Editing Ho Chi Minh City (section)

==Etymology==
{{Main|Names of Ho Chi Minh City}}

The first known human habitation in the area was a [[Chams|Cham]] settlement called Baigaur.<ref group="nb">{{Cite book|editor-last=Vo|editor-first=Nghia M.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0oeEpKDCmV4C&pg=218
| page=218|title=The Viet Kieu in America: Personal Accounts of Postwar Immigrants from Vietnam|date=2009|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-0-7864-5490-7|quote=Saigon began as the Cham village of Baigaur, then became the Khmer Prey Nôkôr before being taken over by the Vietnamese and renamed Gia Dinh Thanh and then Saigon.}}</ref>
The Cambodians then took over the Cham village of Baigaur and renamed it Prey Nokor, a small fishing village.<ref name="SaigonHis2">{{Cite book |last=Vo |first=Nghia M. |title=Saigon: A History |date=2011 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-0-7864-6466-1 |pages=7–8}}</ref><ref name="salkin-962">{{Cite book |author=Salkin |first1=Robert M. |title=Asia and Oceania |last2=Ring |first2=Trudy |publisher=Taylor & Francis |year=1996 |isbn=1-884964-04-4 |editor=Schellinger|editor-first=Paul E. |series=International Dictionary of Historic Places |volume=5 |pages=353–354 |editor2=Salkin|editor-first2=Robert M.}}</ref> Over time, under the control of the Vietnamese, it was officially renamed [[Gia Dinh|Gia Định]] ({{linktext|嘉|定}}) in 1698, a name that was retained until the time of the [[Cochinchina Campaign|French conquest]] in the 1860s, when it adopted the name {{lang|vi|Sài Gòn}}, [[Francization|francized]] as {{lang|fr|Saïgon}},<ref name="salkin-962" /> although the city was still indicated as {{lang|vi-Hani|[[wiktionary:嘉|嘉]][[wiktionary:定|定]]}} on Vietnamese maps written in [[chữ Hán]] until at least 1891.<ref name="mapofvietnam18912">{{cite web |year=1890 |title=Comprehensive Map of Vietnam's Provinces |url=http://www.wdl.org/en/item/226/zoom.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110630141328/http://www.wdl.org/en/item/226/zoom.html |archive-date=30 June 2011 |access-date=13 April 2011 |work=World Digital Library |publisher=[[UNESCO]]}}</ref>

The current name, Ho Chi Minh City, was given after [[Reunification Day|reunification]] in 1976 to honour [[Ho Chi Minh]].{{refn|The text of the resolution is as follows:
"By the National Assembly of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, 6th tenure, 1st session, for officially renaming Saigon-Gia Dinh City as Ho Chi Minh City.<br />
The National Assembly of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam
Considering the boundless love of the people of Saigon-Gia Dinh City for Chairman Ho Chi Minh and their wish for the city to be named after him;<br />
Considering the long and difficult revolutionary struggle launched in [[Saigon]]-[[Gia Dinh]] City, with several glorious feats, deserves the honour of being named after Chairman Ho Chi Minh;<br />
After discussing the suggestion of the Presidium of the National Assembly's meeting;(PNAM)<br />
Decides to rename Saigon-Gia Dinh City as Ho Chi Minh City."<ref name="hcmgov15jun10">{{cite web |title=From Saigon to Ho Chi Minh City |url=http://www.eng.hochiminhcity.gov.vn/eng/news/default.aspx?cat_id=510&news_id=243 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110207101605/http://www.eng.hochiminhcity.gov.vn/eng/news/default.aspx?cat_id=510&news_id=243 |archive-date=7 February 2011 |access-date=15 June 2010 |publisher=People's Committee of Ho Chi Minh City}}</ref>|group=nb}} Even today, however, the informal name of {{lang|vi|Sài Gòn}} remains in daily speech. However, there is a technical difference between the two terms: {{lang|vi|Sài Gòn}} is commonly used to refer to the city centre in [[District 1, Ho Chi Minh City|District 1]] and the adjacent areas, while ''Ho Chi Minh City'' refers to all of its urban and rural districts.<ref name="salkin-962" />

===Saigon===
[[File:SaiGonGiaDinhChuNom.jpg|left|thumb|190px|Saigon is written here as {{lang|zh-Hant|柴棍}} along with other Southern Vietnamese cities. (On the left of the page, first row after "{{lang|zh-Hant|城庯三}}")]]

The original toponym behind Sài Gòn was attested earliest as {{lang|zh-Hant|柴棍}}, with two phonograms whose Sino-Vietnamese readings are sài and côn respectively, in Lê Quý Đôn's "Miscellaneous Chronicles of the Pacified Frontier" ({{lang|zh-Hant|撫邊雜錄}}, {{lang|vi|Phủ biên tạp lục}} c. 1776), wherein Lê relates that, in 1674, Cambodian prince [[Ang Nan]] was installed as [[uparaja]] in {{lang|zh-Hant|柴棍}} (Sài Gòn) by Vietnamese forces.

{{lang|zh-Hant|柴棍}} also appears later in Trịnh Hoài Đức's "Comprehensive Records about the Gia Định Citadel" ({{lang|zh-Hant|嘉定城通志}}, {{lang|vi|Gia Định thành thông chí}}, c. 1820), "Textbook on the Geography of the Southern Country" ({{lang|zh-Hant|南國地輿教科書}}, {{lang|vi|Nam quốc địa dư giáo khoa thư}}, 1908),<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=梁 Lương |first=竹潭 Trúc Đàm |date=1908 |title=南國地輿教科書 Nam quốc địa dư giáo khoa thư |url=https://lib.nomfoundation.org/collection/1/volume/1043/ |website=Nom Foundation}}</ref> etc.

Adrien Launay's {{lang|fr|Histoire de la Mission de Cochinchine|italics=no}} (1688–1823), "Documents Historiques II: 1728 – 1771" (1924: [https://books.google.com/books?id=zZ6AAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA190 190]) cites 1747 documents containing the toponyms: provincia Rai-gon, Rai-gon thong (for *Sài Gòn thượng "Upper Saigon"), & Rai-gon-ha (for *Sài Gòn hạ "Lower Saigon").

It is probably a transcription of Khmer {{lang|km|ព្រៃនគរ}} (Prey Nokôr)<ref>{{Harvnb|Vo|2011|p=9}}</ref><ref name="TruongVinhKy2">{{Cite book |last=Ky |first=Pétrus |title=Excursions et Reconnaissance |publisher=Imprimerie Coloniale |year=1885 |volume=X |location=Saigon |language=fr |chapter=Souvenirs historiques sur Saigon et ses environs |author-link=Pétrus Ky |chapter-url=https://virtual-saigon.net/Asset/Source/refBibliography_ID-3228_No-01.pdf |access-date=20 May 2021 |archive-date=20 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210520054031/https://virtual-saigon.net/Asset/Source/refBibliography_ID-3228_No-01.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref>{{refn|"The Khmer name for Saigon, by the way, is Prey Nokor; prey means forest, nokor home or city."<ref>{{cite book |title=War and hope: the case for Cambodia |author=Norodom Sihanouk |publisher=Pantheon Books |year=1980 |isbn=0-394-51115-8 |page=[https://archive.org/details/warhopecasef00noro/page/54 54] |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/warhopecasef00noro/page/54}}</ref>|group=nb}}, or Khmer {{lang|km|ព្រៃគរ}} (Prey Kôr).

The proposal that Sài Gòn is from non-Sino-Vietnamese reading of Chinese {{lang|zh|堤岸}} ("embankment", {{transliteration|yue|tai4 ngon6}}, SV: đê ngạn){{refn|"Un siècle plus tard (1773), la révolte des TÁYON ''(sic)'' <nowiki>[qu'éclata]</nowiki> tout, d'abord dans les montagnes de la province de Qui-Nhon, et s'étendit rapidement dans le sud, chassa de Bien-Hoa le mouvement commercial qu'y avaient attiré les Chinois. Ceux-ci abandonnèrent Cou-lao-pho, remontèrent de fleuve de Tan-Binh, et vinrent choisir la position actuele de CHOLEN. Cette création date d'environ 1778. Ils appelèrent leur nouvelle résidence TAI-NGON ou TIN-GAN. Le nom transformé par les Annamites en celui de SAIGON fut depuis appliqué à tort, par l'expédition française, au SAIGON actuel dont la dénomination locale est [[BEN-NGHE]] ou [[BEN-THANH]]."<ref>Francis Garnier, quoted in: {{cite book |title=Tuyển tập Vương Hồng Sến |author=Hồng Sến Vương, Q. Thắng Nguyễn |url=https://www.scribd.com/Lich-Su-Thu-Do-Sai-Gon/d/7230907 |publisher=Nhà xuất bản Văn học |year=2002 |access-date=9 September 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100505043006/http://www.scribd.com/Lich-Su-Thu-Do-Sai-Gon/d/7230907 |archive-date=5 May 2010 |url-status=dead}}</ref>|group=nb}}, the [[Yue Chinese|Cantonese]] name of [[Chợ Lớn]], (e.g. by Vương Hồng Sển) has been critiqued as folk-etymological, as: (1) the Vietnamese source Phủ biên tạp lục (albeit written in literary Chinese) was the earliest extant one containing the local toponym's transcription; (2) {{lang|zh|堤岸}} has variant form {{lang|zh|提岸}}, thus suggesting that both were transcriptions of a local toponym and thus are cognates to, not originals of, Sài Gòn. Saigon is unlikely to be from {{lang|zh|堤岸}} since in "Textbook on the Geography of the Southern Country", it also lists [[Chợ Lớn]] as {{lang|vi-Hani|𢄂𢀲}} separate from {{lang|zh|柴棍}} Sài Gòn.{{Original research inline|date=September 2024}}

===Ho Chi Minh City===
The current official name, ''{{lang|vi|Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh}}'', was first proclaimed in 1945, and later adopted in 1976. It is abbreviated as TP.HCM, and translated in English as ''Ho Chi Minh City'', abbreviated as HCMC, and in French as ''{{lang|fr|Hô-Chi-Minh-Ville}}'' (the [[circumflex]] is sometimes omitted), abbreviated as HCMV. 

The name commemorates [[Ho Chi Minh]], the first leader of [[North Vietnam]]. This name, though not his given name, was one he favored throughout his later years. It combines a common Vietnamese surname ({{lang|vi|Hồ|italics=no}}, {{vi-nom|[[:wiktionary:胡|胡]]}}) with a given name meaning "enlightened will" (from [[Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary|Sino-Vietnamese]], [[wiktionary:志|志]] [[wiktionary:明|明]]; {{lang|vi|Chí|italics=no}} meaning 'will' or 'spirit', and {{lang|vi|Minh|italics=no}} meaning 'light'), in essence, meaning "light bringer".<ref name="bbc-bacho2">{{cite web |title=Historic Figures: Hồ Chí Minh (1890–1969) |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/ho_chi_minh.shtml |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100122111037/http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/ho_chi_minh.shtml |archive-date=22 January 2010 |access-date=1 June 2010 |publisher=[[BBC]]}}</ref> 

Nowadays, "Saigon" is still used as a semi-official name for the city, in some cases being used interchangeably with Ho Chi Minh City, partly due to its long history and familiarity.<ref name=":1">{{cite web |last=Sinha |first=Sayoni |date=2019-07-04 |title=Craft brews and skyline views the ultimate Ho Chi Minh City itinerary |url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com.au/travel/craft-brews-and-skyline-views-the-ultimate-ho-chi-minh-city-itinerary.aspx |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190705022350/https://www.nationalgeographic.com.au/travel/craft-brews-and-skyline-views-the-ultimate-ho-chi-minh-city-itinerary.aspx |archive-date=5 July 2019 |access-date=23 November 2019 |website=[[National Geographic]]}}</ref>