“I remember Nam”

A brief introduction to Korean surnames

Surnames are an important distinguishing factor for anyone but in Korea they play an interesting role.

In Japan the number of surnames is in excess of 100,000 but here in Korea there are only around 270. Surprising isn’t it? Even more surprising is the dominance of a few names, Park, Lee, Kim and Choi are the most frequent. Almost a quarter of the residents of this peninsula are named Kim and 15 per cent are Lees. There are different strands of the same name, each having its own ancestral home or clan but, in theory at least they can all be traced back to the same point in history.

There does however seem to be a distinct lack of names that refer to work based names as are popular in the west. Cooper and Fletcher are clearly based on the jobs their ancestors did but these kind of names don’t really exist in Korea and this is, at least in part due to the distain held by the Korean ruling classes for menial work and so names were intentionally disguised and subsequently lost to history.

Until the turn of the century there was a law that forbid inter clan marrying but nowadays it isn’t uncommon for Parks to marry Parks or a Lee to join with another Lee. Whilst there are many Parks, Kims, Lees and Chois the individuality of the clans these names came from are remembered. The ancestral homes of the clans are besieged during festival periods and there is a kind of inversion of the population with the most densely populated areas being vacated and the normally tranquill country side being invaded by city folk.

Tradition also survives in every Korean home as Korean women do not take the name of their husband; they cannot become part of the family absolutely as the family name is of the utmost importance and cannot be diluted.

So with the limited variance in family names, try to imagine how difficult it can be for some teachers in Korea when you suddenly have a several classes, each of 8 or 9 students with only a few surnames and sometimes indistinguishable first names to help you tell them apart! Some teachers work for local high schools and sometimes have classes of around 30 kids!

Why Nam you ask, well I have a student called David Nam, not a common surname and certainly the only combination of David and Nam I have or am likely to come across here and I'm thankful for it.

So what's in a Nam(e)? Well a lot if your Korean.