What’s in a Korean name?

My son was supposed to be born on June 12, two years ago. However I had an early birth on May 24th. Before that, I always thought of giving him the name “Jayu” which means “freedom,” since his birthday was supposed to fall on the Philippines’ Independence Day. However, I couldn’t just follow my whim and we had to respect tradition.

Traditionally, Korean names consist of three syllables. The first syllable is the family name, second and third are either the generation name or given name. If you’ve been watching Korean dramas, you’d noticed that siblings usually share a common name. That’s what’s called the “generation name”. It’s really just intended for the boys in the family. In my husband’s family, their generation name is “Yong” (용) so him and his siblings all have “Yong” in their names.

I first thought that I should find a really nice name for my son, not very Korean since I thought that Korean names sound a bit different. However, I realized that he’s going to live here and we’re going to raise him here so it’s not really that important to have a nice-sounding name based on Filipino standards.

My son’s name is Seong Gyu (성규). It’s a combination of his father’s given name (용성 Yong Seong) and his generation name (규 Gyu). His male cousins also use that generation name. Like I said, only the boys in the family really follow that tradition.

Korean names are based on Chinese characters. So the same name might have different meanings and it all depends on their Chinese origin.