According to the survey, the most common names for those born in 1945 were 'Young Su[영수]'(male) and 'Young Ja[영자]'(female). 'Jeong Hun[정훈]'(male) and 'Mi Young[미영]' were the most preferred names chosen by parents for the babies born1975. In 2005, 'Min Jun[민준]'(male) and 'Seo Yeon[서연]'(female) ranked first.
More interesting is the explanation for what caused that kind of preference.
In 1940s, when the average life span of Korean male was just about 35 years, parents wanted their sons live long and healthy, and thus the Chinese character '永[영(young)]' was the most popular to name a newborn child. (Notice the other names beginning with 'Young' in the list: Young Ho, Young Shik, Young Gil, Young Il.)
For girls, however, the most common character was '子' by naming. By imitating the Japanese style to name girls, this kind of name('~자[子]') was given to daughters for a long long time even after the liberation from the Japanese invasion. Besides, the notion of preferring son to daughter took another part of this kind of naming. ('子' means 'son'.)
How is it in your country?
Let me have a rough guess...
Some most common names in English: John, James, Tom, Michael...
In German: Stefan. (HAHA!)
I don't know why but all names that occurs in my mind now are boys' names.
ㅋㅋㅋ
13 comments:
life just a good
Yes, indeed, Stefan is very common in Germany. What's so funny about it? My predecessor at Korea University was a Stefan. I met another Stefan in Seoul, who is also blogging... and so on.
Stefans all over the world - unite!
The most horrible thing was in my schooltime when I was among three (3!) other Stefans in one (1!) class! Poor teachers... but they didn't use any nicknames. (OK, I had one, but that's another story.) So long for today.
Amongst the Malays in singapore the trend for the past 10 years:
Boy names ; Haikal, Danial, Shafiq
Girl names : Shafiqa, Atiqa, Diana, Natasha.
Apparently, there was an increase in "English-sounding" names.
Ha Ha
My son's name is Qory (pronounced as Cory.)
It is not meant to be English-ised. The meaning of the word "Qory" in Arabic is "The Quran Reader".
Go figure!
By the way, the no. 1 Korean Male name in my heart and eyes is always "시경".....melt....*^^*
The names of Chinese are more complex, so it's difficult to find two man who have a same name. But there some characters that usually uesd in Chinese names such as 娜，芳 in girls' names and 鑫，磊in boys' names(in my opinion, a name with a common character is a little...vulgar, please forgive my rudeness). In fact, Chinese people seem the name-choosing as a kind of art, or we can say "knowledge". So, when the parents choose a name for their kids, they are very careful. Even now some Chinese people still believe that an improper name may cause misfortune. And there are some people take name-choosing as a job. They help others to choose a pretty name to the kids, and the parents will pay for this.
그리고, 추석에 잘 지내십시오!
Hey sca, I'd like to know the story about your nickname:) Plz be kind and don't make us miss your story.
Well, but at least, in Germany(and in other European countries), you can distinguish each by one's last name. I don't think the three Stefans in your class had the same last name. But in Korea it happens quite a lot to run into somebody who has exactly the same name as you - yes, even the family name! (What a fortune that this never happened to me so far!)
I remember that we had two Sandras, two Nicoles, and two Dennis(Denniz?) in my class when I was in Germany, but they had different last names so there wasn't any big problem to name them. But this month I found out that we have two Lee Jeong Yeons [이정연s] in our department, one in the master's course and another one in the doctor's course. For the first two weeks, everybody looked confused when the professors checked the attendance, so finally they made a decision to call them each by their study course, such as "석사 이정연(Lee Jeong Yeon in the master's course" and "박사 이정연(Lee Jeong Yeon in the doctor's course). But I can't help wondering what could have happened if the two were in the SAME course - maybe Lee Jeong Yeon no.1 and Lee Jeong Yeon no.2?
To Aini: The increase in English-sounding names has been a trend in Korea too.
BTW, your son's name is nice, both the meaning and the sound. I like names that are easy to remember. Once I had difficulties to make people understand my name clearly - I tell them more than three times but some people still have no idea what my name exactly is. In case to tell my name to a foreigner is even more stressful, and that's one of the reason why I introduce myself simply with the last letter of my whole name to foreigners.
To inffun: Seems that Korean and Chinese have somewhat different preference in choosing characters for names.
As you know, the most common characters used in girls' names are 은, 미, 영, 진, 정, 연, 선, 민, 경, etc and for boys' names 철, 혁, 훈, 준, 성, 호, 환, 태, etc. Surprisingly, my Singaporean friend told me that my name sounds like a boy's name in Chinese, but actually my name is very 'feminine' in Korea. (In fact, I don't like this very much. I prefer 'neutral' names.)
The importance of one's name, or, in other words, how much people care about their children's (and grandchildren's) names is just the same here as in China. Name is not only something that shows your identity as an individual, but also something strongly related with a family's tie. Have you ever heard about the word 돌림자? Usually brother and sisters, and even cousins used to have the same character in one family. (Thus my younger brother has the character '순' in his name, which is - to be frankly- not a very proper letter for a boy's name. My two cousin brothers are the same. Only for me, there was the exception not to follow this tradition coz I'm not a son.)
Name-choosing jobs still exist in Korea so far. (I wonder how it is in non-Asian country.)
Once there was a huge trend to name children with pure Korean letters and not with Chinese characters. But these days that has also gone. There are hundreds and thousands of girls with the name '하나', which means No.1 in Korean.
I remember the girl I travelled together in China, her name was 이하나(Lee Ha Na) and of course it was 100% Korean except of her family name. In the hostel we stayed in Beijing, the girl at the reception didn't understand that her name doesn't have Chinese characters, and she insisted to write it in Chinese. What else could I have done to escape from this silliness than 'translating' the name to Chinese, and so I wrote 李一(Li Yi) in the hotel book.
"李一",haha, so interesting. Maybe next time you can translate it to "李夏娜", at least, it sounds like a girl's name.
Chinese people also take "돌림자" in their names to show generation of a same family. For example, their's a character "信" in the names of my father and his brother (including his cousins) which means "faithful". My grandfaher and his brothers' used "宽" as their "돌림자" which means "width". In fact, I also have a "돌림자" —— "民"（means "civilian", so strange, isn't it?） But, nowadays, "돌림자" is not a necessary part of a chinese name. So (fortunately) my father didn't insert a "돌림자" in my name.
Wow, that's the first thread here I regularly read here(I check it every 12 hours). It's so interesting how important the RIGHT name is here in Asia. Please write more about that.
@all contributors: Thank you so much.
@song: When I was teaching Lithuanians at Klaipeda there were two students named Rasa Povilaviciute in my class. Bad thing! I called the first girl "Rasa" and the other one "andere Rasa". The other students made jokes and I was a bit unhappy about this situation. OK, it was not very creative, but I had beginners and you cannot play name-games with them. They believe everything you say and I didn't want to abuse this power.
My "secret" nickname I give only away at face to face communication.
Oh, I forgot to say: most girl's names in Lithuania are connected with trees or something else in the nature. The origin of these names comes from pagan times when lithuanian people had their own gods and weren't evangelised by the Teutons ("Deutscher Ritterorden").
Some example: The female name Gintare (the male form is Gintaras) means amber. Egle means fir tree. Ramune means daisy... and so on. I talked a lot with lithuanian girls about names, because they take it very serious how to name children and to choose the right one. One young woman married a man because of his name: Faustas. It is "modern" lithuanian style and she liked the strength and power of her husband's name. Guess, which name this young woman gave to her daughter? Right: Fausta. (There is a connection to Goethe's play: "Faust" - this information only given to any german readers or Koreans who study Germanistik.)
In Germany we decide mostly about the modern or old fashioned sound of a name.
Wow! Such an interesting exchange of comments on common names in the his/her native country.
Hmmm, my chinese name, 晓敏 is very often used in Hong Kong TV drama - either for the lead actresses or dogs?!
Chinese in Singapore like to include 发， especially for the boys because it means luck or to strike it rich.
Luckily my english dialect name is quite unique... even though sometimes people think I'm from Vietnam or Burma ㅎㅎ
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