I am sure many foreigners who have Vietnamese friends are curious, why majority of Vietnamese has the Nguyen last name. In Vietnam, students must take final exams from middle school to high school or college. The final exams usually are held in one of schools in the district where all students of this district must to go there to take the final exams. Before the exam time, students have to check the list of names on the papers that put in front of exam rooms. Students must wait outside of classroom until school faculties call their name. I was surprised too: many students from other schools had the same Nguyen last name.
Vietnam and neighboring map
Vietnam has the history similar to many other nations: many Dynasties grew up to power and collapsed. In Vietnam when the new Dynasty replaced the old Dynasty, the people that associated with old Dynasty often moved to new places and changed their last name to the same last name with the new Dynasty to prevent persecuted or they didn’t want any relations with the old Dynasty even the name. In addition, many people who didn’t have any relations or associations with the old Dynasty, they also changed their last name to the last name of new Dynasty when they got married with people related to new Dynasty or worked for new Dynasty. For example, emperor Quang Trung (1753-1792) had the official name was Nguyen Hue, but his great grandfather was Ho Long. Ho Thom was Quang Trung’s nickname.
The Nguyen Dynasty from warlord to power and collapsed lasted from 1520 to beginning of 1900. According to International Business Time, there are around 38 million people who have Nguyen last name around the world. I heard the Lee last name in Korea and China has a big population too. I hope this article can answer your curiosity about Nguyen last name. Please share and drop comments below if you have any questions.