Vietnam: Notes

Names of the Ruler

The record shows the following data:

(a) Personal name. Every emperor (hoàng đế) has personal names: a name before accession (family name Nguyễn Phước + personal name; beginning, after the second emperor, with a "generation name"); and, as taboo name (tên húy) the family name + new personal name adopted upon accession.

The second emperor of the Nguyễn Phước family prescribed, for all his descendants, a "generation name" to form the first part of the personal name of each. These "generation names" are, in succession, the words of a poem composed by the ruler; the initial ones are: Miên Hồng Ứng Bửu Vĩnh.

(b) Posthumous name. Following the Chinese practice, a ruler regarded as meritorious received after his death a temple name (miêu hiệu) and a posthumous name (thụy hiệu), a string of commendatory adjectives ending with hoàng đế.

(c) Era name. Following the model of the Ming and Qing polities, there is a succession of era names (niện hiệu), usually (but not always) roughly coterminous with each specific reign.

Usual Designations

Following the usual, questionable, practice for the Ming and Qing polities of identifying, for general use, each ruler by the era name prevalent in his reign, the same practice obtains for Vietnam. The respective designation is given here for every reign, in the form of the era name instituted by that ruler; exceptions are marked with an asterisk.