Young (Korean name)


Young, also spelled Yeong, Yong, or Yung, is an uncommon Korean surname, a single-syllable Korean given name, and an element in many two-syllable Korean given names. As given name meaning differs based on the hanja used to write it. There are 43 hanja with the reading on the South Korean government's official list of hanja which may be registered for use in given names, as well as 28 with the reading and six with the reading.

Family name

As a Korean family name, Young can be written with three different hanja, indicating different lineages. According to the 2000 South Korean Census, a total of 259 people had these family names.
  • : 132 people and 40 households. Reported bon-gwan included Gangnyeong, Gyeongju, and Pyeonghae. Although the family name was found in numerous historical records, it was recorded under the census for the first time in a 1930 survey by Japanese colonial government with one family living in Seoul. More families bearing the surname has been found since then in the contemporary census surveys.
  • : 86 people and 20 households. There was one reported bon-gwan, Yeongcheon, and two people whose bon-gwan was not recorded. This character is also used to write a Chinese family name now pronounced Róng in Mandarin.
  • : 41 people and 15 households. There was one reported bon-gwan, Seoncheon, and one person whose bon-gwan was not recorded. Seoncheon is located in an area that became North Korean territory after the division of Korea; one person with this family name who had come from North Korea and was living in Seoul stated that there had previously been many more people with that family name living near Seoncheon.

    Given name

Hanja and meaning

Article 44 of South Korea's gives the Supreme Court the power to define the list of hanja permitted for use in given names. Under the Supreme Court's regulations, that list consists of the Basic Hanja for educational use and a list of additional hanja permitted for use in given names. There are nine basic hanja for educational use with the reading, as well as five with the reading and one with the reading which may be pronounced as according to the rule of Korean phonology, among which three have additional approved variant forms
  1. : 'eternal'
  2. : 'flower petals'
  3. *: 'outstanding'
  4. : 'welcome'
  5. : 'flourishing'
  6. *
  7. : 'swim'
  8. : 'recite poetry'
  9. : 'manage'
  10. : 'shadow", "reflection'
  11. : 'shine'
  12. *: 'indistinct'
  13. *
  14. : 'to force'
  15. : 'to lead'
  16. : 'mountain pass'
  17. *
  18. : 'to fall' '
  19. : 'spirit'
  20. : 'comfortable'
  21. *
While as of 2022, the list of additional hanja permitted for use in given names contains 34 hanja with the reading , 28 hanja with the reading , and five hanja with the reading :
  1. : 'clear water'
  2. : 'shine'
  3. : 'shining jade'
  4. : 'lustrous'
  5. : 'bubbling'
  6. *
  7. : 'full'
  8. : 'pillar'
  9. : 'bell sound'
  10. : 'baby'
  11. : 'grain'
  12. : 'gemstone'
  13. : 'recite poetry'
  14. : 'tomb'
  15. : 'steep'
  16. : Ying River in Anhui, China
  17. : 'sea'
  18. : 'chinstrap'
  19. : 'sleet'
  20. : 'to have a surplus'
  21. : 'protect'
  22. : a species of Asiatic salamander
  23. : 'moonlight'
  24. : 'flow smoothly'
  25. : 'look ahead'
  26. : a species of tree
  27. : 'goitre'
  28. : name of a style of music
  29. : 'underwater rock'
  30. : 'to be tied up'
  31. : 'to win'
  32. : 'Ying'
  33. : 'large'
  34. : 'clever'
  35. : 'sound of jade'
  36. : 'clever'
  37. : 'sunshine'
  38. : 'bell'
  39. : 'age'
  40. : 'clever'
  41. : 'prison'
  42. : 'bamboo screen'
  43. : 'antelope'
  44. : 'wings'
  45. : 'to listen'
  46. : 'to rejoice'
  47. : 'cool and refreshing'
  48. : 'wake' '
  49. : 'to whisper'
  50. : 'separate'
  51. : 'window'
  52. : 'salt'
  53. : 'freshly-cooked rice'
  54. : 'cocklebur'
  55. : 'dragonfly'
  56. : 'wheel'
  57. : 'wagtail'
  58. : 'bright moonlight'
  59. : 'fierce'
  60. : 'to flatter'
  61. : 'suffering'
  62. : 'earnest'
  63. : 'mud'

    People

Koreans with the single-syllable given name Young include:
Names containing this element were popular for newborn boys in South Korea from the 1940s through the late 1960s. Korean names which begin with this element include:
  • Young-ae
  • Young-chul
  • Young-gi
  • Young-geun
  • Young-ha
  • Young-hee
  • Young-ho
  • Young-hoon
  • Young-hwan
  • Young-ja
  • Young-jae
  • Young-jin
  • Young-joo
  • Young-jun
  • Young-mi
  • Young-min
  • Young-nam
  • Yeong-ok
  • Young-shin
  • Young-sik
  • Young-soo
  • Young-sook
  • Young-tae
  • Young-wook
Korean names which end with this element include:
  • Bo-young
  • Chae-young
  • Eun-young
  • Ga-young
  • Hwa-young
  • Hye-young
  • In-young
  • Ji-young
  • Jin-young
  • Jun-young
  • Mi-young
  • Min-young
  • Mu-young
  • Na-young
  • Se-young
  • Shin-young
  • So-young
  • Soo-young
  • Sun-young
  • Tae-young