Korean Girl Names: Popular Names and What They Mean

This page is for learners, parents-to-be, writers and fans who want to read, say and understand Korean girl names. It does not rank names, because a rank is only true for one year and one list. It gives you a working picture instead: which syllables appear again and again, how to read a name aloud, what a name can mean and where the official yearly counts are published. For boys, see Korean boy names. For the way meaning is built into a name, see Korean name meaning.

Which Korean Girl Names Are Popular?

Popular Korean girl names change from year to year, so the safest answer is a set of examples that have been widely used in recent years, not a fixed top ten. The table below shows ten of them. Names such as 서연, 서윤 and 하윤 have often appeared near the top of recent published lists, but check the current year before you quote a rank.

Each hanja pair is labelled "one possible reading". A Hangul name does not say which characters a family chose, and two girls called 서연 may have different hanja and different meanings. Treat the right-hand column as an example of how a meaning can be built, not as the meaning of any real person's name.

What Syllables Are Common in Korean Girl Names?

A small group of syllables appears in many recent girls' names. This is a pattern, not a count: it describes what you will often see, and you should check the current official lists before you claim a share. The syllables below come from the ten names above.

Three habits stand out in the sound of these names.

1. They are two syllables. Two is the usual length for a Korean given name. One-syllable and three-syllable given names exist, but they are rare.
2. Many end in an open vowel or a nasal. 지아, 수아 and 하윤 end in a vowel or in ㄴ. Open vowels and the nasal consonants ㄴ, ㅁ and ㅇ give many girls' names a flowing, even sound.
3. Names are built from a shared stock. The same syllables are reshuffled: 서윤 and 하윤 share 윤, and 서연 and 서윤 share 서. This is why lists are full of near-twins and why the exact order of syllables matters when you write a name.

Notice that the syllable alone does not tell you a girl's name. The same syllables appear in boys' names too, which is the next question on this page.

What Do Korean Girl Names Mean?

Korean girl names mean what the characters or words behind them mean. A name falls into one of two groups: hanja-based names, which are the large majority, and native Korean names, which are a smaller group.

Hanja-Based Names

In a hanja-based name, each syllable is matched with a Chinese character that carries a meaning. The meaning is a wish. Parents choose characters that express a hope, such as grace, wisdom, elegance or brightness. The table gives readings for the ten names above, all labelled as one possible reading.

One sound can be written with many characters. The Sino-Korean syllable 서 may stand for 瑞, 書 or 序, and 지 for 智, 知 or 志. That is why a name list that gives one meaning per Hangul name is guessing. The only way to know the meaning of a particular person's name is to ask which hanja the family used. Parents choose from an official list of characters allowed in names (인명용 한자), so the available meanings are limited to that list.

Native Korean Names

A native Korean name uses a pure Korean word, with no hanja behind it. The meaning is open to anyone who knows the word, and the name is the word. These names became more visible in recent decades as some parents looked for names that did not depend on hanja.

Some native names are also used for boys, and many can be given a hanja pair at registration, so the line between the two groups is loose. These twenty names are examples chosen to show how names are built. They are not a ranking of the twenty most popular names.

How Do Parents Choose a Korean Girl's Name?

Parents usually choose the sound first and the characters second, and they weigh several things at once. They say the full name aloud many times, with the surname in front, to check how it flows. They then match the sound to characters whose meanings express a wish, such as grace, wisdom, brightness or health. Some families follow a fixed rule: a generation syllable (돌림자) that all cousins of one generation share. In a family that keeps the custom, a girl may take the shared syllable as the first or second part of her name. Many modern families do not follow any such rule.

Some families also ask a naming specialist, who may use the baby's birth date and time to suggest characters. It is a family choice and not a rule, and no national system turns a birthday into a name. The page on Korean name meaning explains each of these steps and shows how to look up the characters in a name.

How Have Korean Girls' Names Changed over Time?

Girls' names follow fashions, and a name can sound young or old to a Korean ear. The impression below is general. It is not a statistic, and a given family may break every pattern.

The same drift explains why a Korean listener can often guess a woman's rough age from her name, though only as a hint. A name from an older generation, such as 영희, is also used in language textbooks as the stock example of a Korean woman's name, which is why many learners meet it first. If you are choosing a name for a character or a story, pick the fashion of the right decade and check the sound with a Korean speaker.

How Do You Pronounce Korean Girl Names?

You pronounce a Korean name syllable by syllable, with each syllable about the same length, and you read the vowels and consonants as Hangul spells them. The table shows the spoken form of the ten popular names and the most common slip for each. For more on sounds, see Korean names pronunciation.

Four points help English speakers most.

• Spread the stress evenly. English stresses one syllable. Korean gives each syllable almost the same length and weight, so say 서-연 and not SEO-yeon.
• ㅓ is unrounded. It is the sound in "uh" said with a relaxed jaw. Say it without rounding your lips, or 서연 turns into 소연.
• ㅈ and ㅊ are different. ㅈ is unaspirated, as in 지아, with little air. ㅊ is aspirated, as in 채원, with a clear puff. They are two letters and they are not interchangeable.
• ㅡ has no English twin. Say "oo", then spread your lips flat without moving your tongue. It appears in 하은 and 은서.

When a name meets a verb ending, a final consonant links to the next vowel. Here are two sentences that you will often need.

The first is said [제 이르믄 서여니에요], because the final ㄴ of 서연 links to 이에요. The second is said [이르미 뭐예요]. After a name that ends in a vowel, the copula is 예요, so 지아 gives 지아예요, and 수아 gives 수아예요. After a name that ends in a consonant, it is 이에요, so 채원 gives 채원이에요 [채워니에요].

What Changes When a Surname Is in Front?

A surname usually joins the given name with a possible sound change. If the surname ends in ㄱ and the given name begins with ㅎ, the two sounds merge into an aspirated ㅋ: 박하은 is said [바카은], and 백하윤 is said [배카윤]. If the surname ends in ㄱ and the next syllable begins with ㅁ or ㄴ, the ㄱ becomes ㅇ: 박민서 is said [방민서]. Most surnames such as 김, 이 and 최 cause no change, so 김서연 is said [김서연]. When a name matters, ask the person to say it.

Can a Korean Girl Name Also Be a Boy's Name?

Yes, some can. Many native names and many hanja syllables are used for both girls and boys, and the Hangul spelling does not show gender. Names such as 하늘 (sky) and 지우 are used for both. Modern parents also pick names on purpose for how they sound without a gender, so you cannot always tell a person's gender from a name. When you need to know, ask. For names that more often belong to boys, see Korean boy names.

Do Korean Girls' Names Have English Equivalents?

Not in the way "Elizabeth" has "Liz". A Korean name has no English twin, because its meaning comes from hanja or a native Korean word. Some Korean women use an English name at work or abroad, and others keep their Korean name and spell it in the Roman alphabet. A few names happen to sound like English names, such as 수아 and "Sua", but they are separate names. If you want to meet a Korean name halfway, say it in Korean and let the person correct you.

How Are Korean Girl Names Romanized?

Official Revised Romanization (RR) spells the sound of the name: 서연 is Seoyeon, 채원 is Chaewon and 은서 is Eunseo. The rule lets you add a hyphen between given-name syllables, as in Seo-yeon, to avoid misreading. In practice, people choose their own spelling for passports and social media, so you will see many variants.

Because variants differ, always ask how a person spells their name before you write it. The page on the romanization of Korean names explains the rule in full, and your name in Korean shows how to write your own name in Hangul.

Where Do Popularity Statistics Come From?

The official source is the Supreme Court of Korea (대법원), which keeps the family-register records and has published counts of the names given to newborns. News stories each year then turn those counts into "most popular names" lists. For the current figures, check the Supreme Court's published statistics for the year you need, because this page gives no counts.

A few habits make a list easier to trust.

• Check the year. A list from five years ago may be out of date.
• Check who is counted. Some lists count all newborns and some count girls only.
• Check the spelling. One name may appear twice if the hanja differ, so a list can count 서연 as one name or as several.
• Prefer the primary source. A news story is a second-hand report. The court's own table is the first-hand one.

How Do You Talk about a Girl's Name in Korean?

You can ask about a name politely and answer in a short pattern. Here are three sentences for a meeting or a class.

The first is said [지아라고 불러 주세요], where 불러 links as [불러]. The second is said [이르미 예뻐요]. The third is said [어떤 한자를 써요]. When you meet someone, 이름이 예뻐요 is a safe compliment. Ask about their hanja only after you know them a little, because not every person can answer. To call a friend by name, add 아 or 야, as the lesson on Korean name endings explains, and see the Korean names hub for every name topic.

Can You Choose a Korean Girl Name for Yourself?

Yes, if you want a Korean-style name for class, a hobby or a story, and it helps to be clear that it is a chosen name and not a registered one. A simple way to build one has four steps.

1. Pick a surname. 김, 이 and 박 are the most familiar to English speakers, and each is a real family name.
2. Pick a two-syllable given name. Choose from the ten popular names above, or from the native names in the second table, such as 하늘 or 보람.
3. Say the full name aloud. Check the surname joint, as in 박하은 [바카은], so you know what it sounds like.
4. Ask a Korean teacher or friend. They can warn you if the sound is awkward or if a name is strongly tied to an older generation.

If you want to write your own name in Hangul instead, the page on your name in Korean walks you through it, and my name is in Korean teaches the ready-made sentences.

What Mistakes Should You Avoid with Korean Girl Names?

These errors come up most.

1. Treating a list as a ranking. A "top names" list is true for one year and one source. Do not quote it as a fixed fact.
2. Reading a meaning off the Hangul. 서연 is a sound. The meaning belongs to the characters behind it, so a site that prints one meaning per Hangul name is guessing.
3. Guessing gender from the sound. Many names are used for both girls and boys. Ask, or use the person's own words.
4. Rounding ㅓ. Saying "soyeon" for 서연 changes the name to 소연, which is a different name.
5. Mixing up ㅈ and ㅊ. 지아 and 치아 are different words, and 치아 means "teeth".
6. Splitting a name wrongly. In 서연, the family name is not 서. The surname comes first, as in 김서연, and the given name is the two syllables after it.

Quick Practice

Read each name aloud and say whether it is a native word or hanja-based, using what you learned above.

• 하늘: a native word that means sky.
• 서연: usually hanja-based, with several possible readings.
• 보람: a native word for a worthwhile result.
• 채원: usually hanja-based.

Then say your own name with the pattern from the pronunciation section: 제 이름은 ___예요 after a vowel, or ___이에요 after a consonant.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Is the Most Popular Korean Girl Name?

It depends on the year and the list. Names such as 서연, 서윤 and 하윤 have often appeared near the top of recent lists, but ranks change every year. For the current answer, check the Supreme Court of Korea's published statistics, or a news report that names the year and the source.

Can Girl Names Be Gender-Neutral?

Yes. Many native names, such as 하늘, and many hanja syllables are used for both girls and boys. The Hangul spelling does not show gender, so you cannot always tell a person's gender from a name. If it matters, ask the person politely.

Do Korean Girls' Names Have English Equivalents?

No, not directly. A Korean name carries meaning through hanja or a native word, and it has no English twin. Some women use an English name at work or abroad, and others keep their Korean name and spell it in Roman letters. A name that sounds like an English one is a separate name.

How Are Korean Girl Names Romanized?

Official Revised Romanization spells the sound, so 서연 is Seoyeon and 은서 is Eunseo, and a hyphen between given-name syllables is allowed. People also choose their own spellings, such as Suh or Yoon, so ask how a person writes their name.

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