Naming the new commune after the merger

The story of naming new communes after merging commune-level administrative units is not new and always attracts public attention.

From 2019 to now, our province has had two rounds of administrative unit rearrangement at the commune level. With each rearrangement, controversial naming issues have emerged. When Kinh Mon town was established in 2019, Quang Trung and Phuc Thanh communes (Kinh Mon) merged into the new Quang Thanh commune. It seems that each commune retains half of its old name, but thinking back, the new name does not retain the original meaning of Quang Trung commune, which was named after the "cloth emperor" who defeated the invading Qing army.

Recently, in the period of 2023 - 2025, when merging two communes Kien Quoc and Hong Phuc (Ninh Giang), the idea of ​​naming the commune by combining each place with an element of the old name to form Kien Hong commune has met with public reaction. In the end, the new commune has a better and more meaningful name, Kien Phuc.

The issue of naming new communes is now completely different. Because this merger of commune-level administrative units is taking place in the context of the strong and rapid streamlining revolution. New communes/wards are established when the district level no longer exists, so they will be much larger in scale than the old administrative units. In the most recent proposal, the Ministry of Home Affairs proposed that the number of new communes/wards will be 300% of the old criteria according to Resolution 1211 and Resolution 35 of the National Assembly Standing Committee on population and area. The Ministry also directed that the number of commune-level administrative units be reduced by 70-75% compared to the present.

Merging 4, 5 or even 6 commune-level units into 1 cannot be named in a way that combines each place's name component as before. Taking the name of 1 commune is also not suitable because it is difficult to represent the remaining communes. When drafting a resolution to advise the National Assembly Standing Committee on merging provincial and commune-level administrative units in the future, the Ministry of Home Affairs encourages localities to name communes after the old district name with an ordinal number attached or by ordinal number.

The suggestion of naming it after the old district is an idea that many people can agree with.

When the district level is no longer there, the old district name reminds people of the land and countryside that they have been attached to for generations. This is also a way for fellow countrymen of the district from all over the country to easily contact and connect with each other, and also facilitates the search and comparison of addresses and data about old and new localities.

However, there are also opinions that we should not add a serial number after the old district name because it can easily lead to the mentality of ranking 1, 2, 3... Instead, we can put it in the direction of east, west, south, north, center. Of course, this division is only relative.

In fact, many districts in the province are currently divided by region such as Kim Thanh has communes in areas A, B, C; Thanh Ha has areas Ha Bac, Ha Nam, Ha Dong, Ha Tay; Kinh Mon has area Nhi Chieu... If the commune-level administrative units are arranged according to these areas, new communes can be named after the area name. Communes/wards can also be named after the names of old districts from the feudal period until now. For example, the names Thanh Ha, Binh Ha (Thanh Ha); Nam Sach, Thanh Lam (Nam Sach); Binh Giang, Thuong Hong (Binh Giang), Hai Duong, Thanh Dong (Hai Duong City)...

Suggesting naming simply by order of numbers is also a way. This method has been applied by Ho Chi Minh City with many current names such as District 1, District 2...; Ward 11, 12... At first, people may not be familiar with it, but after calling it many times, it will become familiar.

Naming a new commune is not simple but not too complicated. The important thing is that the name is meaningful, easy to remember, convenient for updating data, performing administrative procedures and, most importantly, the newly formed commune operates effectively.