Nam Độc lập Đồng minh Hội (Viet Minh), founded 1941, and was even used by the governor of French Indochina in 1942. The name "Vietnam" has been official since 1945. It was adopted in June by Bảo Đại's imperial government in Huế, and in September by Ho's rival communist government in Hanoi.
Other names
Official names pre-1945 TimeNamePolity2879 – 2524 BCXích QuỷHồng Bàng dynasty – Kinh Dương Vương7th century – 258 BCVăn Lang,Hồng Bàng dynasty – Hùng king257 – 207 BCÂu Lạc, Thục dynasty – An Dương Vương204 BC – 111 BCNam Việt [quốc]Triệu dynasty111 BC - 4043 - 2031407 - 1427Giao Chỉ [quận], , Chinese domination203 – 544602 – 679Giao châuChinese domination544–602Vạn Xuân [quốc]Anterior Lý dynasty679 – 757766 – 866Annam [phủ]Chinese domination757–766Trấn Nam [phủ]Chinese domination866–968Tĩnh Hải [quân]Chinese dominationNgô dynastyAnarchy of the 12 Warlords968–1054Đại Cồ-việt [quốc]Đinh dynastyEarly Lê dynastyLý dynasty1054 – 14001428 – 1804Đại Việt [quốc]Lý dynastyTrần dynastyHồ dynastyLê dynastyMạc dynastyTây Sơn dynastyNguyễn dynasty1400–1407Đại Ngu [quốc]Hồ dynasty1804–1839Việt Nam [quốc]Nguyễn dynasty1839–1945Đại Nam [quốc]Nguyễn dynasty
Official names since 1945: "Việt Nam" Đế quốc Việt Nam (Empire of Vietnam) : 11 March – 25 August 1945. Việt Nam Dân chủ Cộng hòa (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) : 2 September 1945 – 18 February 1947, 10 October 1954 – 2 July 1976. Quốc gia Việt Nam (State of Vietnam) : 27 May 1948 – 26 October 1955. Việt Nam Cộng hòa (Republic of Vietnam) : 26 October 1955 – 30 April 1975. Cộng hòa Xã hội chủ nghĩa Việt Nam (Socialist Republic of Vietnam) : 2 July 1976 to now.
Non-official names