Sunday 30 November 2014

1479 HKSAR Name of the Day

Maranda Li Fung-ying, interim executive director, Saint Barnabas' Society and Home, Western District, Hong Kong

About Novel HKSAR Names
Name Category: Rare

Friday 28 November 2014

1478 HKSAR Name of the Day

Elene Lam Yee-ling, advocacy officer, Rape Crisis Centre, Hong Kong

About Novel HKSAR Names
Name Category: Rare

Wednesday 26 November 2014

1477 HKSAR Name of the Day

Rochelle Fung, Ma On Shan, Hong Kong (SCMP Letters 25 Nov 2012)

About Novel HKSAR Names
Name Category: Rare

Monday 24 November 2014

1476 HKSAR Name of the Day

Oric Chan, Tung Chung, Hong Kong (SCMP Letters 22 Nov 2012)

About Novel HKSAR Names
Name Category: Creation

Saturday 22 November 2014

1475 HKSAR Name of the Day

Soddy Leung, Tsuen Wan, Hong Kong (SCMP Letters 21 Nov 2012)

About Novel HKSAR Names
Name Category: Creation

Thursday 20 November 2014

1474 HKSAR Name of the Day

Seraph Wu Shi-kei (Miss), 17, pupil of St Paul's Convent School in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong (Top 12 recognition at the 14th Awarding Programme for Future Scientists, beating more than 1,000 shortlisted entries from across China, November 2014)

Seraph is a boy's name and means "burning ones"


Miss Seraph Wu (front) Pic Edward Wong (Ref: SCMP article)

About Novel HKSAR Names
Name Category: Creation for females; Rare for males

Tuesday 18 November 2014

1473 HKSAR Name of the Day

Royce Lee Yat-pui, digital marketing specialist, co-founder, Aedify (education apps developer company)

 Royce Lee (left) and Venus Lee Developed Language App That Makes Learning Chinese Characters Fun For Children Pic Bruce Yan

About Novel HKSAR Names
Name Category: Rare

Sunday 16 November 2014

1472 HKSAR Name of the Day

Swallow Ching, director, ATV News, Hong Kong

About Novel HKSAR Names
Name Category: Creation; Nature-based

Friday 14 November 2014

1471 HKSAR Name of the Day

Mouse Sham, producer, Police Report (TV programme), RTHK 2014, Hong Kong

About Novel HKSAR Names
Name Category: Creation; Nature-based

Thursday 13 November 2014

Picking and Choosing Names: Korea's Story

The predominance of Korean surnames Kim and Lee reveals the consequences of letting people pick and choose their own family names. Nearly half of South Koreans today is either a Kim, Lee or Park. In China, there are about 100 surnames in common usage, whereas Japan has as many as 280,000 distinct family names. The Economist explains the history behind why is there so little diversity in Korean surnames.

Female hockey players Lee, Kim, Lee, Fanny (!) and Kim. Pic Reuters

This blog loves names and discovering the reasons behind common and not-so-common names. For first names, when people are allowed to pick and choose their creativity (or lack thereof) they can reveal a lot about their background, culture, education, social values and way of thinking.

Related Posts

About Novel HKSAR Names

Hong Kong Loves Weird English Names


Reference

Why so many Koreans are called Kim


The Economist explains

A SOUTH KOREAN saying claims that a stone thrown from the top of Mount Namsan, in the centre of the capital Seoul, is bound to hit a person with the surname Kim or Lee. One in every five South Koreans is a Kim—in a population of just over 50m. And from the current president, Park Geun-hye, to rapper PSY (born Park Jae-sang), almost one in ten is a Park. Taken together, these three surnames account for almost half of those in use in South Korea today. Neighbouring China has around 100 surnames in common usage; Japan may have as many as 280,000 distinct family names. Why is there so little diversity in Korean surnames?

Korea’s long feudal tradition offers part of the answer. As in many other parts of the world, surnames were a rarity until the late Joseon dynasty (1392-1910). They remained the privilege of royals and a few aristocrats (yangban) only. Slaves and outcasts such as butchers, shamans and prostitutes, but also artisans, traders and monks, did not have the luxury of a family name. As the local gentry grew in importance, however, Wang Geon, the founding king of the Goryeo dynasty (918–1392), tried to mollify it by granting surnames as a way to distinguish faithful subjects and government officials. The gwageo, a civil-service examination that became an avenue for social advancement and royal preferment, required all those who sat it to register a surname. Thus elite households adopted one. It became increasingly common for successful merchants too to take on a last name. They could purchase an elite genealogy by physically buying a genealogical book (jokbo)—perhaps that of a bankrupt yangban—and using his surname. By the late 18th century, forgery of such records was rampant. Many families fiddled with theirs: when, for example, a bloodline came to an end, a non-relative could be written into a genealogical book in return for payment. The stranger, in turn, acquired a noble surname.

As family names such as Lee and Kim were among those used by royalty in ancient Korea, they were preferred by provincial elites and, later, commoners when plumping for a last name. This small pool of names originated from China, adopted by the Korean court and its nobility in the 7th century in emulation of noble-sounding Chinese surnames. (Many Korean surnames are formed from a single Chinese character.) So, to distinguish one’s lineage from those of others with the same surname, the place of origin of a given clan (bongwan) was often tagged onto the name. Kims have around 300 distinct regional origins, such as the Gyeongju Kim and Gimhae Kim clans (though the origin often goes unidentified except on official documents). The limited pot of names meant that no one was quite sure who was a blood relation; so, in the late Joseon period, the king enforced a ban on marriages between people with identical bongwan (a restriction that was only lifted in 1997). In 1894 the abolition of Korea’s class-based system allowed commoners to adopt a surname too: those on lower social rungs often adopted the name of their master or landlord, or simply took one in common usage. In 1909 a new census-registration law was passed, requiring all Koreans to register a surname.

Today clan origins, once deemed an important marker of a person’s heritage and status, no longer bear the same relevance to Koreans. Yet the number of new Park, Kim and Lee clans is in fact growing: more foreign nationals, including Chinese, Vietnamese and Filipinos, are becoming naturalised Korean citizens, and their most popular picks for a local surname are Kim, Lee, Park and Choi, according to government figures; registering, for example, the Mongol Kim clan, or the Taeguk (of Thailand) Park clan. The popularity of these three names looks set to continue. 
Dig deeper:
Korean men are marrying foreign women more from choice than necessity (May 2014)
How a really uncool country became the tastemaker of Asia (August 2014)
Why South Korea is so distinctively Christian (August 2014)







Wednesday 12 November 2014

1470 HKSAR Name of the Day

Ferrari Fu (Ms), direct sales and services, Cathay Holidays Limited, Hong Kong

About Novel HKSAR Names
Name Category: Creation; Brand-based

Monday 10 November 2014

Saturday 8 November 2014

1468 HKSAR Name of the Day

Anina Ho, granddaughter-in-law of Ho Sin-hang, one of Hang Seng Bank's founders, Hong Kong

Anina is a girl's name is of Aramaic origin, and its meaning is "answer my prayer"

About Novel HKSAR Names
Name Category: Rare

Thursday 6 November 2014

Wednesday 5 November 2014

Tuesday 4 November 2014

1466 HKSAR Name of the Day

Kolten Wong, second baseman, St Louis Cardinals, USA (his paternal great-grandparents are Chinese) 

About Novel HKSAR Names
Name Category: Rare

Sunday 2 November 2014

1465 HKSAR Name of the Day

Winkie Kuan Un-san, chairwoman, Macau Youth Dynamics Group taking part in Occupy Central 2014, Hong Kong

see 0702 HKSAR Name of the Day

About Novel HKSAR Names
Name Category: Creation