Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Trinny]

My baby is due in November and I've been thinking about what will be a good naming convention for a kid of mixed parentage.

My Canadian friends suggested me giving a Korean name for my baby's middle name and some of them think 100% western name for Asian-looking baby does not match the baby's appearance/identity. It is no doubt that the baby will be passed off as an Asian. All the people of Asian-white parentage I've seen so far in Canada look like Asians, not white. And the other thing is the baby might want to keep her Korean heritage a part of who she/he is, which is in this case her/his name.

The problem is: my Korean relative's names that might be meaningful to me as a midlde name sound weird to the ears of North Americans (i.e. Bok-nam is my grandma's name, Keun-nam is my mom's, Cheong-ja is my aunt's, etc), so much so I am worried that my baby would be cursing me for giving a strange name to her/him, should I go ahead and give her Korean middle name.

So, how did you guys go about naming your kids?

[K-in-C]

Tough one...

I love the name GaHyun.

[dutchman]

You also have to think about how the name will match your western family name. EunJung Johnson sounds a bit corny.

My family name is clearly Dutch (Vande Vurtenberger, or something like that ). My wife and I decided to go with a two syllable western name that kind of has the Korean flow to it. You could also go with a western name that has a similar sound to a Korean name. For Example, Jason (JaeSeon), Julie (JuRi), Ken (KiIn) and the ever popular Gina.

By the way, my son looks more western than Asian.

[PootyTang]

Mrs Tang and I have had this discussion too Trinny. We are anxiously hoping for a litter soon--We came up with all English names simply because the kids will grow up here in the west. We want them to go to Korea every summer for exposure though.

[kimcheeking]

My experience is that mixed kids are percieved to be the opposite of who is looking. i.e. A korean sees my daughter and automatically thinks white father, but a Canadian sees her and thinks ah... asian.

I gave my daughter a English first name, and a Korean middle name. We usually use a shortened version of the English name that works for Koreans.

[mokpochica]

Some other Korean names that I think sound similar to Western names/ or are easy to pronounce are :
Yu-ra
You-na (Una)
Soo-rin (Sue Lynne)
So-rah (sort of like Sarah)
Mi-young
Ha-na (Hannah)
Sun-hee (Sunny)
Ju-el (Joelle)

Yo-sep (Joseph)
Joo-wan
Joo-min
Han-sol (Kind of like Hansel and just a nice name)
Sung-hwan
Moon-young

I like names that are really Korean...and not based on Chinese characters a lot too. Two of my favorites are:
Sarang and Pada.

A lot of my Asian friends have two names that they use. Most of them used their 'American' names when they were younger and now use thie real names. I think the way things are nowadays people are used to diverse names and the spelling and pronunciation of names is all over the place regardless---especially since Canada/US/Australia/etc.etc. have people from many different countries of origin. (Korean last names are cake compared to some Slavik last names!) We expect that we will have to learn pronunciations of kids names after we meet them.

I think the biggest thing to worry about is not to have a name like Ji-seung or Bo-reum that has a sound which people from most other countries are not familiar with and will almost never be able to pronounce correctly (constantly annoying you and your child). Or to forgo names like Bum-yong with the word 'Bum' or other embarassing things in them.

[kimcheeking]

Also, consider what the initials may spell. My daughter almost ended up with the initials A.S.S

Defineately bad.

[Scott in HK]

We did much like mok suggested and picked names that sounded the same in Korean and English for first names...and then I chose the second name to honour some family member as this was important to me...

So we now have a Hannah Patricia...and will have soon (6weeks to go) a...Sarah Eleanor...

Both girls and lucky too...as we did not find any boys' names to agree on...

I have heard of couples choosing the names from their own languages...so you pick one (no arguments) and your partner picks one (again no arguments)

[rapier]

It seems easy to me- just give the child a korean and a western name, middle or first. They will be interchangeable depending on which country he/ she is in. For example my fathers first name was Francis, but he only ever used his middle name, John. So your child may be James min-he jones. In America, he's james, in Korea, Min-he.

[Ody1966]

our son's name is hansol. there is no dash.
my husband, brother-in-law, and assorted korean friends living statestate with their korean names, do not use the dash.
just a thought.

' saw a lot of nice names suggested so far (i'd leave out the dashes).

' also agree that the parent the baby favors depends greatly on the perception of the person looking on (often determined by their ethnicity).

[girl]

my daughter's name is jade mercedes matilde, both middle names are from my husband's side. jade i chose. i asked my dad to give her a korean name with a special link to jade, because i named her after the stone, which is cool and strong etc. etc. etc. my dad came up with oak joo which has a double meaning of jade and if written in chinese characters it has a double meaning of king/royalty. her korean name isn't on her birth certificate, and it doesn't have to be. i think that as long as the child has a link to her korean heritage that's the important part. my korean name isn't on my birth certificate either but i know what it is and what it means. it has more meaning to both my daughter and my husband and of course me.

ask your korean parents in laws to help come up with a name to go with the english name. that's how they use to do it in the old days many moons ago.

good luck.

[Homer]

We are planning to name our kids with a Korean first name and my last name.
The birth certificate to include both family names.
we like the combination of Korean first name and western family name since it represents both origins.

[Bulsajo]

More to add to the list:
Mina (mee-na)
Terry (Tae-ri)
Miri (mee-ri)

I like Hannah- it seems to be a univeral name- so many different languages/cultures have it.

[Tiger Beer]

[hellofaniceguy]

EZ enough. How would you be feeling NOW if your parents had named you "strange names." Where is the child going to be raised? Western country? Then a western name is fitting. Name the child what you want and don't pay any attention to what family members say. It's not their business.