Korean Job Discussion Forums

thebomb · Joined: 13 Nov 2006

This is aimed at the posters on this board that have Korean Spouses or partners, and have children. I was wandering whether you have given you children Western names or Korean names, or maybe both. and how the in-laws reacted?

I do not mean to unduly pry into the personal lives of posters, but it is something that I intend to be doing in the next year or two, naming a child, and I want to be pre-armed with others expericences.

Cheers

thebomb

Bibbitybop · Joined: 22 Feb 2006 Location: Seoul

I can't comment on children's names, but my next dog will be named Boshintang.

littlephoenix · Joined: 01 May 2007

dont have a child but my dogs name is pumpkinpatchlove Razz

Yu_Bum_suk · Joined: 25 Dec 2004

faster · Joined: 03 Sep 2006

Henry Kissinger

Juregen · Joined: 30 May 2006

Aaron is his first name
Kim is his second name
and my family name

We choose Aaron because of the ease for any language to speak it
Kim, because i find it important to give both family names

Koreans call my son Kim A-ron, foreigners call him Aaron Smile

Scott in Incheon · Joined: 30 Aug 2004

First daughter....Hannah Patricia....second Sarah Eleanor....

First names were chosen because we liked them and they sound the same in Korean and English...second names are for my godmother and my mother respectively. The girls have my family name.

pdx · Joined: 19 Jan 2007

Well, I don't know what boshintang is, but I can imagine if I had a dog I could name it "choogalay"

excitinghead · Joined: 18 Jul 2005

First name Alice, Middle name Jeong/정 (my wife's family name), and finally my surname.

The reason was because back when I did sociology 101 back in NZ, my Maori lecturer told me that, like many Maori (and Pacific Islanders) born in NZ in the 1960s, her parents gave her an English first name and a Maori middle name to avoid discrimination. I was reminded of this when my wife and I were thinking of a name, because when I left NZ in 2000 I read that despite native-speaker English fluency and being educated in NZ many Asians were being discriminated against by employers simply because of their name. Basically, they assumed an Asian name meant that they just wouldn't fit in or something...

I'm sure things are improving in NZ, and I wouldn't want my daughter to work for someone who wouldn't hire the best person for the job because of an Asian name, but we can't all be idealistic pioneers all the time, and if my daughter doesn't get to a job interview because of her Korean name than that's a disservice I would have done to her.

Hopefully Asian names will no longer be a problem in NZ by the time my daughter is applying for a job, but just in case.

Edit: P.S. We've never had any problems in Korea with the name Alice by the way. And giving her a Korean name to help her blend in better here would have been worthless because she looks 100% like me (unfortunately). But we'll never be embarassed or shy in Korea about her mixed-race heritage (for want of a better term) and, although I don't expect it, anyone who gives us or her crap about it will get a pretty severe reaction from me!

shaunew · Joined: 17 Apr 2007 Location: Calgary

My son will be born in A few months. We went with a korean first name here in korea 세찬 and in Canada it will be Cealan.

SuperHero · Joined: 10 Dec 2003 Location: Superhero Hideout

Veronica 세희 (my last name)
Calvin 재희 (my last name)

RACETRAITOR · Joined: 24 Oct 2005 Location: Seoul, South Korea

So basically the kids have an English name and a Korean name as a middle name. It sounds like a good idea.

I think it would be fun to make a Korean name for a kid. I'm worried my wife will want a weird English name for our kid. We had a lot of trouble with cat names.

uberscheisse · Joined: 02 Dec 2003 Location: japan is better than korea.

one cool thing about the overbearingness of korean influence is this -

http://www.notwithoutmyhandbag.com/babynames/

i doubt any korean would name their kid "mykkenzie tryzstezza caaiid".

RACETRAITOR · Joined: 24 Oct 2005 Location: Seoul, South Korea

Interesting site. Incidentally, Hong Kong is known for coming up with some wack baby names.

Confused Canadian · Joined: 21 Jan 2003

I wanted a name for our son that sort of 'worked' in both English and Korean. Though not ideal, 재인 and Zane work quite well, in our opinion (not perfect, I know, but about as close as we're gonna get).

In Korea, he is registered with his Korean name and my wife's family name, but in Canada with his English name and my family name.