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Historically, Vietnam was the English spelling preferred by Americans, Brits, and other English-speakers. My unscientific impression though is that the Vietnamese themselves prefer Viet Nam.

(Of course, in Vietnamese, it is Việt Nam. But English typically drops the diacritics. So the question is solely one of whether it's Viet Nam or Vietnam.)

However, VN is now gaining influence and also English-speakers. It will thus increasingly have some say over how its own name is spelt in English.

(My feeling is that the situation is somewhat similar to how Beijing "should" have been called Beijing since the 1950s when pinyin was created. However, Western writers mostly stuck with the old Peking until perhaps the 1980s or even later. Today though, all Western writers "correctly" write Beijing.)

And so my question is this: What is the English spelling preferred by the Vietnamese themselves and the Vietnamese government? (In particular, has any Vietnamese organization offered any guidance on how it should be spelt?)

Notable international organizations that seem to officially spell it Viet Nam: UN, WHO, ADB.

Vietnam: World Bank, IMF.

Vietnamese government:

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    Doesn't your (incredibly well researched) question answer itself in the last part? – user4012 Oct 24 '17 at 03:30
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    @user4012: I don't know. Those few examples were just from some quick Googling. Maybe some official body has officially declared one or the other to be the "correct" spelling. Hence my question. –  Oct 24 '17 at 05:25
  • The English-language MFA website actually has Vietnam. – Colin Feb 06 '18 at 13:59
  • "Today though, all Western writers "correctly" write Beijing" Except when discussing Peking duck. – JAB Feb 06 '18 at 22:14
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    @JAB: That's not necessarily "incorrect" for certain historical objects. For example, we still have the official English name Peking University. –  Feb 07 '18 at 00:27

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In English, it is Vietnam. In Vietnamese, it is Viet Nam.

For instance, "Socialist Republic of Vietnam" == "Cộng hòa xã hội chủ nghĩa Việt Nam".

"Viet" means Kinh People.

"Viet Nam" means "Southern Kihn People".

See the Etymology section: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_Vietnam

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    Has Vietnam authority assigned a "official English translation" for this? Or they just left it open to English speakers to define it? – user3528438 Oct 25 '17 at 15:47
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Your links attest usage by the Vietnamese government of both Viet Nam and Vietnam. So there is no coordinated Vietnamese government policy promoting Viet Nam. There is therefore no reason not to keep using Vietnam, the common and familiar English name.

Colin
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According to ISO standard correct English spelling is 'Viet Nam': https://www.iso.org/obp/ui/#iso:code:3166:VN

Valeria O
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    I don't think that ISO 3166 really mandates the "correct" spelling. In fact, I don't think any organisation mandates any "correct" spelling of anything in the English language (unlike e.g. Dutch or French which have official institutions mandating official spelling). –  Feb 06 '18 at 14:12
  • @Carpetsmoker, UNGEGN is such organization. – Be Brave Be Like Ukraine Feb 06 '18 at 14:34
  • That doesn't really mandate anything though @bytebuster. There are many recommendations (such as common dictionaries such as OED, Merriam-Webster, or standards such as ISO 3166), but that's not quite the same. –  Feb 06 '18 at 14:53
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"The name "Vietnam" has been official since 1945. It was adopted in June by Bảo Đại's imperial government in Huế, and in September by Ho's rival communist government in Hanoi." source

Additionally, the U.S. State Department used "Vietnam", "Viet Nam" and "Viet-Nam" for the same nation, with an internal preference for "Viet-Nam" in the 1960s. Oxford dictionary list all three formats as acceptable spelling for the nation. The single word name fell out of use in the early 1980s with several historians noting the hyphenated spelling was dated.

In the United States, referring to it as "Viet Nam" is generally seen as a sort of offensive following the Vietnam war and the pronunciation of the word so that the second syllable rhymes with the word "Scam" is seen as something said by people with slight prejudicial views (I believe it was used by Military and Government officials as it was period correct pronunciation. It can be heard prominently pronounced this way in the movie Forest Gump). Today it is more commonly pronounced so that the second syllable rhymes with the first syllable of "Nominate". I am unaware of the actual offense taken by the country or the people at either pronunciation.

In short, while all three spellings are correct, in most English speaking countries, Vietnam is preferred, though the "Viet Nam" spelling is used by the UN and the Vietnam government itself.

Most countries do not have the same name or direct translations in non-native languages. For example, the United States' official Chinese Name is translated as "The Beautiful Country" (the word Mei is the Chinese word for Beauty and sounds like the Second Syllable in "America"). Historically, China referred to the nation as "The Country with the Patterned Flag" due to the unusual design of the U.S. Flag on ships in the ports of China. While this is quite dated to a modern Chinese speaker, it's still used by several American entities that were in China when it was in vogue (Predominantly Citibank of America's Chinese name uses the old name for the United States). Neither would be particularly offensive to the average U.S. Citizen who doesn't have a good grasp of the Chinese Language and both are still positive stereotypes of the U.S. they hold about themselves.

Unless a particular name is very offensive, most nations do not mind their names from other cultures and do not protest often. Most renamings stem from poor transliliterations of the sounds used in the original language to the new language (ala Peking is a Romanticized name for Beijing based on a Southern dialect) or confusion (Mumbai was historically called Bombay after the Portuguese, which referred to the city's bay as Bom Bai or "Good Bay" before the British came to India. Either way, the citizens saw the name change as shoving off colonial rule when it became Mumbai in 1995). And of course, there's good ole' political reasons like St. Petersburg/Petrograd/Leningrad/St. Petersburg.

And let's not discuss how it's Istanbul, not Constantinople. I looked at many works, but it seems the Historians Jimmy Kennedy and Nat Simon suggest it's nobody's business but the Turks', which was further backed up by other people who Might Be Giants in their field. It probably is the same reason why old New York was once New Amsterdam (Actually, it was the change of the official language resulting from the change of official government who controlled the city).

Suffice to say, names of places change over time and through languages for all sorts of language and the response to learning these changes can range from offense to "meh" and everywhere in between.

hszmv
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  • In the United States, referring to it as "Viet Nam" is generally seen as a sort of offensive. Without a source (much less a valid source) for that statement , the only possible vote for this answer is "down*. – RonJohn Jul 12 '22 at 03:26