Korea’s most popular names during the last 30 years include Jeong-hun and Min-joon for boys and Mi-young and Seo-yeon for girls; 60 years ago, they were Young-soo and Young-ja. The Chosun Ilbo with the help of the Supreme Court surveyed the names of babies born in 30-year intervals -- in 1945, 1975 and 2005 -- to discover the 10 most popular names in each generation. In proof that naming of children reflects the times, no single name from one generation made it into the top 10 of the next. Experts in onomastics (the study of naming) say that names reflect the state of things in the era when they were used.Interesting!
Boys born in 1945, when Korea had just been liberated from Japanese colonial rule, were often given names with the chinese character “young (永)” - which means long-- such as Young-soo, Young-ho and Young-shik. Onomastician Lee Dong-woo says this is because parents at the time wished that their sons should live a long life. In fact, the average life span of Korean men at the time stood at only 35 years because of disease and the military draft. For women, Japanese-style names that included the Chinese character “ja (子)” (equivalent to the Japanese “ko” as in Yoko) at the end were popular, such as Young-ja, Jeong-ja and Soon-ja. Jeong-soon in ninth place was the only one that did not include “ja” in the top 10, showing how Japanese rule still heavily affected Korean society. However, some say that “ja,” which also means “son,” was so popular because people at the time preferred sons to daughters and wanted to ease their disappointment at having a girl.
In 1975 when they became parents in turn, the ja’s and Young’s chose Jeong-hun, Seong-ho, Seong-hun, Seong-jin and Jeong-ho for their sons. The names mostly have the Chinese characters “seong (成)” and “hun (勳), which mean success and achievement, reflecting parents’ wish for their children’s social success and career achievement at a time when the country was experiencing rapid economic growth. For girls, feminine names like Mi-young, Eun-jeong, Eun-ju, Eun-young and Hyun-ju were popular. But in 2005 children of both sexes were often given androgynous names, like Ji-won and Su-min -- a break from the past, when the sexes could be clearly distinguished by their names.
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