Dinh
A surname with several possible East Asian origins, most often Vietnamese, and sometimes romanized from Chinese characters.
The #2,119 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 18,075 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Dinh is most commonly associated with Vietnamese surname usage, where it usually represents a family name written with Latin letters under the modern quốc ngữ system. In Vietnamese, it may reflect the Sino-Vietnamese reading of a Chinese surname or clan name, so the exact original character and meaning can vary by family line. In some cases it is also a romanization of Chinese surnames rendered as Ding or Ting in other systems. Because the same spelling can come from more than one source tradition, the literal origin is not always recoverable from the English spelling alone.
History
The surname is especially familiar in Vietnamese communities and appears in diaspora populations in the United States, Canada, France, and Australia. Because Vietnamese surnames were often standardized in Latin script in the 20th century, the same spelling can conceal several distinct ancestral lines. In English-language records, Dinh is usually treated as a Vietnamese surname, though without the original characters the deeper etymology may remain uncertain.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
In Vietnamese, the name is often written with the letter Đ in formal orthography, but that character is commonly simplified to D in passports and overseas records.