Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Dodge7]

My daughter will be born in about a week and I have a middle name for her, but my wife tells me they don't give middle names. All the forms she has to fill out don't provide the room for it and blah blah blah.
Did you give your child that was born in Korea a middle name and what do I need to know about this?
Thanks
Edit to add: I wouldn't want her middle name to be said and attached to her all throughout school when teachers call her name. And what about the last name. Does your child go by your wife's last name or yours in Korea? I *heard* they have to go by the Korean last name.
Also, can you get a different shot for your child's arm instead of that one that leaves 10 or so holes in their arms for 10-15 years? For the life of me I cannot understand why Korea does this. It's like they thought to themselves how to make the worse looking shot possible and scar a child's arm in the process for the next decade plus. Boggles the mind. You'd THINK there would be a better way.

[thebearofbundang]

Yes. We gave our daughter a middle name. She actually has an English first name,Korean middle name and my surname.. If I remember correctly the first and middle names could not add up to be more than 5 syllables (when written in Korean), but the last name could be anything.. This is what I was told before we registered her and we had no problems doing it when the time came. We did have to get the hospital to basically use Microsoft Word in order to fit her name on the Korean birth certificate though (rather than the official birth certificate generating program they usually use). They obviously did this for us, but depending on the size of the hospital this may come up for you as well. Also, make sure you get an English birth certificate from the hospital (we got 4 copies just to be safe). Not sure where you're from but in order to register my daughter as a Canadian Citizen having an official English BC saved us time and money by not having to worry about official translations and apostilles..

As for the vaccination. There are two options. One is the 16 shots that you are talking about. The other is a single shot. The 16 shots will disappear, but the single shot will only faid over time. We chose the single shot after talking to our doctor here and my parents (both of who are doctors in Canada). The single shot one does risk the shot of swelling and leaving a larger mark however. We did chose the single shot and it worked out well. My daughter has what looks like a small mosquito bite on her shoulder and it is barely noticeable. Your wife may even have this mark on her own shoulder a d you haven't noticed (mine did).

Congrats and don't worry too much about all the paperwork stuff. Everyone we dealt with was great and we never had any issues.. Oh, and get caught up on your sleep now!

[alongway]

Depends on the country you come from. Canada for example requires that the name application identically match the Korean one. They also won't let you change her name (despite the form having a spot on it to request a different name, it's apparently there for show)

So if you wanted your child to have a middle name and get her Canadian Citizenship, her Korean name would have to contain all of them. Which would make her stand-out in Korea. Canada now requires translations of forms from the Korea Dong office, so an English birth certificate doesn't get you around it.

The good thing is that if you wanted your kid to have a normal western name, you could apply for her Canadian citizenship and passport right away, then pay a small fee to change her Korean name after it's all done. If you wanted to call her Elizabeth Mary Smith, her Korean name would have to be:
스미스엘리자벳메어리

Then you would have to make sure the translator of the document wrote her name down as: Elizabeth Mary Smith
which identically matched the birth certificate and which matched the application form. Any of them off by a single space, and the Canadian government would reject it.

Other countries I can't speak for, but the Canadian government are real jerks about that.

I've heard the fee to change a Korean name is small, like 100,000won or something. A friend of the family changed their kids name shortly after birth for some reason.

and yes any more than 5 syllables and they're likely to have issues with websites and computers for entering names. Very few, if any, Koreans would have a name longer than 4 syllables.

[john110375]

My kids only have middle names on their American passport. I gave them an English first name and mom's last name in Korea. But my last name in America. Their middle name is their mom's last name. I did that because I didn't want any confusion by either countries about their identities

[thrylos]

We have a Korean-US daughter. She only has an English given name, Katherine*. On her Korean birth certificate, she is simply 'Kim Kaeti*', as there isn't any room for more characters on (my wife's) family registry.

On her Korean PASSPORT, she has her full name, exactly the same as her US birth certificate and US passport-- Katherine Kim Jones. (or Jones, Katherine Kim)*. We gave her my wife's family name as her middle name and there's no problem.

*(Names are changed to protect the innocent), but you get the idea.

It raised an eyebrow at the Do-jung when we applied for her K-passport, but no problem.

[Captain Corea]

My daughter's names are the same both in Korea and Canada

For example

Melanie SooAh Smith

[Dazed and Confused]

My son has an English first name and Korean middle and last name. For example: Jonah Min Park. On his documents it is Park, Jonah Min. He goes by his full name except at home and daycare where we call him only Jonah.

[Dodge7]

Thank you for the replies, I have to figure this all out and soon. The shot thing is really bothering me. I do not want all those holes in my baby's arm, but my wife keeps telling me the hospital said that's the only one we can get.

[etopkorea]

I wouldn't worry about the shot. I had two kids get the 10 or 12 pin shot in the arm. One of my kids is almost 3 and the scar has completely disappeared. You can't even see it even if you knew where it was and were looking hard to see it.

My other son is 14 months old and his scar has faded by about 75%. I can now only see 3 pin marks on his arm. The rest are gone. I'm sure that by his second birthday, they will be completely gone.

However, my wife had one of the single shots and still has the scar to this day.

I was also pretty freaked out when my wife brought our son home with that big scar on his arm, but I was also surprised how quickly it went away. I'd go with the multiple pin shot. That's why I had no reservation doing it the second time.

[Dodge7]

[12ax7]

[nora]

[12ax7]

[laynamarya]

We are an American-Korean couple. Our baby will have a pure Korean name on his Korean docs, and an English middle name only for his American documents. He'll also have a Korean last name, since his dad is the Korean one, and I would not wish my last name on anybody.

Do you know which vaccine it is? BCG? My husband had complications from the single-shot version, so I am hoping the domino scar version is a little better.

[schwa]

Nothing substantive to add to the thread, but my half-Korean grandson has my first name as his middle name. I'm a little proud of that.