Writing Journal: My Birth Name Definitions

Uyen:

First/given name, pronounced, "win," in English and "we-ing" in South Vietnamese. It means "Mandarin bird." There's a folk song in South Vietnam, about a "uyen" song bird that sings comfort to people who are grieving the loss of their loved ones, or suffering from tragedies. I was born after the Fall of Saigon, so named after that folk song. During that time, people were being executed, starved, tortured, imprisoned, or fleeing, while persecuted by the Communist Viet Cong, and then the many pirates at sea. Many refugees did not survive the perilous ocean journey, pillaging, ship-raiding, rapist pirates, or imprisonment by the extremely brutal, Communist, Viet Cong.

Hoai:

First middle name, from paternal side, pronounced "wah," meaning "pretty."

Diem:

Second middle name, from paternal side, pronounced "yeem," meaning "eternally."

South Vietnamese middle names add extra meaning to the first name, so my name means "Eternally Pretty Mandarin (Song) Bird."

Duong:

Paternal surname/last name, pronounced "you-ung," meaning "virile." Due to the civil, political unrest throughout Vietnamese history, many people have similar last names, because they would name themselves after each brutal dictatorship. It was to show loyalty and prevent persecution from all the many changing regimes, some from repeated, genocidal, coup d'etat, others from being a slave colony to multiple nations.

(Tong: Maternal family's surname/last names, meaning "perfumed, fragrant, or nicely-scented.")

***At one time, the King of Siam/Thailand, and a Cambodian King, with his Vietnamese-French Queen owned all of Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar. In South Vietnam, it was important to be flexible about one's openly-declared political views/religion, as a result. The Portuguese Jesuits, Chinese Buddhists, Thais, Cambodians, Persians, Russians, French, Japanese, indigenous, highly-persecuted Cham Montagnards, Burmese, Hmong, and Laotians are also part of Vietnamese culture.***