Vietnamese personal names generally consist of three parts: a family name, a middle name, and a given name, used in that order.
Consider the situation in Australia, which has a Vietnamese population of some 220,000. As far back as 2006, the Australian Associated Press (AAP) reported that, despite the relatively small size of the Vietnamese community Down Under, Nguyen was already the seventh-most common surname in the nation, behind the familiar English-Scots-Irish appellations Smith, Jones, Williams, Brown, Wilson and Taylor.
The surname Nguyen is believed to have originated in the Chinese surname "Ruan" (in the Mandarin language) or Yuen (Cantonese), owing to China’s long domination over Vietnam.
the name ‘Nguyen’ was the last name of the last dynasty of Vietnamese emperors. “Apparently the last King's name was Bao-Dai, but his real name was ‘Nguyen-Vinh-Thu,’ she said. “Many of the Vietnamese [peoples’] last names derive from the former Emperors' last names.” throughout Vietnamese history, due to dynastic changes, clans of royalty and loyal subjects changed their family names to protect their identity in order to avoid persecution by the new rulers.
Most Vietnamese have three names -- the surname (or clan name), followed by a middle name, ending with the personal name. For example, with respect to the aforementioned Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, his family surname is "Nguyen," his middle name is "Tan," and his personal name is "Dung."
Nguyen is the seventh most common family name in Australia[5] (second only to Smith in the Melbourne phone books[6]), and the fifty-fourth most common in France.
1. Nguyễn 阮 (38%)
2. Trần 陳 (11%)
3. Lê 黎 (9.5%)
4. Phạm 范 (7.1%)
5. Huỳnh/Hoàng 黃 (5.1%)
6. Phan 潘 (4.5%)
7. Vũ/Võ 武 (3.9%)
8. Đặng 鄧(2.1%)
9. Bùi 裴 (2%)
10. Đỗ 杜 (1.4%)
11. Hồ 胡 (1.3%)
12. Ngô 吳 (1.3%)
13. Dương 楊 (1%)
14. Lý 李 (0.5%)
In Vietnamese cultural practice, women always keep their family names once they marry, just as in other East Asian cultures, including Chinese culture, to the north and northeast. So the family does not have a son, that means end of tree of family.