Tonkin
English edit
Etymology 1 edit
From a medieval diminutive form of the given name Thomas.
Proper noun edit
Tonkin (plural Tonkins)
- A surname transferred from the given name.
Statistics edit
- According to the 2010 United States Census, Tonkin is the 15418th most common surname in the United States, belonging to 1900 individuals. Tonkin is most common among White (94.68%) individuals.
Etymology 2 edit
From French Tonkin, from Vietnamese Đông Kinh (“Hanoi; its former kingdom”), from đông (“east, eastern”) + kinh (“capital”), from Middle Chinese 東 (tuŋ) + 京 (kˠiæŋ), q.v.
Proper noun edit
Tonkin
- (archaic) Synonym of Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam.
- (historical) A former kingdom in northern Vietnam.
- (historical) A former protectorate in northern Vietnam, a colony of France.
- Short for Gulf of Tonkin, a gulf in northern Vietnam.
- Short for Gulf of Tonkin incident, a 1964 event used to increase US involvement in the Vietnamese Civil War.
Alternative forms edit
Derived terms edit
Further reading edit
- Hanks, Patrick, editor (2003), “Tonkin”, in Dictionary of American Family Names, volume 3, New York City: Oxford University Press, →ISBN.
Anagrams edit
French edit
Alternative forms edit
Etymology edit
From Vietnamese Đông Kinh, a former name for Hanoi. Also see Pékin (“Beijing”) and Nankin (“Nanjing”).
Pronunciation edit
Proper noun edit
Tonkin m
- (history) the northern part of Vietnam, a former French colonial region
- A gulf in northern Vietnam: the Gulf of Tonkin
Derived terms edit
Descendants edit
- English: Tonkin