Korean Last Names: Most Common Surnames and Their Origins

This page is a guide to the family-name half of a Korean name. It gives the ten most common surnames with their hanja (Chinese characters), explains why so few surnames cover so many people, shows what a 본관 is, lists the rare two-syllable surnames, and sorts out the romanization variants (Kim or Gim, Lee or Yi). For the given-name half, continue to Korean name meaning. For the full set of name pages, see the Korean names section of this site.

What Are the Most Common Korean Last Names?

The ten most common Korean last names, in the order of the 2015 census, are 김, 이, 박, 최, 정, 강, 조, 윤, 장 and 임. The census is run by Statistics Korea (KOSTAT), and the order below follows its 2015 surname table. Counts change a little with each census, so check kostat.go.kr for the newest table before you quote a ranking.

The first three are far ahead of the rest. As a rough guide, about one in five Koreans is a Kim, about one in seven is a Lee and about one in twelve is a Park, so these three together come to close to half of the population. Those shares are rounded from the 2015 census, so check the latest release before you rely on them.

Here are the first five spoken aloud. Listen for the plain starting sounds in 박, 정 and 강: they have only a light puff of air and a lower pitch than the aspirated ㅍ, ㅊ and ㅋ.

Notice that every surname in the table is written with one syllable block. That is the normal Korean pattern, and it is why a typical Korean name has three syllables: one for the surname and two for the given name.

How Do You Read a Surname in Context?

In Korean the surname comes first, then the given name, with no space between them in writing: 김민수 (Gim Minsu). The family name is written as one block and the given name as two, so the three-block name 김민수 splits as 김 + 민수. When you speak to someone politely, you usually add 씨 after the full name (김민수 씨) or a job title after the surname (김 선생님). The honorific 씨 and 님 page shows which one to use.

How Many Surnames Are There, and Why so Few?

Korea has far fewer surnames than most countries have, and the top three cover close to half the people. There are two reasons: how surnames spread, and how they were borrowed from China.

Surnames in Korea began with kings and the elite. Written records show surnames used by the ruling class of the early kingdoms, and the practice spread slowly downward over many centuries. For much of Korean history a large part of the population had no family name in the records. Over the Joseon dynasty (1392 to 1910) more families took surnames, often by adopting the surname of a prestigious clan, by being given one by a ruler, or by registering under the name of the household they served. By the early twentieth century, when household registration made a surname legally required for everyone, the pool of common choices was already small.

The second reason is the borrowing pattern. Most Korean surnames are Sino-Korean, meaning they come from Chinese characters read with Korean sounds. A small number of Chinese surnames, written in one character, were copied and given Korean readings, and families that wanted status adopted from that short list. That is also why each surname has a hanja form, which is the easiest way to tell apart homophones such as 이 (李, "plum") and another 이 written with a different character.

The number of surnames on record has also changed with the counting. The 2000 census recorded a few hundred surnames, and the 2015 census recorded several thousand. The jump is largely because later counts include new surnames registered by naturalised citizens and families who registered a surname in Hangul only. Most of those surnames are carried by very few people, so the shape of the list stays the same: three names very common, a medium group, and a long tail. Check the exact totals on the KOSTAT site before you quote them.

What Do the Top Three Surnames Sound Like?

Each of the top three sounds like several ordinary Korean words, which is a common source of puns. 김 is also the word for dried seaweed (laver), as in 김밥 (gimbap, a seaweed roll), and for steam. 이 is also the Sino-Korean number "two", the word for "tooth" and the word for "this". 박 is also the word for a gourd. Context and the hanja decide which one is meant, and in speech the meaning is clear from the sentence. That is why a teacher can say 김 선생님 and nobody thinks about seaweed.

Why Are There so Many Kims?

There are so many Kims because 金 was the surname of two historic ruling families, and because many separate Kim clans exist. The Silla royal house, which ruled much of the peninsula for centuries, used the surname Kim, and so did the family tradition of Gaya, whose legendary founder King Suro is claimed as the ancestor of the Gimhae Kim clan. A royal surname spreads: relatives, retainers and people granted the surname by the court all carried it forward. Later, families with no earlier record often registered under a high-status surname.

The size of the Kim group is therefore not one big family. It is dozens of separate clans, each with its own origin place, that share one surname. This is the idea of the 본관, explained next.

What Is a 본관 (clan origin)?

A 본관 (本貫, bon-gwan) is the ancestral home of a clan, usually the name of a place. It is written before the surname plus 씨, so 김해 김씨 means "the Kim clan of Gimhae". People who share a surname but have different 본관 are, in the clan sense, different families, even if the surname is spelled the same.

Gimhae Kim and Gyeongju Kim share a surname but not a clan origin. Jeonju Yi is the clan of the Joseon royal family. A clan keeps its records in a 족보 (jokbo, a genealogy book), and large clans divide into branches called 파 (pa).

Here are the four clan names spoken aloud. In 밀양, the final ㄹ of 밀 links to the next syllable, so it is said [미량].

Today most Koreans do not use their 본관 in daily life. It appears on genealogy records and in discussions of family history, and older relatives may know it well. Here is how you could ask about it politely, and how to state your own surname.

The first sentence is said [제 성은 기미에요]: the final ㅁ of 김 links to the vowel of 이에요, while the final ㅇ of 성 stays in place before 은. The question about 본관 is used mostly in family-history talk, not in a first meeting.

What Are the Rare Two-Syllable Surnames?

A few Korean surnames have two syllables, and they are rare. They are mostly of Chinese origin and carry two hanja. The most familiar ones are listed below, with the sound changes you should know when you hear them said aloud.

When someone has one of these, the whole two-syllable block is the surname and the rest is the given name. A person called 남궁민 is read as 남궁 + 민, not 남 + 궁민. A form that asks for "surname" and "given name" in separate boxes should hold 남궁 in the first and 민 in the second.

Because these surnames are so unusual, they are also easy to mistake in romanization. Hwangbo may be written Hwang-bo, and Seonu is often written Sunwoo or Sunoo. Always ask the person for their own spelling before you write it down.

How Are Korean Surnames Romanized?

Korean surnames have two spellings in common use: the official Revised Romanization (RR) and a looser spelling that families chose over time. The official system dates from 2000 and is used on road signs and in textbooks; people keep the spelling on their passport.

So a Korean person whose passport reads "Park" and whose official RR spelling would be "Bak" is spelled correctly in both cases. Do not "correct" a person's name to RR. Use the spelling they give you. The romanization of Korean names page explains the rules for given names, and the Revised Romanization rules page explains the letters.

Why Does 李 Have Two Readings?

The surname 이 (李) has two readings because of the initial-sound rule (두음법칙, dueumbeopchik). In standard South Korean spelling, a word that begins with the sound ㄹ changes it: ㄹ becomes ㄴ in some cases and disappears before 이 and some other vowels. The Sino-Korean reading of 李 is 리, so 리 becomes 이 at the start of a word in South Korea. North Korea does not apply the rule, so the same surname is written 리.

The family 柳 is a good example because both 유 and 류 are in use, depending on how the family registered it. This is also why the same hanja can show up with different sounds in a family tree.

Do Women Keep Their Surname in Korea?

Yes. Korean women keep their own surname after marriage, and they keep their own 본관 as well. A wife named 박지영 stays 박지영 after marrying a man surnamed 김. She is not called Mrs. Kim in Korean, and her legal name does not change. Children have traditionally taken their father's surname.

Korean civil law now also allows parents to agree, when they register the marriage, that a child will take the mother's surname. Check the current Civil Act for the exact conditions, because family law has been revised more than once in the past twenty years.

This also answers a common question: yes, Koreans with the same surname can marry. For a long time the law banned marriage between people with the same surname and the same 본관 (동성동본, dongseong-dongbon). The Constitutional Court ruled that ban incompatible with the Constitution in 1997, and the Civil Act was revised in 2005. Today the law restricts marriage between close blood relatives, within the eighth degree of kinship, and not between people who only share a surname. Check the current text of the Civil Act if the exact limit matters for you.

How Do You Use a Surname in a Sentence?

You use a surname with a title or with the polite 씨. Calling someone by surname alone is usually rude or very casual. These two patterns are safe:

• Surname + title: 김 선생님 (Gim seonsaengnim, "Teacher Kim" or "Mr./Ms. Kim"), 박 과장님 (Bak gwajangnim, "Manager Park").
• Full name + 씨: 김민수 씨 (Gim Minsu ssi).

Avoid 김 씨 on its own when you speak to someone directly. It can sound dismissive, because 씨 attaches more naturally to a full name. Titles are covered in the honorifics 씨 and 님 lesson.

The name 김민수 is read [김민수]. There is no change between the surname and the given name.

Where Do Hanja Come In?

Hanja are the Chinese characters behind most surnames and many given names. They are useful here for one reason: they tell homophones apart. Dozens of surnames sound like 이 or 정 in Hangul, but each has a different hanja. You do not need to learn hanja to use or write a Korean name, since the Hangul spelling is the legal and everyday form. If you want the full picture of how characters work inside names, read about hanja in Korean names. For the contrast between the two scripts in general, see Hangul vs hanja.

Practise: Which Surname Is It?

Try matching each hanja with its Hangul reading in your head, then check the table above. 金 is 김, 李 is 이, 朴 is 박, 崔 is 최, 鄭 is 정. If you can read those five in Hangul, you can already read the surnames of about half of all Koreans.

What Mistakes Do Learners Make with Korean Surnames?

Most mistakes come from carrying English habits into Korean names. These five come up most often.

1. Reversing the order. Korean puts the surname first. 김민수 is Kim Minsu, not Minsu Kim, though many Koreans reverse it on English forms. Ask which order a form wants.
2. Splitting the written name. In Hangul a name is written without a space: 김민수. In romanization you will see Gim Minsu, Kim Min-su and Kim Minsu, and all three are in use.
3. Assuming people with the same surname are relatives. Two Kims may belong to different clans, or to the same clan with no close family link.
4. Guessing the spelling. A person called 이 may spell it Lee, Yi, Rhee or I. Ask for the spelling and copy it exactly.
5. Using the surname alone as an address. Add a title or 씨 to a full name, as shown above.

A sixth point is for sorting. In Korean directories names are ordered by the surname first, in the Hangul alphabetical order known as 가나다순 (ganadasun), so 강 comes before 김 and 김 comes before 박.

Tips for Learners

• Say the plain consonants. 박, 정, 강 and 조 start with the plain ㅂ, ㅈ, ㄱ and ㅈ. Keep the throat relaxed and the pitch low, so that 박 does not turn into the aspirated 팍.
• Ask how someone spells their name. The RR spelling and the spelling a person uses may be different.
• Ask for the 본관 only in family contexts. It is not a normal question at a first meeting.
• Use titles. 김 선생님 is safer than 김 씨.

Frequently Asked Questions

How Many Korean Surnames Are There?

A few hundred surnames were counted in the 2000 census and several thousand in the 2015 census, mainly because later counts include new surnames registered by naturalised citizens. Most people carry one of a small group. The top ten alone cover well over half of the population, and Kim, Lee and Park are close to half. Check the latest census table at kostat.go.kr.

Why Are There so Many Kims?

金 was the surname of two historic ruling families, the Silla royal house and the Gaya tradition behind the Gimhae Kim clan, so it spread to relatives, retainers and families who adopted a prestigious name. The Kim group is not one family but many separate clans, each with its own 본관, such as 김해 김씨 and 경주 김씨.

Do Women Change Their Surname after Marriage in Korea?

No. Korean women keep their own surname and 본관 after marriage, and their legal name does not change. Children have traditionally taken the father surname, and the civil law now lets parents agree when they register the marriage that a child takes the mother surname. Check the current Civil Act for the exact conditions.

Can Two People with the Same Surname Marry in Korea?

Yes. A law that banned marriage between people with the same surname and the same 본관 (동성동본) was ruled incompatible with the Constitution in 1997, and the Civil Act was revised in 2005. Today the restriction covers close blood relatives, not people who merely share a surname. Check the current Civil Act for the exact degree.

Are All Korean Last Names One Syllable?

Most are, but a few are two syllables, such as 남궁 (Namgung), 황보 (Hwangbo), 제갈 (Jegal), 선우 (Seonu), 독고 (Dokgo) and 사공 (Sagong). They are rare. Treat the whole block as the surname: in 남궁민, 남궁 is the surname and 민 is the given name.