Ho Chi Minh City

Ho Chi Minh City (abbreviated HCMC), commonly known as Saigon, is the most populous city in Vietnam, with a population of around 9.3 million in 2023.

Situated in the Southeast region of Vietnam, the city surrounds the Saigon River and covers about 2,061 km2 (796 sq mi).

Saigon was the capital of French Indochina from 1887 to 1902, and again from 1945 until its cessation in 1954.

Following the partition of French Indochina, it became the capital of South Vietnam until the fall of Saigon in 1975.

The communist government renamed Saigon in honour of Hồ Chí Minh shortly after the fall of Saigon.

Beginning in the 1990s, the city underwent rapid modernisation and expansion, contributing to Vietnam's post-war economic recovery.

It is known for its well-preserved French colonial architecture, vibrant street life, its varied cultural institutions, which include historic landmarks, walking streets, museums and galleries which attracts over 8 million international visitors each year.

Ho Chi Minh City is a major centre for finance, media, technology, education, and transportation.

The city generates around a quarter of the country's total GDP, and is home to many multinational companies.

It has a Human Development Index of 0.795 (high), ranking second among all municipalities and provinces of Vietnam.

Tân Sơn Nhất International Airport, the main airport serving the city, is the busiest airport in the country by passenger traffic, accounting for nearly half of all international arrivals to Vietnam.

Etymology

The first known human habitation of the area was a Cham settlement called Baigaur.

The Cambodians then took over the Cham village of Baigaur and renamed it Prey Nokor, a small fishing village.

Over time, under the control of the Vietnamese, it was officially renamed Gia Định, a name that was retained until the time of the French conquest in the 1860s, when it adopted the name Sài Gòn, westernized as Saïgon, although the city was still indicated as on Vietnamese maps written in chữ Hán until at least 1891.

The current name, Ho Chi Minh City, was given after reunification in 1976 to honour Ho Chi Minh.

Even today, however, the informal name of Sài Gòn remains in daily speech.

However, there is a technical difference between the two terms: Sài Gòn is commonly used to refer to the city centre in District 1 and the adjacent areas, while Ho Chi Minh City refers to all of its urban and rural districts.

Saigon

An etymology of Saigon (or Sài Gòn in Vietnamese) is that Sài is a Sino-Vietnamese word meaning "firewood, lops, twigs; palisade", while Gòn is a word meaning "cotton" in Vietnamese (bông gòn, literally "cotton plant", then shortened to gòn).

This name may refer to the many Bombax ceiba ('red kapok' trees) that the Khmer people had planted around Prey Nokor, and which can still be seen at Cây Mai temple and surrounding areas.

It may also refer to the dense and tall forest that once existed around the city, a forest to which the Khmer name, Prey Nokor, already referred.

Sài Gòn is proposed to be a calque of Khmer Prey Nokor (Khmer: ព្រៃនគរ).

Prey means forest or jungle, and nokor is a Khmer word of Sanskrit origin नगर nagara meaning city or kingdom, and related to the English word 'Nation' – thus, "forest city" or "forest kingdom".

The book, Nam Quốc địa dư giáo khoa thư, lists two names for Saigon, Sài Gòn (tên Nôm) and Gia Định (tên Chữ).

Other proposed etymologies draw parallels from Cantonese tai4ngon6, the Cantonese name of Chợ Lớn, which means "embankment" (French: quais).

But is unlikely since in Nam Quốc địa dư giáo khoa thư, it also lists Chợ Lớn as separate from Sài Gòn.

Ho Chi Minh City

The current official name, 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 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 (Hồ, 胡) with a given name meaning "enlightened will" (from Sino-Vietnamese, 志 明; Chí meaning 'will' or 'spirit', and Minh meaning 'light'), in essence, meaning "light bringer".

Nowadays, "Sài Gòn" is commonly used to refer to the city's central business districts, "Prey Nokor City" is well known in Khmer, whereas "Hồ Chí Minh City" is used to refer to the whole city.