Get Your Own Korean Names
All three of my kids attended the same Title 11 high school in downtown Los Angeles. 95% of the student body was and still is of Hispanic ethnicity and my children were, needless to say, in the absolute minority. Sending my kids there turned out to be the best thing I could’ve done for their education—not only academically but also socially and mental-growth-ly. (another discussion for another day)
Anyway, there was a very active Kpop Club at that school, for which none of my daughters was a part of. And the members of the club would frequently come up and ask my kids to make them a Korean name that befits them—image-wise and something that sounds like their Hispanic name. They actually had fun doing it.
Koreans love doing this to foreign celebrities that they like. Most of the times, it’s hard to do and sounds very forced, but there are cases where a foreign star’s Koreanized name sounds like a real Korean name and is endearing.
Take for example, Wentworth Miller (whatever happened to that guy? Don’t see him anymore) who played Michael Scofield in the popular TV drama titled Prison Break. That show and the actor were absolutely huge in Korea during the show’s run.
Somewhere and some time, someone started referring to Miller in a made-up Korean name and it stuck. How do you turn “Wentworth Miller” into a real Korean sounding name? Well, you can’t. So, what did the Korean fans do? They took his in-drama name Scofield and made it into…
Seok Ho-pil (석호필)
As I’ve discussed here before, Korean names are almost always 3-lettered and 3-syllabled. Thus, Seok Ho-pil can be a real name, and when you say it fast, it kinda sounds like “Scofield,” with a “P” instead of an “F” because there is no “F” sound in Korean alphabet. Google “석호필” and see what comes up.
I’ll do a few more of these—they’re amusing.
Scarlett Johansson is a known Korea-phile. Whenever she has a new movie out, she’ll come to Korea and promote it with a smiling face (Tom Cruise is another huge Korea-phile). Can you guess what her Korean fans named her?
Jo Han-soon (조한순)
Again, this can absolutely be a real Korean name although not many parents these days would name their children “Han-soon” anymore.
Jordan Peele, the actor/film maker, gained a lot of Korean fans after his movies Get Out and Us both did very well in Korea. His Korean name is…
Jo Dong-pil (조동필)
Two of Marvel’s Avengers Universe films featured Korean locations—Seoul’s Gangnam area in The Avengers: Age of Ultron and Busan in the first Black Panther with Chadwick Boseman (rest in peace).
His Korean name was easy to come up with.
Choi Doo-ik (최두익)
The third most popular Korean last name Choi is not read as “Cho-y” in Korean. It’s more like Chwae. They should have named him Chae Doo-ik (채두익).
How about Jude Law?
Joo Deul-ho (주들호)
Milla Jovovich’s Resident Evil series was very popular in Korea also. And she was even given an honorary Korean residence card with her Korean name printed on it.
Oh Mi-ra (오미라)
The last name Oh from her Jovovich (yo-vo-vich) and Milla = Mira. The Korean consonant “ㄹ” is both L and R, and somewhere in-between.
Fr. Patrick James McGlinchey was not a celebrity but someone who should be celebrated. The Irish Catholic Priest spent most of his adult life, from 1954(!) until he passed away in 2018, in Jejudo helping the locals raise livestock and teaching them other farming techniques for income when Korea and Jeju people were in dire need of economic development.
He kept a very low profile for himself and was affectionately known in Jeju by his Korean name. I briefly wrote about him in How Ireland and Korea are Alike.
Im Pi-jeh (임피제)
I think you can surmise where his “given name” of Pi-jeh comes from. He probably got the last name “Im” from “Glin” part of his last name. (but no Korean uses the character “피” in his/her given name although there is a very rare last name “Pih”)
There are many more but I’ll conclude this section of the post with Robert Downey Junior who has a lot of fans in Korea also. They took the first syllable from his 3-part name (it’s really two but…) and turned it into…
Ro Dah-ju (로다주)
Getting back to the original topic, there are websites—apparently ChatGPT can do this too with the right prompt—that generate Korean names for non-Koreans who’re interested in getting one.
Of the three services that I’ve tried, this is the most trustworthy website. It is run by VANK (Voluntary Agency Network of Korea), a non-profit, non-governmental network of Korean volunteers that promotes all things Korean. (It is an organization that does the same thing that I’m trying to do on a much bigger scale and a thousand times more respectable.)
You can either click the “Pure Korean” or “Korean” button on the screen. For you newbies, “pure Korean” means something that cannot be written with Chinese letters. My name 영익 (Young-ik) can be and is 永翼.
On the other hand, Seul-gi of the popular Kpop girl group Red Velvet…
… has a pure Korean name. Her full name is Kang Seul-gi and 슬기 means “wisdom.”
Actor Kang Ha-neul’s name (강하늘) is also pure Korean, meaning “sky.”
Anyway, it’s entirely up to you which one you choose. One isn’t better than the other.
Once you choose your gender, it will give you a series of 7 (I think?) screens where you choose a word that best describes what you want your new Korean name to signify. You don’t have to sign up for anything, you don’t have to give them your email. None of that stuff. It doesn’t do anything for the last name, though. You’re on your own with that.
Often times, they will take any syllable of your non-Korean full name and designate that as the Korean last name. For example, if your name was Richard Nixon, your Korean last name can be either Cha (차) or Son (손), but not Ni because there is no Korean last name 니. Likewise, Jennifer Smith’s Korean last name can be 제 (Jeh) or 서 (Seo), but not 퍼 or 미. You get the idea. Refer to this complete list of Korean last names. You can sort the list by the “Percentage” from the most common to the least.
Give it a try. If for nothing else, for fun.
school with predominantly low-income family students which receives federal funding for free school meals and other supports
Once again, a timely writing (in an odd sort of way to me). My husband and I woke up this morning thinking about names and where they come from. I cited Nebuchadnezzar and Nadezhda, and then we started thinking about localities of names. I mentioned how it it is important to me to learn to recognize and pronounce Korean names - Hyunwoo, So-min, Eun-ji, Seolyeon, Juhea... (you get my drift). Then I said, "I wonder when people started naming themselves and where they got their names from?" We went through birds (Robin, Jay...), plants (Rose, Heather...), Insects (Bee, Mariposa, Nabi...), Herbs (Rosemary, Sage..), Animals (Coyote, ...). Names are fascinating.
Anyway, I loved your topic. Thanks.