Korean Job Discussion Forums

[thewolf]

hi, i have a co-worker who had a baby girl last week. she has failed to tell me the baby's name and i feel like at this point it is rude to ask. is there a traditional naming practice of which i am unaware?

[crsandus]

My sister and her husband went to a fortune teller. Not sure if that was translated correctly when I was told that but they went to a third party who chose a "lucky" name.

[Atavistic]

Traditionally the father's father chooses the name. Traditionally there is one family character (especially for the boys) for each generation. I think it usually switches positions each generation, but I might be wrong.

So in one family you might have Yeonjong and Yeonseon. And their children might all be something like Minsu, Jinsu, Sangsu, Hyeongsu, Kisu.

I just asked my boyfriend for his uncles' names for this example. His response was "blah, I don't know, they're just 'first uncle, second uncle, third uncle...'"

I rarely even bother to learn names in Korean, cause they sure don't use them like we do in English. But that's another topic...

[RACETRAITOR]

They usually start by choosing Chinese characters which have a special meaning to them. Most Korean names can be written using Chinese characters, which has a special meaning, usually something like "space patriot" (a friend of mine) or "very beautiful." There was a brief trend somewhere around 1990 when they stopped doing this, but it didn't last.

[waltjocketty]

My girlfriend was given her name by her grandmother, while her parents purchased a name for her brother. There are people whose jobs are to give names to babies.

[kermo]

A lot of my older students were named by Buddhist monks, who will choose an auspicious name, for a fee.

It is traditional for the grandfather to choose the name, but these days couples are free to choose for themselves too.

I've never heard anything that would indicate you can't ask the name. Why not ask her?

[ajgeddes]

My girlfriend's name was chosen by her father, and her mom doesn't like it. It's a typical common Korean name with hanja. Her sister's name was chosen by her mom and doesn't have corresponding hanja and is a pure Korean name. It's pretty unique and a nice name.

So, her family chose names the exact same way mine did.

[Okibum]

[KumaraKitty]

My husband and his brother had their names chosen by their Grandfather. But after he died, when hubbie's older brother was about 6, Grandma and Mom decided that older brother's name was not lucky. So they went to a fortune teller/ name maker and paid for a lucky name. So his name was changed when he was 6. Hubby didn't know this until we were looking at the family registry after our marriage. He asked who Han Young was, turns out it's his brother Gary, who is now Hon Y, which I think is just weird!

Hubby's dad is naming our son for us. His English name is our choice, but tradition means we are bowing to FIL since this is the first grandchild and a boy.

[mindmetoo]

[ajgeddes]

[davai!]

I always thought the babies name themselves. As in the first three things they say.

[MissSeoul]

[Atavistic]

[Jarome_Turner]

My girlfriend had her name given to her by a monk. Her father paid a million won, or something silly like that.