Im (surname)


Im or Lim is a common Korean family name. The surname is identical to the Chinese character of the same name. According to the initial law of the Korean language, both "Im" and "Lim" are interchangeable.

History

The first clan branch is the Supul Rim and its Hanja character is 林. The Supul Rim or Lim or Im branch consists of two large clan houses; the first is Naju and the second, which is the elder branch, is Pyeongtaek. Members of this branch often write their names as both 임 and 림. The character 林 means "forest".
The second clan branch is the Matgil Im or Mateul Im and its Hanja character is 任. The Matgil Im/Mateul Im branch consists of one large clan house called Pungcheon Im clan and a smaller clan house called Jangheung (장흥). Members of this clan branch both write and pronounce their names as 임. The character 任 means "trusted/to bear, duty".

Romanization

When 林 is romanized, it is spelled as "Rim" or "Im" in McCune–Reischauer and Revised Romanization of Korean, as "Lim".
When 任 is romanized, it is spelled as "Im" both in McCune–Reischauer and Revised Romanization of Korean, or sometimes spelled "Yim".
Statistics from the year 2000 show that there were 762,767 수풀 림 and 172,726 맡길 임 in South Korea.

Notable people of the past

The following is a list of notable people of the past with the Korean family name Im/Lim/Rim.

Notable people of the recent times