Names of Vietnam

Throughout history of Vietnam, besides official names, there are names that are used unofficially to refer to the territory of Vietnam. Vietnam was ever called Van Lang during the Hung Vuong Dynasty, Au Lac when An Duong was king, Nam Viet during the Trieu Dynasty, Van Xuan during the Anterior Ly Dynasty, Dai Co Viet during the Dinh dynasty and Early Le dynasty. Starting in 1054, Vietnam was called Dai Viet (Great Viet). During the Ho dynasty, Vietnam was called Dai Ngu.
Viet Nam ( in Vietnamese) is a variation of Nam Viet (Southern Viet), a name that can be traced back to the Trieu dynasty (2nd century BC, also known as Nanyue Kingdom). The word "Viet" originated as a shortened form of Bach Viet, a word used to refer to a people who lived in what is now southern China in ancient times. The word "Viet Nam", with the syllables in the modern order, first appears in the 16th century in a poem by Nguyen Binh Khiem. "Annam", which originated as a Chinese name in the seventh century, was the common name of the country during the colonial period. Nationalist writer Phan Boi Chau revived the name "Vietnam" in the early 20th century. When rival communist and anti-communist governments were set up in 1945, both immediately adopted this as the country's official name. In English, the two syllables are usually combined into one word, "Vietnam". However, "Viet Nam" was once common usage and is still used by the United Nations and by the Vietnamese government.
Origin of Vietnam
The term "" (Yue) (), Early Middle Chinese was first written using the logograph "Yue " for an axe (a homophone), in oracle bone and bronze inscriptions of the late Shang dynasty ( BC), and later as "Yue ". 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/Viet 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 (Vietnamese: Lac Viet), etc., collectively called the Baiyue (Bach Viet). The term Baiyue/Bach Viet first appeared in the book Lushi Chunqiu compiled around 239 BC.
In 207 BC, former Qin dynasty general Zhao Tuo/Trieu Da founded the kingdom Nanyue/Nam Viet with its capital at Panyu (modern Guangzhou). This kingdom was "southern" because it was south of other Baiyue kingdoms such as Minyue and Ouyue, in modern Fujian and Zhejiang. Several later Vietnamese dynasties followed this nomenclature even after these more northern peoples were absorbed into China.
In "Sam Trang Trinh" (The Prophecies of Trang Trinh), poet Nguyen Binh Khiem (1491-1585) reversed the traditional order of the syllables and put the name in its modern form: "Vietnam is being created" (). At this time, the country was divided between the Trinh lords of Hanoi and the Nguyen lords of Hue. By combining several existing names, Nam Viet, Annam (Pacified South), Dai Viet (Great Viet), and "Nam quoc" (southern nation), Khiem could create a new name that referred to an aspirational unified state. The word "nam" no longer implies Southern Viet, but rather that Vietnam is "the South" in contrast to China, "the North". This explanation is implied by Ly Thuong Kiet in the poem "Nam quoc son ha" (1077): "Over the mountains and rivers of the South, reigns the emperor of the South." Researcher Nguyen Phuc Giac Hai found the word Yue Nan "Viet Nam" on 12 steles carved in the 16th and 17th centuries, including one at Bao Lam Pagoda, Haiphong (1558). Nguyen Phuc Chu (1675-1725) used the word in a poem: "This is the most dangerous mountain in Vietnam" (). It was used as an official name by Emperor Gia Long in 1804-1813. The Jiaqing Emperor refused Gia Long's request to change his country's name to Nam Viet, and changed the name instead to Viet Nam. Gia Long's Dai Nam thuc luc contains the diplomatic correspondence over the naming.
The use of "Vietnam" was revived in modern times by nationalists including Phan Boi Chau, whose book Viet Nam vong quoc su (History of the Loss of Vietnam) was published in 1906. Chau also founded the Viet Nam Quang Phuc Hoi (Vietnam Restoration League) in 1912. However, the general public continued to use Annam and the name "Vietnam" remained virtually unknown until the Yen Bai mutiny of 1930, organized by the Viet Nam Quoc Dan Dang (Vietnamese Nationalist Party). By the early 1940s, the use of "Viet Nam" was widespread. It appeared in the name of Ho Chi Minh's Viet Nam Doc Lap Dong Minh Hoi (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 Bao Dai's imperial government in Hue, and in September by Ho's rival communist government in Hanoi.
Other names
Sui Jiao Nan Fang ,Wei Zi Sun Ji Zhi / Toai giao Nam phuong, vi tu ton tru chi (Ung Thieu, Han quan nghi ; Thai Binh ngu lam chap. 157).
Nan Fang Yue Man ,Diao Ti Jiao Zhi / Nam phuong viet man, dieu de giao chi (Le ki).
Qi Su Nan Nu Tong Chuan Er Yu ,Gu Yue Jiao Zhi / Ki tuc nam nu dong xuyen nhi duc, co viet giao chi (Hau Han thu, Nam man Tay Nam di ngoai truyen).
Jiao Zhi Zhi Di Po Wei Gao Yu ,Xi Min Ju Zhi ,Shi Zhi Bo Zhi ,Jue Tu Wei Hei Rang ,Jue Qi Wei Xiong ,Gu Jin Cheng Qi Tian Wei Xiong Tian ,Qi Min Wei Xiong Min ,You Jun Chang Yi Yue Xiong Wang ,You Fu Zuo Yan Yi Yue Xiong Hou ,Fen Qi Di Yi Wei Xiong Jiang . (Chu Nan Yue Zhi ) (Thai Binh quang ki).
Jiao Zhi Xi Wei You Jun Xian Zhi Shi ,Tu Di You Luo Tian ,Qi Tian Cong Chao Shui Shang Xia ,Min Ken Shi Qi Tian ,Yin Ming Wei Luo Min ,She Luo Wang , Luo Hou ,Zhu Zhu Jun Xian . Xian Duo Wei Luo Jiang ,Luo Jiang Tong Yin Qing Shou (Thuy kinh chu, Giao chau ngoai vuc ki).
1. Legendary
2a. Official pre-1945
2b. Official since 1945
De quoc Viet Nam (Yue Nan Di Guo , Empire of Vietnam) : 11 March - 25 August 1945.
Viet Nam Dan chu Cong hoa (Yue Nan Min Zhu Gong He Guo , Democratic Republic of Vietnam) : 02 September 1945 - 18 February 1947, 10 October 1954 - 02 July 1976.
Quoc gia Viet Nam (Yue Nan Guo , State of Vietnam) : 27 May 1948 - 26 October 1955.
Viet Nam Cong hoa (Yue Nan Gong He Guo , Republic of Vietnam) : 26 October 1955 - 30 April 1975.
Cong hoa Xa hoi chu nghia Viet Nam (Yue Nan She Hui Zhu Yi Gong He Guo , Socialist Republic of Vietnam) : 02 July 1976 to now.
3. Non-official
Viet Thuong thi (Yue Chang , Yue Chang , Yue Chang Shi ) : The name of people who lived at the South of Nanling Mountains.
Nam Cuong vuc (Nan Jiang Yu ) or Linh Ngoai vuc (Ling Wai Yu ) : By the Sui-Tang dynasties which to difference the Lingnan.
Hoang Viet quoc (Huang Yue Guo ) : The diplomatic name and on the old books. It means "Country Viet in the South" (Yue Guo Zhi Nan ).
An Nam quoc (An Nan Guo ) or Giao Chi quoc (Jiao Zhi Guo ) : The calling by Viet people and foreigns.
Nam Viet quoc (Nan Yue Guo ) : Nguyen dynasty had proposed but Qing dynasty rebuffed.
Dai Hue quoc (Da Hua Guo ) : Request for changing national name in 1839 but emperor Nguyen Thanh To has refused. Hue/Hoa means Thanh Hoa, Thuan Hoa/Hue, giao hoa (nurturing).
Dai Nam de quoc (Da Nan Di Guo ) or Empire d'Annam (1858? - 1945) : The diplomatic name and on the piastre.
Union indochinoise (1887 - 1945), Federation indochinoise (1947 - 1953) or Lien bang Dong Duong.
Dai Hung de quoc (Da Xiong Di Guo , 30 August 1917 - 11 January 1918) : Only Thai Nguyen uprising.
Viet Nam dan quoc (Yue Nan Min Guo , 1929? - 1930) : Only Yen Bai mutiny.
Culture
In English, the spellings Vietnam, Viet-Nam, and Viet Nam have all been used. The 1954 edition of Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary gave both the unspaced and hyphenated forms; in response to a letter from a reader, the editors indicated that the spaced form Viet Nam was also acceptable, though they stated that because Anglophones did not know the meaning of the two words making up the name Vietnam, "it is not surprising" that there was a tendency to drop the space. In 1966, the U.S. government was known to use all three renderings, with the State Department preferring the hyphenated version. By 1981, the hyphenated form was regarded as "dated", according to Scottish writer Gilbert Adair, and he titled his book about depictions of the country in film using the unhyphenated and unspaced form "Vietnam".
The modern Chinese name for Vietnam () can be translated as "Beyond the South", leading to the folk etymology that the name is a reference to the country's location beyond the southernmost borders of China. Another theory explains that the nation was termed as such in order to emphasize the division of those who stayed in China in contrast to the people living in Vietnam.
Both Japanese and Korean formerly referred to Vietnam by their respective Sino-Xenic pronunciations of the Chinese characters for its names, but later switched to using direct phonetic transcriptions. In Japanese, following the independence of Vietnam the names and were largely replaced by the phonetic transcription , written in katakana script; however, the old form is still seen in compound words (e.g. , "a visit to Vietnam"). Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs sometimes used an alternative spelling . Similarly, in the Korean language, in line with the trend towards decreasing usage of hanja, the Sino-Korean-derived name Wollam (, the Korean reading of ) has been replaced by Beteunam () in South Korea and Wennam () in North Korea.