Parents pick Chinese names for children

Couples turn to "nameologists" for lucky, meaningful monikers

Most Vietnamese couples spend days, even months, and dozens of US dollars to acquire a meaningful name to give to their child, and most names deemed the best are of Chinese and Vietnamese origin.

Chinese-Vietnamese words are elements in the indigenous language that are derived from Chinese. For example, the Chinese characters for "Yellow Dragon" are pronounced and written as "Huang Long" in Latin, but "Hoang Long" in Vietnamese. Likewise, the Chinese characters for "Pink Cloud" are pronounced and written as "Hong Yun" in Latin, but "Hong Van" in Vietnamese.