Names of Vietnam
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. During the Hồ dynasty, Vietnam was called Đại Ngu.Việt Nam is a variation of Nam Việt, a name that can be traced back to the Triệu dynasty. The word Việt originated as a shortened form of Bách Việt, a word used to refer to a people who lived in what is now southern China in 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 endorses 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, however this spelling has become obsoleted in modern context.
Origin of ''Vietnam''
The term "" in Early Middle Chinese was first written using the logograph "戉" for an axe, in oracle bone and bronze inscriptions of the late Shang dynasty, and later as "越". At that time it referred to a people or chieftain to the northwest of the Shang. 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, Luoyue, etc., collectively called the Baiyue. The term Baiyue/Bách Việt first appeared in the book Lüshi Chunqiu compiled around 239 BC.
According to Ye Wenxian, apud Wan, the ethnonym of the Yuefang in northwestern China is not associated with that of the Baiyue in southeastern China.
In 207 BC, former Qin dynasty general Zhao Tuo/Triệu Đà founded the kingdom of Nanyue/Nam Việt with its capital at Panyu. 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 ; over the former Jinghai state. In 1054, Emperor Lý Thánh Tông shortened the country's name to Đại Việt. 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 ; Kafjih-Guh ; Koci ; Cauchy ; Cochinchina ; Annam. In 1787, US politician Thomas Jefferson referred to Vietnam as Cochinchina for the purpose of trading for rice.
"Sấm Trạng Trình", which are attributed to Vietnamese official and poet Nguyễn Bỉnh Khiêm, reversed the traditional order of the syllables and put the name in its modern form "Việt Nam" as in Việt Nam khởi tổ xây nền "Vietnam's founding ancestor lays its basis" or Việt Nam khởi tổ gây nên "Vietnam's founding ancestor builds it up". 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, Đại Việt, and "Nam quốc", the oracles' author 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" 's first line: 南國山河南帝居 Nam quốc sơn hà Nam đế cư "The Southern country's mountains and rivers the Southern Emperor inhabits". 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. Lord Nguyễn Phúc Chu, when describing Hải Vân Pass, apparently used "Việt Nam" as a national name in his poem's first line Việt Nam ải hiểm thử sơn điên, which was translated as Núi này ải hiểm đất Việt Nam "This mountain's pass is the most dangerous in Vietnam". 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,, 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 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.
The use of "Vietnam" was revived in modern times by nationalists including Phan Bội Châu, whose book Việt Nam vong quốc sử was published in 1906. Chau also founded the Việt Nam Quang Phục Hội 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. 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, 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| Time | Name | Polity |
| 2879 – 2524 BC | Xích Quỷ | Hồng Bàng dynasty – Kinh Dương Vương |
| 7th century – 258 BC | Văn Lang , | Hồng Bàng dynasty – Hùng king |
| 257 – 207 BC | Âu Lạc , | Thục dynasty – An Dương Vương |
| 204 BC – 111 BC | Nam Việt | Triệu dynasty |
| 111 BC - 40 43 - 203 1407 - 1427 | Giao Chỉ ,, | Chinese domination |
| 203 – 544 602 – 679 | Giao châu | Chinese domination |
| 544–602 | Vạn Xuân | Anterior Lý dynasty |
| 679 – 757 766 – 866 | Annam | Chinese domination |
| 757–766 | Trấn Nam | Chinese domination |
| 866–968 | Tĩnh Hải | Chinese domination Ngô dynasty Anarchy of the 12 Warlords |
| 968–1054 | Đại Cồ-việt | Đinh dynasty Early Lê dynasty Lý dynasty |
| 1054 – 1400 1428 – 1804 | Đại Việt | Lý dynasty Trần dynasty Hồ dynasty Lê dynasty Mạc dynasty Tây Sơn dynasty Nguyễn dynasty |
| 1400–1407 | Đại Ngu | Hồ dynasty |
| 1804–1839 | Việt Nam | Nguyễn dynasty |
| 1839–1945 | Đại Nam | Nguyễn dynasty |
Official names since 1945: "Việt Nam"
- Đế quốc Việt Nam : 11 March – 25 August 1945.
- Việt Nam Dân chủ Cộng hòa : 2 September 1945 – 18 February 1947, 10 October 1954 – 2 July 1976.
- Quốc gia Việt Nam : 27 May 1948 – 26 October 1955.
- Việt Nam Cộng hòa : 26 October 1955 – 30 April 1975.
- Cộng hòa Xã hội chủ nghĩa Việt Nam : 2 July 1976 to now.
- Việt Thường : Initially, the name of a clan and/or nation to the south of Jiaozhi.Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư claimed that this was Vietnamese's endonym when first presenting gifts to King Cheng of Zhou
- Lĩnh Ngoại : lit. "Beyond the Ranges". Used interchangeably with Lĩnh Nam. Included Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Hong Kong, and Macau, as well as modern northern Vietnam.
- Thiên Nam : Mainly found in Vietnamese literature, such examples include the book, Thiên Nam ngữ lục ngoại kỷ and Thiên Nam tứ tự kinh.
- Giao Chỉ quận : Chinese name for Đại Cồ Việt & Đại Việt
- An Nam quốc : Chinese name for Đại Việt. The basis for various foreign exonyms for Vietnam.
- Nam Việt quốc : Proposed by Nguyễn emperor Gia Long but rejected by Qing Emperor Jiaqing.
- Đại Nam Đế quốc : Diplomatic name.
- Empire d'Annam : French exonoym.
- Union indochinoise, Fédération indochinoise or Liên bang Đông Dương.
- Đại Hùng Đế quốc : Only during the Thái Nguyên uprising.
- Việt Nam Dân quốc : Only during the Yên Bái mutiny.