Seriously, I’ve never been able to figure it out, and have never had the priveledge of talking to anyone with the name Nguyen. I believe someone once told me it’s pronounced “NEW-yen” – is that right?
Adam
I’ve always been directed by the Nguyen’s I know to pronounce it “When”
I work with a woman who has this as her last name. She told us to prounounce it “Nwin”, or at least that is how it sounds to me. I may be completely mispronouncing it as she hears it.
More like “Win.”
Win with a swallowed G in the front is what I have been told by students with that name. 
There were a jillion Nguyens at my high school, and I mostly heard it pronounced “new-IN”.
A long time ago I worked with a couple Vietnamese kids my age to help them learn English. It was kind of funny because I didn’t know any Vietnamese and they barely knew any English. Anyway, their last name was Nguyen and they pronounced it “nwin” but the “n” was barely noticeable.
The only place I’ve ever encountered it was in this guy’s name, and the announcers always pronounce it “Win”.
Which is ironic, considering how much Dallas sucks. 
A former roommate’s boyfriend was Nguyen. He pronounced it Win. The funny (to me anyway) part was that it took me a while to connect the dots. I knew my roommate’s boyfriend had a name pronounced Win and I had seen notes left to her from Nguyen, but it took me a stupidly long period of time to realize that they were the same person.
It’d have been funny if you’d thought she was cheating on her boyfriend with some guy named “Na-Goo-Yen” and then you developed some wacky scheme to find out who he was that would go horribly wrong and apparently ruin everything, but then everyone would realize it was all a big misunderstanding and have a good laugh about it. Don Knotts wearing a loud floral shirt would be involved at some point.
Hey! That’s pretty good. You should consider sending that idea to some TV network. I bet they’d love it.
Take the ng from song and stick it in front of win and then add a very slight hesitation and rise in tone to the win part and you’ll be pretty close. hehe.
The initial ng is pronounced the same as ~ng in english. English does not use that sound at the beginning of words so it’s difficult to get used to. It can be a difficult name to pronounce for most westerners and most Vietnamese that I know just tell us to pronounce it Nwin or Newyen.
“Throatwobbler Mangrove”
Alternately,
“Smith” (because it’s so common, you see, kinda like Smith is so common in the U.S.)
geez, I can’t believe it took this long for that answer
I have heard it pronounced several ways to the point that if I see someone has that as a last name, and I’ll be using it, I ask them how they pronounce it, then tell them “I’ve heard it pronounced several distinct ways and figured it’d be easier for you to tell me yours than have me guess at it.”
Cuz I’ve heard it Eng, Weng, Win, Nu-win, N’win, Noo-yen, Noon…
I’ve heard both n-win and win from my Vietnamese-American friends, which is the way they’ve “simplified” it for us, but it’s pronounced ngu-yen. The ng consonant is not used in English at the beginning of words (not preceded by a vowel) so it’s tough for us non-Asian language speaking folks to learn.
I had a Vietnamese friend in high school whose family had changed the spelling to “Wynn,” which they apparently thought was close enough.
Any answer you get is liable to be wrong in any specific case. Vietnamese families who settle in America frequently alter the correct pronunciation or learn to answer to anything close.
Hence, you get guys like actor Dustin (“21 Jump Street”) Nguyen who pronounces his name “Gwenn.” Or Dallas Cowboys linebacker Dat Nguyen whose name is pronounced “Wenn.”
Safest advice: START by pronouncing it “win,” which most Vietnamese Americans will tolerate… but switch immediately to whatever pronunciation the indivdual tells you he/she prefers.
It’s the same as dealing with Jews with last names ending in “stein.” Since the name is German, the “correct” pronunciation is STINE, so that’s the way to start. But if someone named Goldstein or Bernstein tells you to pronounce it “STEEN,” you adapt to whatever he/she prefers.
Interesting. There were dozens of people in my high school with this last name. And, being a “Nenno” I was in homeroom with a bunch of them. It was always pronounced New Gin (Gin like the drink). New Gin with accent on the first syllable. I wonder if the whole school just slaughtered the name and they never corrected anyone, or if they pronounced it like that, or what…
hmmm.
Incorrectly. That’s how I pronounce it.
I always thought it was When, even before Dat came along.
I’ve heard that somewhere and so as a result I always think Nugent, like Ted.
I don’t get how it sounds like sing if you don’t pronounce the g. If it was justs nwin, that’s easy, but where does this mystery G sound go?