Sài Gòn retains the traditional name used informally since the 1620s. Beginning in the 1620s, Prey Nôkôr was gradually settled by Vietnamese refugees fleeing the
Trịnh–Nguyễn War further to the north. In 1623, Khmer King
Chey Chettha II (1618–1628) allowed the Vietnamese to settle in the area, which they colloquially referred to as
Sài Gòn, and to set up a
custom house at Prey Nôkôr. The increasing waves of Vietnamese settlers which followed overwhelmed the Khmer kingdom—weakened as it was due to war with Thailand—and slowly Vietnamized the area. Upon capturing the city during the
Cochinchina Campaign in 1859, the French officially westernized the city's traditional name into "Saigon" (). Since the time of original Vietnamese settlement, the informal name of
Sài Gòn has remained in daily speech; apart from official matters, it is still the most common way to refer to the city inside Vietnam, despite an official name change after the end of the
Vietnam War in 1975.
Sài Gòn continued to informally refer to the central district,
District 1, There is much debate about the origins of the name, the etymology of which is analyzed below. The Vietnamese most often write the name as
Sài Gòn, in two words, following the traditional convention in Vietnamese spelling. Some, however, exceptionally write the name of the city as "SaiGon" or "Saigon" in order to save space or give the name a more Westernized look. In addition, both the names
Saigon and
Ho Chi Minh City appear within the official seal of the city.
Etymology '' (kapok trees; ) that are common around
Ho Chi Minh City.
Khmer etymology The etymology of
Saigon is uncertain. , a geography text written by
Lê Quý Đôn. (From right to left, the second column [characters 3-4] marked by the line.) The original toponym behind Sài Gòn, was attested earliest as 柴棍, with two phonograms whose Sino-Vietnamese readings are sài and côn respectively, in Lê Quý Đôn's Phủ biên tạp lục (撫邊雜錄 "Miscellaneous Chronicles of the Pacified Frontier", c. 1776), wherein Lê relates that, in 1674, Cambodian prince Ang Nan was installed as uparaja in 柴棍 (Sài Gòn) by Vietnamese forces. 柴棍 also appears later in Trịnh Hoài Đức's Gia Định thành thông chí (嘉定城通志 "Comprehensive Records about the Gia Định Citadel", c. 1820), Nam quốc địa dư giáo khoa thư (南國地輿教科書 "Textbook on the Geography of the Southern Country", 1908), etc. Adrien Launay, in the chapter "Documents Historiques II: 1728 - 1771" of
Histoire de la Mission de Cochinchine (1688−1823), cites 1747 documents containing the toponyms: provincia Rai-gon (for Sài Gòn), Rai-gon thong (for *Sài Gòn thượng "Upper Saigon"), & Rai-gon-ha (for *Sài Gòn hạ "Lower Saigon"). It is probably a transcription of Khmer ព្រៃនគរ (Prey Nokôr), or Khmer ព្រៃគរ (Prey Kôr). This name may have originated from the many
Bombax ceiba (
kapok) trees that the
Khmer people had planted around Prey Nôkôr, and which can still be seen at Cây Mai temple and surrounding areas. Another explanation is that the etymological meaning "twigs" (
sài) and "boles" (
gòn) refers to the dense and tall forest that once existed around the city, a forest to which the Khmer name, Prey Nokor, 西貢 is also pronounced Tây Cống in
Sino-Vietnamese,
Sai-kòng in Teochew,
Xīgòng in Mandarin, etc. But 西貢 has never been written in Vietnamese records, only 柴棍 (Sài Gòn). French officer
Francis Garnier proposes that Sài Gòn's etymology is in the
Cantonese name of
Chợ Lớn (
chữ Nôm: 𢄂𡘯), the Chinese district of Saigon. The Cantonese (and original) name of Cholon is "Tai-Ngon" (
堤岸), which means "embankment" (French:
quais). The theory posits that "Sài Gòn" derives from "Tai-Ngon". Vương (1960) favored this etymology. The proposal that Sài Gòn is from non-Sino-Vietnamese reading of Chinese 堤岸 tai4 ngon6 (“embankment”, SV: đê ngạn), the
Cantonese name of Chợ Lớn, (e.g. by Garnier, 1866 •
Nam Quốc địa dư giáo khoa thư (南國地輿教科書) lists
Chợ Lớn 𢄂𢀲 separately from 柴棍 Sài Gòn.
Etymology The origin of the name
Gia Định has not been firmly established. One possible etymology may relate to the
Chinese characters used to spell the name in
chữ Hán:
嘉, which means "joyful", "auspicious", or "pretty", and
定, which means "decide" or "pacify". Another possible etymology, based on the fact that
Malay speakers existed in the region during the era of Vietnamese settlement, relates the name to the Malay words
ya dingin or
ya hering, meaning "cool and cold" or "cold and clear", respectively—perhaps referring to the appearance of the area's many waterways.
Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh On August 27, 1946,
Viet Minh's official newspaper
Cứu Quốc (National Salvation) published the article
Thành Phố SÀI-GÒN Từ Nay Sẽ Đổi Tên là thành phố HỒ-CHÍ-MINH (
Saigon City is Now Renamed Ho Chi Minh City). This was the first time that proclaiming the city to be
renamed after
Hồ Chí Minh, the first leader of
North Vietnam. On July 2, 1976, upon the formal establishment of the modern-day
Socialist Republic of Vietnam, the new government eventually renamed the city. The official name is now
Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh;
Thành phố is the Vietnamese word for "city". In
English, this is translated as
Ho Chi Minh City; in
French it is translated as
Hô-Chi-Minh-Ville (the
circumflex and
hyphens are sometimes omitted). Due to its length, the name is often abbreviated or made into an
acronym; "Tp. HCM" and the acronym "TPHCM" are used interchangeably in the original
Vietnamese, along with "HCM City" or "HCMC" in English and "HCMV" in French.
Etymology As noted, the now-official name commemorates
North Vietnamese leader
Hồ Chí Minh, who, although deceased by the time of the
Fall of Saigon, was instrumental in the establishment of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. "Hồ Chí Minh" was not his original name; he was born as Nguyễn Sinh Cung, and only began using the new name around 1940. This name, which he favoured throughout his later years, combines a common Vietnamese surname (Hồ,
胡) with a given name meaning "enlightened will" (from
Sino-Vietnamese 志明; Chí meaning 'will' (or spirit), and Minh meaning 'light'), in essence, meaning "bringer of light". == Other names ==