There are a lot of reasons why Vietnamese don’t given a name their newborn babies when they were born. Many reasons are belief, the old government policy in the old society and family customs.
Commonly, a Vietnamese has several names from birth to death. When a baby is born, it’s known as as “thằng Cu”, “thằng Cò”, “con Hĩm”, “thằng Mực”, ”con Cún”, “thang Chắt em”, “con Chắt ả”… These are common names to call a newborn baby. “thằng” is for boy and “con” is for girl. In Vietnamese belief, the name of the baby is more ordinary, the baby is less complicated to nourish. After getting married, he or she is called “Anh Đồ” for male or “Chi Xã” for feminine. When they have kids, we are able to call him or her with the name of her first-born kid. When his or her first-born kid has first-born, he or she is called by his or her with the name of the first-born grandchild. After he or she died, he or she has a taboo name for worshiping. If the person has the position in society, he’s called by his family name like “Cụ đồ”, “Cụ Tam Nguyên Yên Đổ”,”Ông Trạng Trình”,…It is aslo a way addressing people of Chinese.
According to some family customs, the name of the child has to be avoided taboo name of his ancestors and follow the recording name on family annals custom. So the baby has a temporary name first, after checking the name of his ancestors, he is given his own taboo name.
In several names like referring to the above, only the taboo name is the main name. This name is recorded in family annals and accepted by government. During the past, every village had a communal council that managed the registering of important statistics but not strictly. the government only cared about people that age is from eight-teen, as a result of from this age, an individual had to pay head-money, to be conscripted or to be recruited coolies by force. Registering the name late is the best for this person because he doesn’t have to pay head-money and do different duties perhaps in many years in life.
According to some family customs, the name of the kid should be avoided taboo name with his ancestors and follow the recording name on family annals custom. So the baby encompasses a temporary name initially, after checking the name of his ancestors, he’s given his own taboo name.
>> Read Custom: Vietnamese wife come back home for first-born baby
Source: Vietnamtourism.org.vn
