Vietnam (Việt Nam) in other languages: Hanoi, Saigon, 34 provinces

Nam Việt, Annam and Việt Nam

Việt Nam reverses Nam Việt, the southern Việt, a name that goes back to the Triệu dynasty of the second century BC, known in Chinese as Nanyue. Việt itself is short for Bách Việt, the many Yue peoples of what is now southern China. The order Việt Nam first appears in the sixteenth century in a poem attributed to Nguyễn Bỉnh Khiêm. For centuries the country was better known abroad as Annam; the nationalist writer Phan Bội Châu revived Việt Nam in the early twentieth century, and from 1945 both rival governments used it as the official name.

English joins the two syllables into Vietnam, while the United Nations, ISO and the Vietnamese government write Viet Nam. The exonym list mirrors the same split: Italian has Viet Nam beside Vietnam, French Viêt Nam and Vietnam, Breton Viêt Nam. Languages that write 越南 read it in their own way, Yuènán in Mandarin and Yuhtnàahm in Cantonese, and Khmer lists both វៀតណាម, Vietṇām, and យៀកណាម, Yiekṇām. Korean 베트남, Beteunam, and Japanese ベトナム, Betonamu, transcribe the European form.

Hồ Chí Minh City shows a second double name. The city is officially named after Hồ Chí Minh, yet most languages in the list also give Saigon: Sài Gòn in Vietnamese, Сайгон in Russian, 西貢 Xīgòng in Chinese, សៃហ្គន and ព្រៃ​នគរ, Prai Nokor, in Khmer.

From 63 provinces to 34

In 2003 Vietnam was divided into 57 provinces and four municipalities; by 2017 there were 58 provinces and five municipalities, the 63 units that ISO 3166-2:VN still lists. Resolution 202/2025/QH15 of the National Assembly cut that number to 34 from 1 July 2025. Only eleven units kept their old territory; the others were combined in twos and threes, and in every case the merged unit took the name of one of its parts.

The seats moved with the borders. Gia Lai is now governed from Quy Nhơn, formerly the seat of Bình Định. Lào Cai is administered from Yên Bái, Tây Ninh from the ward of Long An, Quảng Trị from Đồng Hới and An Giang from Rạch Giá. The source names each centre by its ward, because communes, wards and special zones now form the level directly below the province.

Three provinces have since been raised to centrally run cities: Đồng Nai on 30 April 2026, Quảng Ninh on 1 September 2026 and Bắc Ninh on 20 September 2026. With Hà Nội, Hồ Chí Minh City, Hải Phòng, Đà Nẵng, Cần Thơ and Huế there are now nine such cities.

Flag and anthem of Vietnam

A yellow five-pointed star on a red field, in the proportion 2:3. In the Wikimedia Commons drawing on a grid of 30 by 20, the star's centre sits at the centre of the flag and its points reach 6 units from it. The national anthem is Tiến Quân Ca, the Marching Song; its second verse opens with the line Đoàn quân Việt Nam đi, sao vàng phấp phới, the army of Vietnam marches, the yellow star flutters.