I’m a writer and am currently finding myself in desperate need of help with Korean names. Can anyone fill me in on Korean naming trends, name popularity, etc or lead me somewhere that can? The characters I need names for were born in the late 80s-early 90s if that helps. I’d like to give them actual Korean names instead of something generic like [name]John[/name] or [name]Mary[/name]. All help is appreciated!
G
Mi-Cha- beautiful
[name]Sun[/name]-[name]Hi[/name]- obedience & joy
[name]Min[/name]-Jee- a combination of cleverness and wisdom
Iseul- Dew
Hyun-[name]Jae[/name]- wisom & respect
Soo-[name]Min[/name]- excellence & brightmind
B
Seung- successor
Jung-Hee- morally upright & enjoyment
[name]Dae[/name]-Hyun- great & honor
Kang-[name]Dae[/name]- powerful & big
I can tell you a little about Korean names.
Firstly, surnames - almost half of the Korean population has the surname [name]Kim[/name], [name]Lee[/name] or [name]Park[/name]. I’m sure you know that the surname comes before the given name.
Korean given names are two syllables the vast majority of the time. Meaning is very important, and names can be ‘invented’ by taking two favourable characters (each character produces a one syllable sound) and joining them together. When these names are written in the [name]Roman[/name] alphabet, they can be written a number of ways, like the English combination name [name]Annemarie[/name] :
[name]Annemarie[/name]
[name]AnneMarie[/name]
[name]Anne[/name]-[name]Marie[/name]
[name]Anne[/name] [name]Marie[/name].
Some one syllable name components popular in the late 80s/early 90s, and their meanings if I was able to find them :
[name]Male[/name] :
Dong - ‘east’
[name]Jun[/name]
Female :
Hee
Jee
Jeong (pronounced JONG)
[name]Min[/name]
So
Yoon - ‘allow/consent’
Either :
Hyun/Hyung - ‘virtuous’
[name]Jae[/name]
Ji - ‘wisdom’ (pronounced JIH not JEYE)
[name]Jin[/name] - ‘precious’ (mostly for girls)
Joo
Kyung - ‘respect’
Soo (pronounced like ‘zoo’)
Sung - ‘completed, finished’
Woo
[name]Young[/name] - ‘brave’
Most Koreans from the mid to late-1990s would have an English name as well as a Korean name, because it was very fashionable to send your children to English-run nurseries at that time. These English names are mostly very traditional, but Korean people of other ages sometimes have ones which are almost comically dated for their age, e.g. a Korean ten year old now might have the name [name]Sherri[/name]. English names are sometimes picked because they liked the sound, sometimes because they liked an American or British actor with that name, and sometimes because it had a similar meaning to their Korean name. Some of the older generations (40 years plus) have wrong gender names.
[name]Auburn[/name]
My best girlfriend when I was little was from Korea (she moved back since) and her name was [name]Min[/name]-[name]Ah[/name]. I loved that name! It reminded me of [name]Minnie[/name] Mouse 