Korean Job Discussion Forums

Julius · Joined: 27 Jul 2006

have any of your proud parents done this? I'm talking about the normal Korean practise of employing the services of a professional namegiver or shaman to name their offspring.

I never really realized why Koreans would tell me what their name means after telling it to me, but 2 nite I discovered the reason: most koreans names are not chosen by the parents, but someone totally unrelated who plots the childs birthdate and time on his astrological calendar of variables. an ancient shamanic ritual quite prevalent today: the service costs between 100.000 - 500.000 depending on the credentials of the wise one you employ. A really strange (but intriguing) concept.

jinju · Joined: 22 Jan 2006

I think foryune tellers are rip off artists. So, why would I give 100,000-500,000 won to a rip off artist anyway?

NAVFC · Joined: 10 May 2006

flotsam · Joined: 28 Mar 2006

jinju · Joined: 22 Jan 2006

kermo · Posted: Wed Nov 22, 2006 9:23 pm Post subject:

I thought it was the grandfathers who often get to do the naming.

The worst example that I know of was the second child of my co-teacher. The meaning of his name was essentially "Support to the First Son." Might as well have called him "Plan B."

Ya-ta Boy · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: Established in 1994

I know 2 brothers who were named after the hospitals they were born in. (All their older sisters were born at home.)

My Chinese brother-in-law's name was determined by some ancestor several generations ago who wrote out a sentence. Each generation 'has to' follow the sentence and use the next character in line so that when all the generations' names are written down they make the sentence. I forgot to ask if Chinese has articles. I'd hate to go through life being known as "The" just so grandpa's sentence came out grammatically correct.

Yesterday · Posted: Thu Nov 23, 2006 2:02 am Post subject:

A favorite student of mine is named JooHwan / JuHwan....

it simply means "orange"

he was born with that orange/brown skin - and is still slightly dark skinned now...

don't need to pay 100,000-500,000 won to pick that name...

sillywilly · Joined: 20 Jan 2003 Location: Canada.

I think this gives a variety of names from which the parents can choose.

peony · Joined: 30 Mar 2005

yeah, you get anywhere from 3-10 choices for the 'best name' for the time the baby was born, his family circumstance, etc.

the baby usually isnt named for a couple of days as cant be named ahead of time (need the time of birth)

then, the grandparents or parents can choose the final name from those choices