Ancient Korean Names

There is a growing trend to use native words in place of Sino-Korean words in naming kids.  For instance, I have a cousin named Haneul, which is the native Korean word for "sky". 

Other than that, I'm not sure about authentic Korean names.

There were some interesting names around during the Korean 3 Kingdoms period though.  Here are some off of the top of my head.

Sadaham-Shilla
Misaheun-Shilla
Bak Hyeokgose-Shilla
Ijinashi-Gaya
Buyeo Geunchogo-Baekje
Heukji Sangji-Baekje
Eulji Mundeok-Goguryeo
Yeon Gaesomun-Goguryeo
Haemosu-Buyeo

Not to say that there weren't any Sino style Korean names at the time though.  Names like Goguryeo's Yang Mancheon and Shilla's own Kim Yushin show us that there was also a strong Chinese style tradition in naming.

Hope that helps a bit.


Edited by Gubook Janggoon

My favorite is Sadaham; doesn't it sound so Saddam?  Well, let's not go there, although I did enjoy reading about Tangri and Garimto.

I think Sadaham was one of the great Hwarang from Shilla?  I should look it up.

Hwarangs were great; young, worrior, poet, gentleman, scholar, athlete, leader type.  It should be an aim for all the young people.  

I agree but I live in Stone Age overhere and my laptop doesn't have such capability.  

As far as those names, I do think most of them had to be written in Chinese charactors since most of the historic records were written in Chinese.  That is not to say those names aren't neccesarily authentic Korean.  Also many upper class Koreans used literary/scholastic nicknames in their writings, many of them becoming more famous for their literary name than their given name.

And the phonetic comparasion, well I can read very little Chinese and still pretty fluent in Korean, if some one showed me both pronunciation same Chinese letters, more often than not I will find some similarity.  But I haven't heard any science behind how you can tranform one phonetic to theother. 

For example, if I saw 'Beijing' written in Chinese letters, I would know it means 'Northern Capitol' just by looking at it, but I would say, 'Book Ghyoung' in Korean pronunciation.  Oh, I can see the similarity but if I say 'Book ghyoung' to a Chinese guy, I don't think he would understand what I'm talking about.

Actually, is 'Beijing' an authentic pronunciation or Anglroidfied?  I've heard 'Peking' also, is 'Beijing' a Mandarin, 'Peking' a Cantonese?  Just wondering.

 

 

Originally posted by jamesse We don't even know if the Chinese words were compatible with Korean phonetics, so there's a high probability that those names are not how it sounded back then.

Chinese words are definitely NOT compatible with Korean phonetics. Chinese and Korean belong to two entirely language families - Chinese belongs to the Sino-Tibetan family whereas Korean, a so-called language "isolate", probably belongs to the Altaic family. To use Chinese characters to represent Korean phonetics is as difficult as using Chinese characters to represent English phonetics.

 

I have some interesting information on Ryukyu names too. (I know if I start a new thread on "Ryukyu names" I will probably get no reply at all since it is such an "unhot" topic.   That's why I am putting it here.)

I got this from Wikipedia, but even there, the information is very sketchy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Japanese_name

"The Ryukyans, being vassals of the Chinese empire and influenced more by Chinese culture than by Japanese, had names similar in form to those of the Chinese."

"(T)here are many unique, strange names in Okinawa" e.g. "names like Sho Ei are highly Chinese-influenced"

However, "(s)urnames in present-day Okinawa often follow Japanese patterns, even when they're recognizably different. A typical pattern is the same two-kanji pattern of Japan. Variants exist, as in Japan. Readings might be on-yomi or kun-yomi, just as in Japan. Higa, Shimabukuro, etc. Historical readings (as in Kiyan ϲ����) are more typical of Japanese than of Chinese. Modern given names in Okinawa seem to follow Japanese examples."

Unfortunately, we do not have enough Japanese-speaking or Okinawan forumers here to verify or to comment on this

Originally posted by flyingzone I have some interesting information on Ryukyu names too. (I know if I start a new thread on "Ryukyu names" I will probably get no reply at all since it is such an "unhot" topic.   That's why I am putting it here.)

Just put it on.   Oh yeah, & that wikipedia is VERY sketchy.  Here's some info from... more reliable sites.

http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/%7Ejwb/afaq/japanesenames.html

http://www.geocities.com/nobukaze23/namae.htm  <---EDIT: Just read this site through, interesting bits, but it's written by a dilettant.  Please take it with a grain of seasalt..

However, "(s)urnames in present-day Okinawa often follow Japanese patterns, even when they're recognizably different. A typical pattern is the same two-kanji pattern of Japan. Variants exist, as in Japan. Readings might be on-yomi or kun-yomi, just as in Japan. Higa, Shimabukuro, etc. Historical readings (as in Kiyan ϲ��΁E are more typical of Japanese than of Chinese. Modern given names in Okinawa seem to follow Japanese examples." Unfortunately, we do not have enough Japanese-speaking or Okinawan forumers here to verify or to comment on this

A lot of Okinawans are actually immigrants from the main Japanese islands nowadays, or their ancestors had adopted more mainland Japanese names to avoid discrimination & harassment.  But there are still a lot of exotic-sounding, original Okinawan/Ryukyu clan names around. 

Edited by johannes

Nope.  Not ancient or modern Chinese. 

& Kaneshiro Takeshi's father is Japanese.

But it might be a Ryukyuan Chinese last name...  like a clan of Chinese which took the Japanese/Ryukuan name as their clan name...    sort of like how ethnic Koreans in Japan who were named Kim decided to take Kimura & Kimoto etc. as their Japanized clan names...

i know that there are Chinese & Ryukyuan records that stated many families from Hokkien moved to Okinawa during the Ming & became prominent families there.

 

There is a GREAT (& academically ACCURATE) site on Japanese naming tradition, both archaic & modern, written by a historical role-player (what do you call them?  Re-enactors or something..) but i can't find it yet

I was wondering how to pronounce the Last name "Lee" in Korean properly.  I know it was pronounced as "Yi" in the ancient time. Why it shifted to "Lee" all of the sudden?

Originally posted by Killabee I was wondering how to pronounce the Last name "Lee" in Korean properly.  I know it was pronounced as "Yi" in the ancient time. Why it shifted to "Lee" all of the sudden?

Lee, Yi, and Rhee are different ways to write the same surname.  The New Korean Romanizaton writes it as "I".  It's just different attempts to romanize the name.

The correct way to pronounce it is, "ee". 

Originally posted by flyingzone Do you have any sources that we can refer to?

Yes. It is mentioned in the okinawan history. It is known as the "36 Families" emigrated from China.