Baby Name: Phat

The decades-long Vietnam War — which began as a civil war in the 1950s and grew into a proxy war between the United States and the Soviet Union in the 1960s — ended with a North Vietnamese victory in the spring of 1975.

After the fall of Saigon, an estimated 125,000 Vietnamese refugees were evacuated to the U.S.

This influx of Vietnamese immigrants had a considerable impact on U.S. baby names. Dozens of Vietnamese names began appearing in the SSA data in the mid-1970s. Here’s what I’ve spotted so far:

Significantly, Viet and Nam were among the top boy-name debuts of 1975. (In the name of the country, the element viet refers to the ancient kingdom of Yue and the element nam means “south.”) Viet was the highest-debuting boy name of the year, in fact.

Another 1975 debut name, Chaffee, is likely a reference to Fort Chaffee, one of the centers at which Vietnamese refugees were processed.

The name Thuy debuting a year early may reflect the fact that over 14,000 Vietnamese immigrants entered the U.S. during the first half of the ’70s — before the fall of Saigon.

A second wave of Vietnamese immigration, which involved several million people fleeing “communist re-education camps and the 1979 Chinese invasion of Vietnam,” began in 1978 and lasted until the mid-1980s.

Hundreds of thousands of these refugees were resettled in the U.S. (More than 95,000 came in 1980 alone.)

As a result, many more Vietnamese names emerged in the SSA data:

• 1977: Hang, Uyen, Huyen, Truong, Lam, Hue, Nga, Quyen, Xuan, Khai, Oanh, Phuc, Thien
• 1978: Duy, Tu, Duong, Toan, Thinh, Thuhuong
• 1979: Loc, Trong, Vuong, Nhi, Duyen, Khang, Khoi, Thuan, Vang, Dat, Mylinh, Nguyet, Nhan, Phuoc, Thy
• 1980: Danh, Phung, Kiet, Mao, Phu, Chuong, Hiep, Nhu, Nhung, Dao, Huan, Quynh, Tuyen, Diem, Kieu, Tho, Truc, Vong, Chinh, Khuong, Kimanh, Manh, Nghi, Quy
• 1981: Nghia, Khiem, Liem, Phat, Diep, Giang, Nhat, Nhut, Phan, Thuthuy, Trieu
• 1982: Ngan, Thuong, Hoai, Kha, Dinh, Dzuy, Hoan, Kien, Thach, Thuytrang, Chanh, Dzung, Lieu, Luu, Myphuong, Suong

Most of these names reached peak popularity during the ’80s.

P.S. Please note that a number of the names above (such as An, Bao, Dai, Hai, Hao, Hong, Huan, Long, Mao, My, Phan, Phuong, Tan, Tu, Vong, and Yun) are also used by people of other cultures (e.g., Chinese, Hmong, Laotian, Cambodian, Japanese). Also, I’m sorry this post doesn’t include any Vietnamese diacritics — they’re omitted from the SSA data, and they also don’t render properly on my site.

Sources:

• Wikipedia: Vietnam War, Vietnamese Americans
• Batalova, Jeanne. “Vietnamese Immigrants in the United States.” Migration Policy Institute 11 Oct. 2023.
• Campi, Alicia. “From Refugees to Americans: Thirty Years of Vietnamese Immigration to the United States [pdf].” Immigration Policy Center Jun. 2005.
• American Council for Nationalities Service. “Southeast Asian Refugee Arrivals in the United States by Nationality, FY 75-87.” Refugee Reports, vol. 8, no. 12, 1987, p. 10. (found via Mekong.net)
• Guide to Vietnamese Names – Most Common Vietnamese First Names and Last Names – Langi.app
• SSA

Images: Adapted from Crewmen of the cargo ship USS Durham take Vietnamese refugees aboard a small craft and Vietnamese refugees crowd the decks of SS Pioneer Contender (both public domain)

[Latest update: Feb. 2026]