is a variation of "Nam Việt" (Chinese: 南越; pinyin: Nányuè; literally "Southern Việt"), a name that can be traced back to the Triệu Dynasty of the 2nd century BC.[16] The word Việt originated as a shortened form of Bách Việt (Chinese: 百越; pinyin: Bǎiyuè), a word applied to a group of peoples then living in southern China and Vietnam.[17] The form "Vietnam" (越南) is first recorded in the 16th-century oracular poem Sấm Trạng Trình.[18] The name has also been found on 12 steles carved in the 16th and 17th centuries, including one at Bao Lam Pagoda in Haiphong that dates to 1558.[19]
Between 1804 and 1813, the name was used officially by Emperor Gia Long.[20] It was revived in the early 20th century by Phan Bội Châu's History of the Loss of Vietnam, and later by the Vietnamese Nationalist Party.[21] The country was usually called Annam until 1945, when both the imperial government in Huế and the Viet Minh government in Hanoi adopted Việt Nam.[22] Since the use of Chinese characters was discontinued in 1918, the alphabetic spelling of Vietnam is official.