Names of South Korea KR

Surnames in South Korea are inherited, but drawn from a stock small enough that a few cover much of the population; KOSIS 2015 Census — surname population with hanja variants records 김 as the commonest surname in South Korea.

Written in Korean.

Population
52M
Official registers
5
Name forms recorded
34K
ABuilt from 5 official registers (2025), 33,632 name forms in our corpus, 4 cited works.

Official registers for given names and surnames, plus a written account of the naming system.

The account of the naming system rests on encyclopaedia and genealogy sources; it has not yet been checked against onomastic literature.

How names work in South Korea

Names in South Korea follow one naming tradition. Its structure, its given-name and surname stock, how to address someone and what trips software up are set out on its own page.

The most common names in South Korea

Counts children born in the year · authority tier 2
Supreme Court — newborn given names, 2026 — 100 given names counted over children born that year, girls only, as the register publishes them.
#NameBearers recordedOur rank
1서윤541—
2하린405—
3서아378—
4하윤375—
5이서365—
6아윤355—
7지안345—
8아린319—
9지유280—
10윤서275—
11시아251—
12도아235—
12예린235—
14지우234—
15수아233—
16유주232—
17이솔231—
18지아224—
19채이222—
20윤슬217—

Where the two lists disagree

25 of Supreme Court — newborn given names's top 25 given names sit five or more places away in our record corpus. Neither ranking is wrong; they count different people.

Supreme Court — newborn given names 2025Across all records서아: 1 → not ranked · not in our corpus’s top ranks for this country1. 서아not ranked서윤: 2 → not ranked · not in our corpus’s top ranks for this country2. 서윤not ranked이서: 3 → not ranked · not in our corpus’s top ranks for this country3. 이서not ranked하린: 4 → not ranked · not in our corpus’s top ranks for this country4. 하린not ranked하윤: 5 → not ranked · not in our corpus’s top ranks for this country5. 하윤not ranked아린: 6 → not ranked · not in our corpus’s top ranks for this country6. 아린not ranked지안: 7 → not ranked · not in our corpus’s top ranks for this country7. 지안not ranked아윤: 8 → not ranked · not in our corpus’s top ranks for this country8. 아윤not ranked지유: 9 → not ranked · not in our corpus’s top ranks for this country9. 지유not ranked시아: 10 → not ranked · not in our corpus’s top ranks for this country10. 시아not ranked윤서: 11 → not ranked · not in our corpus’s top ranks for this country11. 윤서not ranked지아: 12 → not ranked · not in our corpus’s top ranks for this country12. 지아not ranked지우: 13 → not ranked · not in our corpus’s top ranks for this country13. 지우not ranked채이: 14 → not ranked · not in our corpus’s top ranks for this country14. 채이not ranked도아: 15 → not ranked · not in our corpus’s top ranks for this country15. 도아not ranked유나: 16 → not ranked · not in our corpus’s top ranks for this country16. 유나not ranked수아: 17 → not ranked · not in our corpus’s top ranks for this country17. 수아not ranked채아: 18 → not ranked · not in our corpus’s top ranks for this country18. 채아not ranked이솔: 19 → not ranked · not in our corpus’s top ranks for this country19. 이솔not ranked예린: 20 → not ranked · not in our corpus’s top ranks for this country20. 예린not ranked서하: 21 → not ranked · not in our corpus’s top ranks for this country21. 서하not ranked유하: 22 → not ranked · not in our corpus’s top ranks for this country22. 유하not ranked윤슬: 23 → not ranked · not in our corpus’s top ranks for this country23. 윤슬not ranked유주: 24 → not ranked · not in our corpus’s top ranks for this country24. 유주not ranked재이: 25 → not ranked · not in our corpus’s top ranks for this country25. 재이not ranked
Hover a line for what is available to explain that row.
Supreme Court — newborn given names, 2025 on the left; every record we hold for South Korea on the right. A dashed line means the name is not in our top ranks for this country at all.

The register counts one population in one year — everyone it enumerates, once. Our corpus counts records: historical registers going back decades, the diaspora, business and place records, and several generations of births. A name that was common two generations ago outranks a name common today; a name whose spelling scatters across sources (diacritics dropped, transliterated differently) loses ground, because only its dominant spelling is ranked.

Characteristic of South Korea

Not the most common names — the most distinctive ones. A name appears here when South Korea holds a larger share of its bearers than the world does, weighted by how much of the country's whole name distribution it accounts for.

한지연정호혜진지훈지영지은상훈주영소영현승현지현지혜수진정현성희준호성민현정성훈성호현주은영은정성준수연은주은경진영수현미경정훈민정선희선영영주재영정민영진성진정희정은경희민지미영수정영준성환현진현우영호혜정은지진희영민영수윤정미선은희
Sized by how much of the difference between South Korea's name distribution and the world's this name accounts for. Hover for its share here against its share worldwide.(measured from records)

Over time

서윤서연지우하윤서현200820262,896
Supreme Court — newborn given names, 2008–2026 (19 years). The line is that register's own figure for each year — not a total across registers, which would count the same people twice. The publisher labels this series “flow”.

Up to five names at a time.

Scripts & spelling

Names in South Korea are written in Hangul (99%) and Latin (1%), measured over the spellings our corpus records for this country.

김surname(measured from records)Kim
이surname(measured from records)
박surname(measured from records)Park
최surname(measured from records)Choi
정surname(measured from records)Jeong
The best-attested names in South Korea, in the spelling our records use there. Where a Latin spelling is also attested it is shown beneath — a spelling from the corpus, not a machine romanisation.

Countries whose names look alike

Measured as the overlap between each country's top 300 given-name forms, weighted by how common each is — the fuzzy-set approach of Lauc (2024), on a truncated inventory.

Registers & sources

Official registers

Cited works

Behind this page's own account — its one-line answer, its explanation of why the rankings differ, and the notes on its registers. Each naming tradition cites its own sources on its page. Not yet checked against onomastic literature.

About this data

Official figures are reproduced from the register named beside them, at the year named beside them, and are never combined across registers. The "across all records" ranking counts records in our own corpus — historical registers, the diaspora, business and place records — and is not a population count. Bearer estimates are omitted where a name accounts for more than a quarter of a country's records, because the estimate is not defensible there. Names listed by reference works and licensed name dictionaries are cited as attesting a name; their figures are not published.

Data snapshot: 2026-10-09.

Questions

What is the most common given name in South Korea?
서아, according to Supreme Court — newborn given names (2025), with 1,823 bearers recorded among girls.
What is the most common surname in South Korea?
김, according to KOSIS 2015 Census — surname population with hanja variants (2015), with 10,689,967 bearers recorded.
Why do sources disagree about the commonest name in South Korea?
Because they count different people. Supreme Court — newborn given names (2025) counts one population once, and its commonest given name is 서아. Our corpus counts every record we hold — historical registers, the diaspora, decades of births — and its commonest is 지연. Both are on this page, each with its denominator.

Cite this page: Mondonomo, “Names of South Korea”, https://mondonomo.ai/names/KR (data snapshot 2026-10-09). Official figures from KOSIS 2015 Census — surname population with hanja variants; Supreme Court — newborn given names.