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Glossary / Văn and Thị
🇻🇳 Vietnamese Names | culturalpractice

Văn and Thị

Văn / Thị

Traditional Vietnamese gender-indicating middle names where Văn (文) designates males and Thị (氏) designates females, a convention that remains common but is declining.

The use of Văn for males and Thị for females as middle names is one of the most recognizable features of traditional Vietnamese naming. A man might be named Nguyễn Văn An and a woman Nguyễn Thị Lan.

Origins and Meaning

Văn (文) literally means 'literature' or 'culture' in Sino-Vietnamese, reflecting the Confucian ideal of the scholarly gentleman. Thị (氏) means 'clan' and was historically used in Chinese to identify a woman by her birth family. In formal contexts, Thị served the practical function of immediately identifying a person's gender on paper.

Modern Decline

Since the late 20th century, the Văn/Thị convention has been gradually declining, especially in cities. Many modern parents prefer middle names chosen for their meaning or poetic quality rather than for gender identification. However, Văn and Thị remain extremely common in official records, and millions of Vietnamese people carry these traditional middle names.

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