Origin of Nguyen in Vietnam

Introduction

The Nguyen (阮) surname in Vietnamese is also called Yuen in Cantonese and Ruan in Mandarin and is the most common surname in Vietnam. This article will trace the origin and reasons behind this.

The history of people with surname Nguyen in Vietnam can be grouped into four eras.

First era - Ancestral state

One of the feudal princes of the Shang dynasty (1600-1046 BC) was bestowed a feudal state named Nguyen in the district of Jingchuan (涇川), Pingliang city in Gansu province.

After the Zhou dynasty conquered the Shang dynasty, the descendants of this state changed their surname to Nguyen to commemorate their roots.

Approximate boundary of Nguyen state in red

To avoid being persecuted by the Zhou king, the Nguyen clan initially emigrated east to Henan province before emigrating to various parts of southern China during the Jin dynasty.

Nguyen ancestral stone in Henan province

Second era - Migration to Vietnam

During the Tran dynasty (1225–1400 AD), a Vietnamese Kinh scholar named Lê Tắc (黎崱) aka Nguyễn Tắc (阮崱) could trace his ancestry to Nguyễn Phu (阮敷). He adopted the Lê surname from his maternal side.

Nguyễn Phu was the provincial governor of Giao-Châu (交州) in 353 AD (Jin dynasty) with its provincial capital in Hanoi. For more details on Giao-Châu, go to 'related links' section below.

This shows that Nguyen clan migrated to North Vietnam as early as the Eastern Jin dynasty (317–420 AD).

Lê Tắc was the author of the Concise Records of Annam (安南志略), one of the earliest Vietnamese history book which was published in 1335 AD.

Vietnamese history book

Third era - Dynastic conversion

In 1232 AD, the Tran dynasty king, Trần Thủ Độ (陳守度), forced everyone whose surname was Lý (李) to convert to Nguyen. The purpose was to prevent an uprising from the previous Lý dynasty (1009–1225 AD) descendants. Some of the later dynasties followed the trend started by this king.

Imperial edict of Tran Thu Do

In 1407 AD, after the Ho dynasty was destroyed by Ming China, they changed their surname Ho (胡) to Nguyen in fear of retribution from the Tran clan.

In 1592 AD, after the Mac dynasty was destroyed, those with the Mac (莫) surname were forced to change to Nguyen.

In 1787 AD, after the Trinh dynasty was destroyed, those with the Trinh (鄭) were also forced to change to Nguyen.

Fourth era - French conversion

In 1887 AD, the French wanted to do a census of the population in Vietnam after colonizing the country but they discovered that not every Vietnamese has a surname.

There are more than fifty ethnicities in Vietnam by this time and with the exception of Kinh and Hoa, some Austronesian and Austroasiatic tribes didn't have any surnames in ancient times. The French decided to assign the surname Nguyen to them for the purpose of compiling the census.

Conclusion

The first group of Vietnamese with surname Nguyen were the Han Chinese immigrants who could trace their roots to their ancient state in Gansu. This group were the original and genuine Nguyen.

The second group were Vietnamese Kinh who were descendants of previously defeated Vietnamese dynasties whose real surnames were Ho, Mac or Trinh.

The third group were those non-Kinh and non-Hoa ethnic groups with no surnames and were assigned the Nguyen surname by the French colonists.

These are the reasons why Nguyen became the most common surname in Vietnam.

In conclusion, Vietnamese with surname Nguyen were ethnic Han Chinese before the French messed up their surnames so that we can't tell their original ancestries just by looking at their surnames.

Sources

History of Jin, chapter 8.《晉書.卷八》交州刺史阮敷討林邑范佛於日南
海峽兩岸譜牒文化研究/: 族譜研究 By 中國閩台緣博物館編
http://www.chinaknowledge.de/Literature/Historiography/annanzhilve.html
http://www.rywh.net/view.asp?id=178
https://kknews.cc/history/jbmgme.html

East Asian origin, history, language, culture

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