Names

Korean names have almost invariably consisted of three Chinese characters that are pronounced with three Korean syllables. The family name comes first, while the remaining two characters form the given name. However, this old tradition no longer remains intact. Of course, the majority still follow this tradition, but more and more people make their children? names in pure Korean words that cannot be written in Chinese characters. But the family names remain unchanged in most cases. Changes are more varied for given names. There are about 300 family names in Korea, but only a handful make up the vast majority of the population.

Among the most common names are Gim or Kim, Lee or Yi, Pak or Park, An, Jang, Jo, Choe or Choi, Jong or Chong, Han, Gang, Yu or Yoo and Yun or Yoon. Korean women do not change their family name upon marriage. When Americans call a woman Mrs. Smith that means she is the wife of a man named Smith. In Korea, when a married woman says she is Mrs. Kim, it usually means that her surname at birth was Kim.

Some women call themselves by their husbands' family names but this is very rare. Koreans do not refer to others by their given names except among very close friends. Even among siblings, the younger ones are not supposed to address their elders by given names but rather eonni, meaning elder sister, or oppa, meaning elder brother.