A distinctive feature of Chinese civilization is respect for ancestors and families. This is reflected in the fact that we pay more attention to each person's surname, and some ancient family surnames can last for thousands of years. Therefore, Chinese no matter how poor and uneducated, you can take a name at will, but the surname will never be sloppy.
Some countries around China have not learned this. Before the Meiji Restoration, the poor had only a first name and no surname. In order to connect with the international community, the Japanese emperor forced everyone to have a surname. Therefore, the poor people in Japan have given themselves many strange surnames with a total of more than 100,000 according to local conditions.
The situation is somewhat similar in another small country, Vietnam, but the Vietnamese are more hassle-free. At that time, the rulers suddenly put their surnames on the heads of tens of millions of countrymen without surnames. As a result, one-third of the people in the country have the surname Nguyen.
Historically, Vietnam has always been part of China. Even in Vietnam's own mythology, its earliest ancestor Pang Hung is a descendant of the Chinese Shennong clan. Then Vietnam was mostly part of China.
Vietnam itself established several dynasties, all of which were named after the king's surname, such as the Lê Dynasty, the Lee Dynasty, the Trần Dynasty, and so on. The founders of these dynasties were actually descendants of the Han chinese, who took advantage of the civil strife in the Central Plains to establish themselves as a state and rule over the local population.
The earliest Vietnamese Nguyễn surname was also imported from China. The Chinese surname Ruan originated mainly from the Shang Dynasty princes Gao Tao, whose fiefdom took Ruan as the national name. After King Wu destroyed Zhou, the Gao Tao clan took the name of the country as its surname. This Nguyen kingdom is almost in the current city of Baoding.
The Nguyễn clan later migrated to ChenLiu County, near Kaifeng, once again forming a famous and prestigious clan. Most of the Nguyen surnames in China today can be traced back to the Nguyen family in ChenLiu County. Geographically, Nguyen is a true descendant of China with a long history.
The Jin Dynasty was plagued by disasters, the Hu occupied the Central Plains, and many clans had to move south, and the Nguyen clan also went south at this time. Through Hubei, Hunan, all over southern China. The furthest of them went to Jiaozhou, now Vietnam.
Historically, there are also families with the surname Shi who have changed their surname to Ruan, and some ethnic minorities in the north and some ethnic minorities in the south also have the surname Ruan. The historical celebrities with the surname Ruan mainly include ruan in the Cao Wei period, the three ruan brothers in the Water Margin, the Southern Song Dynasty champion Ruan Dengbing, and in modern times there is a movie star Ruan Lingyu.
Vietnam's Nguyen Thi is much more scenic than China's. The earliest Vietnamese Nguyen surname was the Chinese who migrated south, which is the same as the Chinese Nguyen clan. These Nguyen families were more wealthy and powerful than the locals, and were more likely to multiply, gradually becoming the big surnames in the North Vietnamese region.
Another reason for the development and growth of the Nguyen clan in Vietnam was that the victorious king liked to change the enemy to the Nguyen surname. In China, it is an honor for the emperor to give a surname, and very few people have this luck. In Vietnam, the opposite is true, and a surname is given nationwide.
In 1232, the Chen Dynasty destroyed the Li Dynasty, and in order to erase the traces of the Li Dynasty, ordered all people with the surname Li to change their surname to Ruan. This set a precedent that would be followed by subsequent dynasties.
In 1400, the Hu Dynasty was destroyed by the Ming Dynasty of China, and the Hu surname was changed to the Ruan surname. In 1592, the Mo dynasty collapsed again, and the Mo surname was changed to the Ruan surname. In 1778, the Trầnh lost to the Nguyễn Dynasty and directly followed the enemy's surname.
In this way, the Nguyen surname will be strengthened every time the dynasty changes, so it seems that the Nguyen surname is a very common surname in Vietnam. After changing the surname to Nguyen, the royal family will also disappear from everyone.
By 1778, the Nguyen surname finally ascended to the throne, but we do not know whether this Nguyen surname is a descendant of a previous dynasty. It was not until 1945 that the Nguyen Dynasty collapsed. The Nguyen surname is the last glorious moment of the Vietnamese dynasty era. During this period, the Nguyen surname naturally got greater development.
During the Period of Chinese Rule in Vietnam, most of them adopted a policy of restraint, respecting the authority of local chiefs, and not directly managing. The Control of Vietnam by the French colonists was much tighter. They want to conduct a census of Vietnam and establish a modernized regime.
The French then discovered that many poor Vietnamese people did not have surnames and could not be counted at all. For their own convenience, the French colonists gave these surnameless people all the surnames of Nguyen. Because there are many Vietnamese royal families and ministers with the surname Nguyen, it is natural to take this as a national surname.
In modern times, the Nguyen surname accounts for 40% of the total population of Vietnam (90 million people in Vietnam, there are 40 million surnames Nguyen), more than the second surname Chen, the third Surname Lê, and the sum of the two is nearly double. It is the well-deserved first surname in Vietnam. Fortunately, Vietnam is not like South Korea, there is a law of not marrying with the same surname, otherwise it is not easy for Vietnamese to find someone to marry.
Some people may ask, since there are so many surnames Nguyen, aren't the Names of Vietnamese people confused with each other? In fact, Vietnamese don't like to call each other by surname, they call each other by first name. This may be that since ancient times, vietnam, there are relatively few people with surnames, have to call names, and then such a habit has been formed.
[References: Historical Distribution of Nguyen Surname" and "Origin of Nguyen Clan"]