hi~~
in chinese, we call saigon 西贡, it means 'western tribute', a nice name.
but i wanna know the exact meaning of it, could you tell me?
thanks
atoom

I don't remember who but a Vietnamese member shared a picture of his Han-Viet dictionary that showed "Saigon" to be 柴棍 Chaigun or "match stick".

I've heard some Vietnamese claimed before that it came from either a Khmer or Champa word... <shrug> but I do know the Khmer name for the city of Saigon before Vietnamese took over is quite different from "Saigon".

hi~~
in chinese, we call saigon 西贡, it means 'western tribute', a nice name.
but i wanna know the exact meaning of it, could you tell me?
thanks
atoom

There are many theories, they all seem credible though. the following excerpt taken from:http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Ho-Chi-Minh-City

Origin of the name
There is much debate about the origins of the name Sài Gòn. Vuong Hong Sen, a Vietnamese scholar in the early 20th century, asserted that Sai Gon had its origins from Chinese. In 1778, the Hoa living in Bien Hoa had to take refuge in what is now know as Cholon because they were retaliated by the Tay Son forces for their support of the Nguyen lords. In 1782 they were again massacred by the Tay Son and had to rebuild. They built large dikes and called the new location "Tai-Ngon" or "Tin-Gan", meaning "high dikes". They also called the Vietnamese living in the area "Xi-coon". The Hoa (Chu Nom: 華) are a Chinese minority in Vietnam. ... Tay Son Dynasty Origin of the Tay Son The name of Tay Son is used in many ways referring back to the period of peasant rebellions and decentralized dynasty established between the eras of the Le and Nguyen dynasties. ...

Other theories assert that Sài Gòn originated from the word "Sài" from the Chinese character for firewood and "Gòn" from the Chu Nom character for the cotton plant. 漢字 in Traditional Chinese and other languages. ... The title given to this article is incorrect due to technical limitations. ... Species See text The cotton plant is a tropical and subtropical shrub of the Genus Gossypium (Family Malvaceae). ...

Sài is a Vietnamese borrowing from Chinese meaning firewood, Gòn is a Vietnamese word meaning cotton. People say that this name originated from the many cotton plants that the Khmers had planted around their posts, and they can still be seen at Cây Mai temple and surrounding areas. …
Trương Vĩnh Ký, "Souvenirs historiques sur Saigon et ses environs", in Excursions et Reconnaissance X. Saigon, Imprimerie Coloniale 1885.
The debate surrounding the name is still not settled, but it is clear that proir to the name Saigon. The city was know by the Khmer inhabitants as Prei Nokor. Prei Nokor means Forest City in Khmer (Prei = Forest, Nokor= City.). This reference to Saigon is still used by Khmers to date. Prei Nokor was the official residence of the vice-king of the Chenla kingdom from the Cholon district to the Cay Mai temple. Before Chenla, the area was ruled by Funan (Phnom) also predominantly a Khmer civilization. Khmer stands for several things related to Cambodia: The Khmer people, the ethnic group to which the great majority of Cambodians belong to The Khmer language The Khmer Empire, which ruled over much of Indochina from the 9th to the 13th centuries. ...

I've grown up with the theory of "Sài Gòn originated from the word "Sài" from the Chinese character for firewood and "Gòn" from the Chu Nom character for the cotton plant"

to my knowledge, Saigon is a local word to call a kind of trees that are very popular in Saigon hundreds years ago. Don't know whether it right or not?