Vietnam: Notes

Names of the Ruler

The record shows the following data:

(a) Temple name. Following Chinese practice, after his death a ruler regarded as meritorious received a temple name (miêu hiệu, 廟號).

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

The emperor Thánh Tổ 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 (綿) Hồng (洪) Ứng (膺) Bửu (寶) Vĩnh (永).

(c) Posthumous name. A ruler regarded as meritorious received after his death a posthumous name (thụy hiệu, 諡號) which was a string of commendatory adjectives ending with hoàng đế.

Common reference (era name)

Following the usual, questionable, practice for the Ming and Qing polities of identifying, for general use, each ruler by the era name (niên hiệu, 年號) prevalent in his reign, the same practice obtains for many rulers of Vietnam.

The eras used for common reference are: