Korean Job Discussion Forums

gang ah jee · Joined: 14 Jan 2003 Location: city of paper

Imho beaver's dropping science bringing up the chinese character thing.

let's take for example 'yong'. in a boy's name it will usually mean dragon. it's not as common in a girl's name but when it is used it has a meaning like 'beneficiant' or something. i forget. i doubt dragon yong would ever be used in a girl's name.

to determine whether a name will be for a male or female by sound, you have to look at which syllables are combined. I'm not sure if there are any syllables that are used exclusively for either sex, but there are generally masculine syllables ( eg 'seok'), generally feminine (eg 'mi) and neutral (eg 'min'). it's how they are combined that gives clues, but even still there's no way to be certain all of the time.

me, i like the korean names without chinese characters.

jh · Joined: 04 Jul 2003 Location: Seoul

gang ah jee · Joined: 14 Jan 2003 Location: city of paper

Pyongshin Sangja · Joined: 20 Apr 2003 Location: I love baby!

There are Korean men? They all carry purses, I can't tell the difference. As for women in the west with men's names, it means they are lesbians. Guys that have women's names all grow up to become serial killers.

HamuHamu · Joined: 01 May 2003 Location: Seoul

It's not the first names that I have trouble with. It's the family names.

Does no one in Korea think it strange or amusing that about 80% of the population is named either "Seaweed?" (Kim), or "One hundred" (Baek), or "Two" (Lee/Ee)??

I've wanted to ask some Korean friends this, but never wanted to offend anyone. Cause I don't mean it offensively, but just out of curiosity.

Cedar · Posted: Thu Jul 10, 2003 3:20 am Post subject:

Contrary to the thoughts of an editor I am currently writing a paper for, most all Korean names can be unisex. Some names have a very masculine or feminine feel to them, and some sounds, such as 'ho' are almost always in boys names, 'sook' is almost always in girls names, 'mi' (which means beautiful, 'min' does not) is almost always in girls names, too.

But I've had boyfriends named Suhee, which is a VERY girly sounding name, even to other Koreans, and one of my best Korean women friends is Woldeok which sounds very masculine, even to Koreans. Most names are more of less unisex, with the average Korean able to take a good guess one way or the other -but not willing to bet money on it- cause the odds are only really in favor of guessing with names like 'Mihwa' (mi-beautiful, hwa-flower) and Chulsu (most common boys name, it's like John for Korea).

Cedar · Posted: Thu Jul 10, 2003 3:39 am Post subject:

HamuHamu wrote:

Does no one in Korea think it strange or amusing that about 80% of the population is named either "Seaweed?" (Kim), or "One hundred" (Baek), or "Two" (Lee/Ee)??

Really family names don't have a meaning per se, they just let someone know (by looking at the chinese character) which family root the person is from on the father's side.

Actually Kim is the character for 'gold' (which is a bit confusing, as outside of usage in names, that character, is pronounced Geum). Baek is actually spelled with several Chinese characters, sometimes 'one hundred' and sometimes 'white'. Can't think of what Ee is at the moment. Sorry!

Koreans these days really don't consider which Kim or which Ee someone is. A few generations ago, you'd immediately ask, are you a Gyeongju Kim or a Kimhae Kim or whatever...

gang ah jee · Joined: 14 Jan 2003 Location: city of paper

the_beaver · Joined: 15 Jan 2003

SeoulSearcher · Joined: 08 Jun 2003 Location: Neither up nor down

Thomas · Joined: 25 Mar 2003

Korean names are different by gender (but not 100% of the time)
By the way (I am not being petty, but there was a question earlier):

The family name (esp. Kim, Park, Lee) may sound the same but many of them have different Chinese characters representing them (not every Kim is the same)... in the absence of a different character, they are known by the hometown of the FOUNDER of the clan (like the "Asan" Kims). Many of the family names are the same because way long ago, Koreans did not have a family name and when they were aloowed to adopt them, they chose to take the names of the most powerful nobles.

Koreans usually have 1 given name composed of ONE character (yes, there are exceptions). For example in the name Kim Mi-sook, her given name is Mi... it is individually assigned.

The next part, the "sook" is the generational marker. Every group of girls of one family's generation have the same generation marker. Boys have the same rule, but a different name. These names are kept in a specific order and can be found in the family registry or in the family history book. they rotate but are assigned in order. For example, my wife is Misook, her sister is Insook. Her brother is Choi-cheol, and the other brother is Chae-cheol.

There is a very different feel to boy's names and girl's names and after a while you will be able to guess about 90% of the time by the name if it is boy or girl.

Where do they get the names from (aside from having fairly set generation markers and family names)? Usually a fortune teller makes a few combinations and says which one is best (and they can get around generation markers if it has a bad omen)

About boys with girl's names: some shamans and people who follow this belief system fear that if a young boy is given "too strong" a name, then the spirits will be envious and make life difficult. So, the fortune teller will assign a weak name, or even a 'girl's name" to this kid so the spirits will ignore him. Around their early teens, sometimes the family will return to the fortune teller and get a new name. yes, this happens.

I hope this helps a bit. As far as seeing which ones are which, just look at a class list and you will see patterns. (e.g. many girl generation markers end with "hee", "hwa", "sook", etc.)

Cedar · Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2003 6:23 am Post subject:

Thomas has a point, but his information has two mistakes:

1. Generation markers rotate being used as the first or second syllable of the given name. For example, the father's generation marker might be the first syllable, the son's would be the second. His kids would use the first syllable again.

To clarify, the uncle's sons would also use the SAME generation marker as their male cousins, in the same location in the name.

2. Generation markers are often not used for women, and are falling by the wayside completely in modern naming. Especially for women, who these days are more likely to native Korean names (which have no Chinese characters, such as the afore-mentioned Areum).

Thomas · Joined: 25 Mar 2003

Thanks, Cedar, for the clarification.

(Although I egotistically object to the term "2 mistakes" being used to refer to my post... the first point I do concede as an omission, but the second one still happens today, even if it is falling out of usage.) Laughing

jh · Joined: 04 Jul 2003 Location: Seoul

I'd like to add one small point. Koreans will NEVER have the same character as their elders (father, mother, grandfather, grandmother, uncle, aunt - until it gets pretty far removed - great, great, great, great grand daddy's name was what?). It is considered disrespectful. So the practise of "junior" or William Gates III would never happen here. Well, I shouldn't say never, cuz although Korean has its traditions and proclivities, the overriding principle is that the parent has the right to name his or her child whatever he or she wants.