Naming New Commune-Level Units: Retention, Combination, and Innovation in Việt Nam’s 2025 Administrative Reform

Abstract

Việt Nam’s 2025 commune-level administrative consolidation, enacted through Resolution 202/2025/QH15 by the National Assembly, provides a large-scale context for examining how states negotiate identity through place naming. This study analyzes 3,321 newly constituted commune-level units to identify patterns of name retention, combination, and innovation. Using a mixed-methods design that integrates quantitative pattern mapping with qualitative analysis of policy documents, historical maps, and toponymic archives, it interprets naming as a sociolinguistic process through which governance, heritage, and collective identity intersect. The findings reveal a predominance of name retention in rural, culturally cohesive areas, and greater innovation in urban centers such as Hồ Chí Minh City, where renaming reinforced heritage and place branding. Situating the Vietnamese case within the framework of critical toponymy, the study demonstrates how large-scale administrative reforms mediate between political rationalization and symbolic continuity. It contributes to onomastic scholarship by proposing a replicable model for analyzing state-led renaming and by advancing understanding of how naming practices encode power, memory, and belonging.