Singular Korean surnames

When I came to understand that surnames in Korea were unlike those in other countries — a high concentration of the population having one of only a few names — it occurred to me that this was indeed a measure of what I had been looking at in other perspectives.

In fact, of my top 10 list I’ve been treating in the last few weeks, perhaps the surnames is one of the most interesting, if not the most convincing. Here at the end of this series, let me list the “top 10” evidences of Korea’s peaceful and stable history:

1. The longest dynasties in the world

2. Smooth transitions between dynasties

3. Relatively few invasions

4. Has never invaded another country

5. The longest-unchanged border in the world

6. Royal tombs not plundered

7. Seonbi culture, not samurai culture

8. Civilian control of the court

9. Slavery, the longest, unbroken chain in the world

10. Few surnames, a symbol of long-running aristocracy

Since beginning this discussion I’ve found two exceptions to the surname situation. I had begun by comparing Korean surname distribution to that in Japan, China and the United States and a few other countries. Japan is at the other end of the spectrum. Korea has 286 surnames. A finite number. Japan has “over 100,000” they say. The United States has about 2 million; of course the United States collects names from all over the world — the Japan case of indigenous names is more interesting. The approach to creating surnames is completely different in Korea and in Japan.

Another way to measure the differences is to note that of Korean surnames, the top five — Kim, 21 percent; Yi, 15 percent; Pak, 9 percent; Choe, 5 percent; and Jeong, 5 percent — comprise 55 percent of the population. Add five more, to make the top 10 surnames, Kang, Jo, Yun, Jang and Im, and you have about 65 percent of the population. In Japan, the top 10 give you around 15 percent. In the U.S., the top 10 give you less that 10 percent.

China is in the middle on this spectrum (I guess that’s fitting since “jungguk” means the middle kingdom). The top 10 will get you 43 percent of the population. Wang, Lee, and Zhang are most common at about 7 percent each.

One of my readers let me know that Wales is on the Korean side of the spectrum. There, Jones is the dominant surname with about 50 percent of the population. It beats out Kim. And Wales has a smaller number of surnames with a high concentration of the population having each surname, but the top 10 there is 55 percent, not as concentrated as Korea.

But the far end of the spectrum turns out to be Vietnam. With 38 percent of the people named Nguyen, the remainder of the top five brings the percentage to 70 percent, and the top 10 gives us 86 percent, far and away the fewest surnames with the highest concentration. Historically, however, Vietnam was very different from Korea in that the last dynasty was the Nguyen dynasty and people changed their names to Nguyen, for two opposing reasons: either the king gave them the name quite freely as a reward, or people, fearing the king, changed their name to his to curry his favor.

Changing one’s name like that is unthinkable in Korea. Koreans can change their given name quite easily, but not the surname. The best example is that of Korean eunuchs in traditional times. Eunuchs were adopted into eunuch families and raised with a father and mother, but they did not change their surnames. For example, eunuch Jeong’s father might be eunuch Song, whose father might be eunuch Pak, whose father might be eunuch Kim, and so on. The consciousness of the “bloodline” is really strong, culturally, in Korea.

The key to Korean surnames is that the top three are all royal names. Kim was the name of the royal family of both Gaya (42-562) and Silla (57BCE-935 CE), Pak was the name of the first king of Silla and thereafter the Paks and Kims shared the throne. Yi (or Lee) first appears as the family name of one of the six villages of Seorabeol, the founding aristocracy of Silla, but then became the royal family of Joseon (1392-1910). Choe and Jeong, to complete the top five, were also part of the Seorabeol/Silla aristocracy.

In addition to these names, there were others also originating in Silla, but there were names from other sectors of Korea, and quite a few have their origin in China. There were some Japanese that immigrated, including defectors during the 1592 Imjin invasion.

But the line of Kim, Yi, Pak, with Choe and Jeong are the main line of royalty and aristocracy that held positions and flourished in Korea for over 1,500 years. Unique in world history. A testament to the dominant theme of peace and stability that overcame the problems that did come Korea’s way.