'Vietnamese' originates from the combination of the place name 'Vietnam' and the English suffix '-ese'. 'Vietnam' ultimately comes from the Sino-Vietnamese 'Việt Nam', where 'Việt' referred to the Viet people and 'Nam' meant 'south'.

'Vietnamese' replaced older English usages tied to the name 'Annam' (e.g. 'Annamese') after the modern name 'Vietnam' became standard in international use; the formation follows the regular English pattern of adding '-ese' to a place name to form a demonym or language name.

Initially English terms for the region and its people varied (for example 'Annamese'); over time the term 'Vietnamese' came to mean specifically 'of or from Vietnam' and 'the Vietnamese language'.