Hangul, hanja and meaning
Korean names are written in hangul, the Korean alphabet, but their meaning traditionally comes from hanja — Chinese characters, one per syllable, each carrying a meaning. Crucially, the same spoken name can be written with many different hanja, so a name’s meaning depends on the characters a family chooses. The two-syllable name Seo-yeon, for instance, has several possible hanja, each giving a slightly different sense. The meanings here reflect common hanja; other writings carry other senses. And many parents today choose to write a name in pure hangul, with no set dictionary meaning at all.
Two syllables, sometimes shared
Most Korean given names have two syllables. In some families one of those syllables is a generation name shared by all siblings or cousins of the same generation.
Name order and romanization
The family name comes first — Kim, Lee, Park — and the given name second. Romanization also varies: the same surname appears as Lee, Yi or Rhee; Park or Bak. None is more “correct” than another.
Unisex and modern trends
Many Korean names — Ji-woo, Eun-woo, Ji-min — work for girls and boys alike, the gender depending on the hanja. Soft, vowel-rich two-syllable names dominate today’s charts.