Originally Posted by nevets

It is estimated that there are around one hundred family names in common use, although some are far more common than others. The name Nguyễn is estimated to be used by more than 40% of the Vietnamese population.

The most popular family names among the Vietnamese are (the Chinese characters following each name are their Chinese equivalents)[1]:

1. Nguyễn 阮 (38.4%)
2. Trần 陳 (11%)
3. Lê 黎 (9.5%)
4. Huỳnh/Hoàng 黃 (5.1%)
5. Phạm 范 (5%)
6. Phan 潘 (4.5%)
7. Vũ/Võ 武 (3.9%)
8. Đặng(2.1%)
9. Bùi 裴 (2%)
10. Đỗ 杜 (1.4%)
11. Hồ 胡 (1.3%)
12. Ngô 吳 (1.3%)
13. Dương 楊 (1%)
14. Lý 李 (0.5%)

The following include some other less common surnames, in no particular order:

* LâmNote: Great emphasis on the accent of the letter "â" to determine whether the person is Vietnamese or chinese)
* Đinh: 丁
* Nghiêm: 嚴 (厳 in Japanese)
* Đào: 陶
* Vương: 王
* Trịnh: 鄭 (almost exclusively a northern surname, based around Thanh Hoa)
* Phùng: 馮
* Chu: 朱
* Triệu: 趙
* Đoàn: 段
* Trương: 張
* Tôn: 孫
* Liễu (in northern or central regions): 柳
* Lưu (in central or southern regions): 劉
* Mai: 梅