We love this city that we’ve called home since October 2023. It was officially named Saigon in the early 18th century and changed to Ho Chi Minh City in 1976. So, which is the correct way to refer to it – Saigon or Ho Chi Minh City? As it turns out, both are acceptable.
At first, I thought that perhaps older people called it Saigon, while younger people used Ho Chi Minh City. But that hypothesis didn’t pan out as we hear locals using either name indiscriminately.
There is one way that some people say the name that annoys locals. It’s when they call it, “Ho Chi Minh” (cutting out the word “City.”) Ho Chi Minh, they point out, is the person who served as the prime minister of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam from 1945 to 1955 and as president from 1945 until he died in 1969. It is, of course, his name that was posthumously attached to the city as a way of honoring him. He is currently often referred to as, Bác Hồ (Uncle Ho)
So, knowing that either is ok (no crazy politics involved), I will continue referring to the city as Saigon while Mark has landed on calling it Ho Chi Minh City, and will likely stick to that. However, we agree that the name of this fascinating city that we like best is “Home.”
