I know that Nguyen is by far the most common surname in Vietnam, but does it have a meaning?
Also, does the middle name have a significance in Vietnamese culture or is it a given name? For example, in the case of the brothers Ngo Dinh Diem, Ngo Dinh Nhu and Ngo Dinh Thuc, I know that Ngo is the surname, but is Dinh a part of the surname as well?
Thanks
As I have understood it, the middle name in some Vietnamese personal names is a generation indicator, as in some Chinese nomenclatorial systems, and that is the case with the Brothers Ngo. I do not, however, have any documentation to support that, so I would not be surprised to find I have imparted a bit of misinformation.
Can somebody please tell me how to pronounce Nguyen? Thanks.
“Actually one syllable: the ng is pronounced not as “n-g” but as the single sound of the ng in singer (think about it – you don’t say “sin-gurr”), and the y is a vowel-like sound such that there is a wild sploosh of three vowels in the middle, the uy being a kind of runway lead-in to the e. Thus the word is not the “nn-GOO-yen” that we hear over the PA system at an airport, but something like nguyEN”
– John McWhorter, The Power of Babel
So I guess it’s sort of like “yen”, with a little more sliding-tongue-on-roof-of-mouth action in the beginning.
I’ve worked with a number of employees that have this last name and it’s sound is probably closest to “Nwen”, with very little space between the N and W, if that makes sense.
Here in New Orleans, we have a HUGE Vietnamese population. My business is located in a section where there are a bunch of Vietnamese businesses…incidentally, none of the other business owners in my little complex are named Nguyen…but anyway, I get a lot of Vietnamese customers and a lot of them are named Nguyen.
It’s been explained to me that it’s pronounced almost like the Winn in Winn-Dixie, but you start off with the nnnnn sound (pretty much like Club33 said). It’s hard to make a nw sound in English, but after you’ve said it on a daily basis it just kinda happens.
When a Vietnamese person says it, you almost don’t hear any N sound at all, but it’s there.
My Vietnamese ex-girlfriend told me that a lot of Vietnamese middle names are simply gender identifiers, since Vietnamese names can be unisex, children are given the boy/girl middle name (literally!) in order that people will be able to tell the correct gender of the person, based on reading the name. In her case, her name scheme was Thanh Thi Last Name. Translated into English it would be Skywind Girl Last Name.
To pronounce Nguyen perfectly takes some practice, and an awful lot of exposure to spoken Vietnamese. But for a Westerner to prononce it well enough isn’t that hard. If you can, say “Nwin”, otherwise “Win” is an acceptable version, especially that most Vietnamese (outside of Viet Nam) are very used to Westerners mangling their name, and they will probably be pleased that you didn’t use the dreaded “New-en” form which was common when large scale Vietnamese migration was taking place several decades ago.
If you position your tongue as if you were about to say an ‘n’ sound, and then forget the ‘n’ sound and say ‘win’, you will likely come out with a quite acceptable “Nguyen”.
There is also a tonal requirement called “ngã” that you will need to master to say it properly. Ask a native speaker to demonstrate.