Lieutenant Général Nguyễn Văn Hiếu Library Thư Viện

Origin of the Saigon name

http://www.generalhieu.info/saigon-history-by-images/saigon-nguon-goc-danh-tu-saigon.html

 

 

Ben Thanh market

 

Origin of the Saigon name

 

Original Khmer name

 

Saigon City is the largest city in Vietnam, located near the delta of the Mekong River. Under the name Prey Nokor (Khmer: ), it was the main port of Cambodia, before being conquered by the Vietnamese in the16th century. Under the name Saigon (Vietnamese: Sài Gòn), it was the capital of the French colony of Cochinchina, and later of the independent state of South Vietnam from 1954 to 1975. It is situated on the western bank of the Saigon River. Saigon City is located at 10°45' North, 106°40' East.

 

The city was known by its original Khmer inhabitants as Prey Nokor ( ). Prey Nokor means "forest city", or "forest land" in Khmer (Prey = "forest"; Nokor = "city, land", from Sanskrit nagara). The name Prey Nokor is still the name used in Cambodia today, as well as the name used by the Khmer Krom minority living in the delta of the Mekong.

 

Traditional Vietnamese Name

 

After Prey Nokor was settled by Vietnamese refugees from the north, in time it became known as Sài Gòn. There is much debate about the origins of the Vietnamese name Sài Gòn, whose etymology is analyzed below.

 

Before the French colonization, the official Vietnamese name of Saigon was Gia Dinh (chu nom: 嘉定). In 1862, the French discarded this official name and adopted the name "Saigon", which had always been the popular name.

 

From an orthographic point of view, the Vietnamese name Sài Gòn is written in two syllables, which is the traditional convention in Vietnamese spelling. Some people, however, write the name of the city as SàiGòn or Sàigòn in order to save space or give it a more westernized look.

 

Sino-Vietnamese Etymology

 

A frequently heard etymology is that Sài is a Chinese loan word (Chinese: 柴, pronounced chái in Mandarin) meaning "firewood, lops, twigs; palisade", while Gòn is another Chinese loan word (Chinese: 棍, pronounced gùn in Mandarin) meaning "stick, pole, bole", and whose meaning evolved into "cotton" in Vietnamese (bông gòn, literally "cotton stick", i.e. "cotton plant", then shortened to gòn).

 

Some people say that this name originated from the many cotton plants that the Khmers had planted around Prey Nokor, and which can still be seen at Cây Mai temple and surrounding areas. …

 

Trương Vinh Ký, "Souvenirs historiques sur Saigon et ses environs", in Excursions et Reconnaissances, Imprimerie Coloniale, Saigon, 1885.

 

Another explanation is that the etymological meaning "twigs" (Sài) & "boles" (Gòn) refers to the dense and tall forest once existing around Saigon, a forest to which the Khmer name Prey Nokor already referred.

 

Chinese people both in Vietnam and in China do not use the name 柴棍 (pronounced Chaai-Gwan in Cantonese and Cháigùn in Mandarin), although etymologically speaking it is the Chinese name from which the Vietnamese name Sài Gòn is derived (if the theory here is correct). Instead, they call the city 西貢 (pronounced Sai-Gung in Cantonese and Xigòng in Mandarin), which is a mere phonetic transliteration of the name "Saigon".

 

Khmer Etymology

 

Another etymology often proposed is that "Saigon" comes from "Sai Con", which would be the transliteration of the Khmer words prey kor ( ) meaning "forest of kapok trees" (prey = forest; kor = kapok tree). The Khmer word prey kor should not be confused with the Khmer name "Prey Nokor" discussed above (kor is a Khmer word meaning "kapok tree", while nokor is a Khmer word of Sanskrit origin meaning "city, land").

 

This Khmer etymology theory is quite interesting given the Khmer context that existed when the first Vietnamese settlers arrived in the region. However, it fails to completely explain how Khmer "prey" led to Vietnamese "Sài", since these two syllables appear phonetically quite distinct.

 

Cantonese Etymology

 

A less likely etymology was offered by Vuong Hong Sen, a Vietnamese scholar in the early 20th century, who asserted that Sài Gòn had its origins in the Cantonese name of Cholon (Vietnamese: quoc ngu Chợ Lớn; chu nom ), 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".

 

History

 

Saigon City began as a small fishing village known as Prey Nokor. The area that the city now occupies was originally swampland, and was inhabited by Khmer people for centuries before the arrival of the Vietnamese. It grew to become a trading post and the main port of the Kingdom of Cambodia.

 

In 1623, King Chey Chettha II of Cambodia (1618-1628) allowed Vietnamese refugees fleeing the Trinh- Nguyen civil war in Vietnam to settle in the area of Prey Nokor, and to set up a custom house at Prey Nokor. Increasing waves of Vietnamese settlers, which the weakened Cambodian kingdom could not impede, slowly vietnamized the area. In time, Prey Nokor became known as Saigon.

 

In 1698, Nguyen Huu Canh, a Vietnamese noble, was sent by the Nguyen rulers of Huế to establish Vietnamese administrative structures in the area, thus detaching the area from Cambodia, which was not strong enough to intervene. He is often credited with the expansion of Saigon into a significant settlement.

 

Conquered by France in 1859, the city was influenced by the French during their colonial occupation of Vietnam, and a number of prominent buildings in the city reflect this.

 

In 1954, the French were defeated by the Communist Viet Minh in the Battle of Dien Biên Phủ, and withdrew from Vietnam. Rather than recognise the Communists as the new government, however, they gave their backing to a government established by Emperor Bo Di. Bo Di had set up Saigon as his capital in 1950. When Vietnam was officially partitioned into North Vietnam (the Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and SouthVietnam (the Republic of Vietnam), the southern government, led by President Ngô Đình Diệm, retained Saigon as its capital.

 

At the conclusion of the Vietnam War in 1975, the city came under the control of the North Vietnamese Army and its allies. In the U.S. this event is commonly called the "Fall of Saigon," while in Vietnam it is called the "Liberation of Saigon."

 

In 1976, upon establishment of the unified Socialist Republic of Vietnam, the victorious Communists renamed the city after socialist CongSan's founding father, Hồ Chí Minh. (A name of the dead body)

 

The former name Saigon is still used by most Vietnamese, especially in informal contexts

 

Saigon and the city of Cholon (primarily Vietnamese Chinese) and 3 former districts were combined to create a new city and named in VC honour of their leader Hô Chí Minh (A name of the dead body). There are two seperate parts to this, Saigon city is actually a province and covers a very large area up to Cu Chi, and the city itself is known as TPSG, many people of southern origin still call it Saigon.

 

Saigon City is home to a well-established ethnic Chinese population. The Cholon, now known as district 5 serves as its Chinatown.