Posted by Rebel on March 11, 2003 at 17:31:58:
In Reply to: Re: JC Kims Korean Name posted by Baguaguy on March 11, 2003 at 13:32:18:
Korea [kə,'riː,ə,]
noun: a former country in E Asia, now divided into two separate countries, North Korea and South Korea. Korea occupied the peninsula between the Sea of Japan and the Yellow Sea: an isolated vassal of Manchu China for three centuries until the opening of ports to Japanese trade in 1876, gained independence in 1895, annexed to Japan in 1910 and divided in 1945 into two occupation zones (Russian in the north, American in the south), which became North Korea and South Korea in 1948
Here is a start:
Explanation
A famous Korean name is ±è¿µ»ï (Kim Young Sam), who became President of Korea in 1992. In Korean names, the family name comes first, followed by the given names (or name). Most Korean have 2 given names but some only have one. The three most common family names in Korea are ±è (Kim), ÀÌ (Lee), ¹Ú (Park), three together making up 45% of the population in the 1985 census. Groups with the same family name are divided by ancestry into branches (the Kim family name has about 280 branches) and people with the same family name and branch cannot inter-marry. Branches are usually identified by a place name, rather like the 'Melbourne Smith', the 'Sydney Smith', etc.
Examples :
±è ÀÌ ¹Ú ÃÖ Á¤ Á¶ ¶ Àå
Kim I Pak Choe Cho'ng Cho Chang
À± ½Å ÇÑ È« À¯ ° ¼Û
Yun Sin Han Hong Yu Kang Song
In Korea the use of personal names for address is usually restricted to members of the same family and close friends.
These days among younger generation, it becomes popular to give their next generation pure-Korean given names which can not be written in Chinese. However, the majority still have a name which can be written in Chinese. Since Chinese character has meaning, it is possible to distingish the sex of people through their names. A preferred male names includes ½Ä (sik), ö (ch'o'l), ÁØ (jun), È£ (ho), while a preferred male names includes ¼÷ (suk), ¿µ (yo'ng), Èñ (hu' i), ÀÚ (ja) etc.
Examples :
Male : ¿µ½Ä, ¼ºÃ¶, ¿µÁØ, ¼ºÈ£
yo'ng-sik so'ng-ch'o'l yo'ng-jun so'ng-ho,
Female : ¿µ¼÷, ¼±¿µ, Á¤Èñ, ¹ÌÀÚ
yo'ng-suk so'n-yo'ng jo'ng-hu'i Mi-ja
Note: In romanization, o' and u' are used instead of and respectively, which are not supported in the Web document.
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