Several Korean surnames like Kim and Lee can also work as first names. And though these are primarily used as boy names in many English-speaking countries, Kim and Lee are unisex names in Korea.
Kim is a name for boys and girls. It is a feminine short form of the name Kimberly and a masculine short form of Kimball and Joakim.
Kim (Hangul: 김) is the most common surname in Korea. As of the South Korean census of 2015, there were 10,689,959 people by this name in South Korea or 21.5% of the population. Even if the Korean surnames have the same pronunciation, there are different family clans(bon-gwan).
About 20 percent of South Korea's population of 49.3 million (2015 est.) has the family name Kim. That's about 10 million people. Lee is the second most common name, and Park (or Pak) is the third. All told, about 45 percent of Koreans have one of these three names! But why are Kims so particularly plentiful?
Korean: written 김 in Chinese characters 金 meaning 'gold'. This is the only Chinese character for the surname Kim which is the most common Korean surname comprising about 20 percent of the Korean population.
Between the 2002 animation Kim Possible to the rich and famous celebrity Kim Kardashian, the name Kim has become a household name around the globe. Short for Kimberly, Kim is a gender-neutral baby name of British origin.
The enduring popularity of the Kim family name can be traced back to its royal origins. Kim has its roots in two separate royal families; the Silla dynasty (57BC — 935AD) and the Gaya confederacy (42AD-562AD). When these two kingdoms united, the resulting merger led to Kim becoming one of the most popular family names.
Rules restricting marriage
In Korea, a child inherits his or her father's surname. Traditionally, men and women who have the same surnames and "ancestral homes", called dongseong dongbon (Hangul: 동성동본, Hanja: 同姓同本), are not permitted to marry.
However, “Kim” is a very common name in Japanese and is written as 「キム」.
ㅋ • (k) 키읔 (kieuk), a jamo (letter) of Hangul, the Korean alphabet.
Ye is a girl's name of Ghanaian origin. Like many traditional Ghanaian names, this name is an example of where literal just feels right.
East Asia. In the Far East, South Korea is especially restrictive with bans on marriage out to third cousins, with all couples having the same surname and region of origin having been prohibited from marrying until 1997. Taiwan and North Korea also prohibit first-cousin marriage.
In South Korea, the legal age of marriage is 18 years with no exceptions. Under Article 807 of the Civil Code 2011 the minimum legal age of marriage is 18 years. The age of majority in South Korea is 19 years old, therefore if a person aged 18 wants to marry, they require parental/guardian consent.
Naturalization is the process by which a foreign national married to a Korean national acquires Korean citizenship. Once married and on a F£²-1 (Joining Family) visa, the foreign national is granted a period of sojourn between three to six months.
Boo - Korean singer/songwriter BOO Seungkwan hails from Jeju Island. His last name is as rare as his birthplace. Only about 10,000 Koreans sport the surname.
Moon (Korean: 문; Hanja: 文), also spelled Mun, is a Korean family name. The 2000 South Korean census found a total of 426,927 people and 132,881 households with this family name.
Koreans have a longstanding and immense passion for taking care of their skin. In ancient Korean culture, it was believed that outward beauty reflected the inner self; that true beauty came from having radiant skin. Since 700 B.C., Koreans have been researching, developing and documenting skincare methods.
In the Korean language, South Korea is called Daehan Min-guk ( 대한민국 listen , 大韓民國, literally "Great People's Nation"), or Hanguk for short (한국, "Han Nation," usually referring to Korea as a whole) or Namhan (남한, "South Han", referring to South Korea specifically).
Kim is a common last name found among Overseas Chinese communities around the world. In fact, "Kim" is the transliteration of several different Chinese surnames. Its meaning varies depending on how it is spelled in Chinese, and which dialect it is pronounced in.