Myths Debunked: My Name

First off, my name is Nguyen Dinh Nguyen. That’s right. First name and last name the same. Only in English though. In Vietnamese, it’s Nguyễn Đình Nguyên – slightly different, though you probably won’t notice the difference even if I pronounced it to you the most Vietnamese way possible. But that ain’t matter. What matters is how Nguyen is pronounced.

Nguyen is pronounced Win! That is the closest English word that describes how Nguyen is pronounced in Vietnamese. Not Gwen, not /ngunien/.

Why am I saying this?

  • My name is Win Win! Yay, that’s the coolest name ever (quoting from my co-worker Amara!)
  • It’s a shame that some kids named Nguyen told other people that “Nguyen” is pronounced “Gwen” or “ngunien”. I just couldn’t believe it so here I am, explaining to the world how Nguyen is pronounced

What does Nguyen mean?

  • Well, Win in English means victory
  • In Vietnamese, Nguyen means “a whole, in one piece”, “united”, “fully”
  • In my language, total victory

I have an ambitious goal: To make the world aware of the “Nguyen” legend. Here is how I got started.

So now you know!

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