[Ask Hyojin] How do Korean parents pick names for their children? [TalkToMeInKorean]

Have you ever wondered how Korean parents pick names for their children? It's probably mostly similar to how it's done in other countries, but there are some specific practices that some people still follow. Find out what they are in this lesson!
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[@nnocosa]

at "00:16" when she calls him oppa, he gets all happy! How cute!!

[@dobbymalfoy6156]

Why is nobody talking about the fact that his family ran away from North Korea

[@yellowRose806]

My paternal grandparents were North Korean refugees. They came to the south after World War 2 and got married there.

[@jesusruiz1542]

Here in Texas, my parents got drunk and played a game of darts and whatever they hit they would name their kids after... My mom hit a picture of Jesus and my dad hit my grandpa Manuel..... :/

[@Tishbishhh]

Jesus Ruiz 😂😂😂

[@THATASIAGIRL1400]

In norway where i live. We just pick randomly which one we like the best so simple.

[@i_do_random_stuff]

It’s the same in Canada, but me and both my sisters have one name named after one of our ansesters

[@hawayana123]

Here in Colombia most of the names are chosen only because are beautiful or have any special meaning, for example my name "Maria Camila", "Maria" is for the mom of Jesus and "Camila" because it sounds good. But sometimes the parents give their names to their children, and they to their children... for example my cousin is called Carlos, my uncle Carlos, my grandpa Carlos, his father Carlos lol

[@tananansad]

Damn, the parents could've gone with just 아름 and 슬기 tho😂

[@AdamDubb]

You guys have such such chemistry.

[@chakstor]

hahahahaha, i've always loved "Ask Hyojin" because i learn a lot of things that i can only learn by asking directly to a korean friend... but when you two guys are together this section is even funnier and interesting... Keep up the funny-excellent work!!!

[@foreverhonest0]

My parents picked my name while watching the movie "Steel Magnolias".. Yeah it wasn't too long ago that I figured out that the girl they named me after dies -_-" Traumatic experience indeed~

[@4ernish]

YAY!!! Keith is back :) actually it is common here in Moldova to choose the greek or roman names, which are recognized by orthodox church..

[@saxyviolist]

I have always wondered this, thank you for explaining it. Never heard of 족보. What he mentioned in the very beginning about the middle "name" (성 in his case) is really neat - I have two friends whose names with their siblings follow that. (승주/승현, 유중 유빈) really cool. I love when names have meanings, too.

[@talktomeinkorean]

@ilybvba6 / Basically, it's considered to be an old-fashioned name by many Koreans. Many women who were born in the 1950's or earlier had the letter "순" as the last letter of their names :)

[@Wheepupsdimple]

that really long name is: kim soo han moo..... it's too long to type. If you've watched Secret Garden (Kdrama staring Hyun Bin and Ha Ji Won), that's what Hyun Bin is reciting in the second episode to distract himself from thinking about Gil Ra Im(Ha Ji Won).

[@mayjeganmogan4514]

Yeah it was~~~

[@lillithlochwoode788]

Pauline Perez so thats what thats was. it is like a poem.

[@binimbap]

Pauline Perez gimsuhanmu durumiwa geobuki samcheongapja dongbangsan, in revised romanization :)

[@sara-ic3jl]

ohh, it is also in a seventeen's song (a kpop group)

[@halfkoreanswagg]

I love how he's like "oh yeah my family tree book is lost in North Korea somewhere." Lol.

[@flotocorazon]

In Brazil, people usually pick names that sound pretty or have a beautiful meaning (or both). So, in general, any person has a given name and two surnames, the grandfathers' of each side (the father's side is the main surname).

[@julijalia]

My sister had a baby girl recently and I helped her pick the name. We found a name dictionary and read the descriptions (meanings) of every name we found beautiful. Finally, we had a list of 5 pretty names that are meaningful and have good energy. My sister's husband chose the name from that list.

[@Jorge007dr]

these are such great teachers!! gosh, I lvoe it!!

[@SpyceG]

And pretty good videos you guys are doing!! Thank youu

[@SuperWine7]

I really love these "Ask Hyojin" videos :) Anyway in Italy we used to name the children with the same name as one of the 4 grandparents, or with a religious name or a very famous person in the past of Italy (depending on the part). Nowadays parents just chose the one they like the most, like my name, Manuel, is a Spanish name since my mother has always loved Spain and Manuele (the Italian version) so here I am, Manuel :) but both my parents were named after their grandparents.

[@idanlex95]

Oh! This was really interesting! I'm from Colombia and here, we just choose a any name that the parents like, just like a singer's name.

[@balim00]

The chemistry between these two is so great, they need to do the baby naming thing together if you know what I mean.

[@Ninjappleblock]

In Sweden our parent's pick our names. It can be either like a relative's name or just a pretty name. Usually we have one first name, one or two second names and one last name. Sometimes people have two first names and/or two last names and that is not wierd. Sometimes people doesn't have middle names but that is a bit unusual. No one cares though. We can have all names we want and how many we want. But there are som names that are considered "old" or "wierd" but people have all kind of names. But often we don't have korean names, but sometimes "American" names. Like David or Emma. They are REALLY usual in Sweden. So we have a lot of names.

[@w24190]

i really love the both of you! too cute. fun lesson 3

[@minastathi4133]

In Greece, kids usually get their grandparents' names. Unless there's going to be a confusion with cousins. Like in my case. My name was originally going to be Panayiota Stathi but due to me sharing my name with my cousin who lived next door my parents picked another name Asimina. Both have nice meanings like Panayiota means "Overly Saint" and Asimina means "Girl made of silver". But usually it's after grandparents.

[@agwebkinz11]

Like Kayla Russo said, in the US it changes from family to family; some follow tradition, while others don't. Vocabulary names (Holly, Savannah, etc.) are fairly common here, as are unisex names.

[@Phenix19]

in the U.S, there are a number of ways to pick names. my name, Ian, comes from Ian Flemming, the creator of James Bond; my sister Sasha, was named after a character in a movie, if a remember correctly. parents can also get books of names from various countries with their phonetic pronounciation and meaning. it's also a common practice, at least for sons, to name them after the father.

[@RachStar100]

I live in New Zealand which is an increasingly multi-cultural country, so how you name your child depends on what culture you are from/identify with. This isn't the case for everyone, but in my family (which is Maori) the majority of my cousins' first or middle names are ancestors' names. Like my middle name is my great grandmother's name. In my family parents pick their children's name but will ask family members for suggestions.

[@NathanClingan]

Wow, your name was in a book before you were born?! How cool is that!! I went to a website that said my Korean name was 신 진 찬. Okay, Keith, is that ugly or passable? Tell Hyunwoo to keep giving you guys videos...you are lots of fun to listen to! 감사합니다!

[@Britters9064]

Generally speaking, these names are not used... but my siblings and I all would like to continue this tradition, and have been adding to it. My mother also chose to name us all after someone: eldest after grandma, next after our father (James Edward junior), next after an aunt, the last after a grandfather, and me after a cousin. I think this is sort of common in America... but I could just have a narrow scope.

[@naomiama333]

In Ghana (West Africa) Your name depends on what day of the week you're born. I was born on a Saturday so my Ghanaian name is Ama.

[@csy897]

For chinese, the most traditional way is (surname)(generation name)(given name) The same as described in video, except the given name of siblings usually makes up a word/phrase. So like my mum had 4 brothers and 3 sisters. So the oldest to the youngest boy's given names made up a 4 word idiom. So did the girls'. In chinese, most idioms are either 4 words or 8 word sayings divided by a coma.

[@BoredomKills0620]

Ooh, I always wondered about Dokko Jin from "The Greatest Love"! So it really /was/ the family name... And the longest name ever is what Hyun Bin's "Secret Garden" character chanted to himself! :D

[@Majaaarrr]

My name is Maja, which is pronounced "My-Ya" and is from Slovenia and my last name is Kozlowski, pronounced "Koz-Wof-Ski" which is Polish as my Father's family is from Poland. I was born and raised in England, so people think my name is odd or sometimes funny but I like it! ^_^ I also found out from some of my Nepalese friends that the pronunciation of my first name is the way you pronounce "Love" in Nepali!

[@aczurera6456]

I'm curious to know what is meant by a "beautiful" name. Is it based on meaning or just how it sounds? I know in Japan baby names are mostly chosen for the meaning of the kanji, as a way of wishing the child fortune or health, etc. Is it similar in Korea?

[@mrhardtopark]

AC Zurera mostly just sound

[@Rianna123girl]

For some of us in ghana a name is determined by gender, tribe, day, order e.g. first born etc. some people do family orientation like if your a widow or other things and also if your twins then you have set names, for our area it aquele and aquar quc the c is supposed to be backwards and makes an 'o' sound. however it does get mixed up like for my siblings and i it is naa ayi carle- the right name, naa dodua- for a different family (its supposed to be naa ayi carco), naa darkua (supposed to be naa ayi carca), then lastly nii ayite- for a boy it the right one and thats just our cultural names.

[@doga7296]

In Turkey it is similar to Korea, Usually asked to grandparents and there are the same names for siblings like my name is Doğa Can my elder brother is Mehmet Can ,like that.

[@yoonmikim5663]

There are also sound obsessions with Korean names too. And hanja obsessions. My maternal grandfather got pissed off when my father named me without his permission, so fought twice as much with my brother. They finally agreed on the sound and the name meaning, but had a feud over the shortened hanja.

[@xxriotmachines]

In Taiwan (maybe China too, I don't know), it's like Korea - my family has a family tree type book apparently. So, my siblings and I all share the same “忠” character in our names, with the last character differentiating us from one another. (As the oldest child, the last character in mine is a homophone for 'one'). My grandpa chose my Chinese name

[@hermmendez]

In Mexico parents choose the given name, many people give their children two names. Last names are a bit interesting. We have two last names, the first one is the first last name from the father and the second one is the first last name of the mother.

[@LuisaRodriguezluisafrm]

+hermmendez same in Colombia there's even people with three names haha

[@002100izzy]

Same here in Puerto Rico.

[@marialevale21]

+hermmendez My two given names are my father's two given names mixed around. His name is José María and my name is María José. You all might understand how much grief this gave me

[@NicholasR1993]

So when picking a name we could just pick 2 one syllable korean words and put them together to make a name?

[@Sriwanti]

similar to chinese.. we have that family tree book too.. my eldest uncle is keeping it..

[@freakzy96]

Hello, I wanna ask a question. I'm not a Korean but I do create my own Korean name based on my chinese name. I named it myself '윤우승'. I know Koreans rarely use 우승 since it means 'winner' or 'victory' and most of Koreans use '승우'. So is it sound ok to call myself '윤우승'?

[@marcelosina1]

Here in Brazil, usually, names have 2 to 4 words. You normally have one surname of your mother and one of your father, that goes right after you given name, that can be one alone, composed of one word, or be a compound name, usually of 2 words. But you can have only the surname of your father or mother, too. When we shorten our names (in big names) we use our given name + last surname :)

[@hyper00aktic]

In Norway parents can decide the name or some families have traditions regarding the firstborn son or daughter.

[@ChiiXxTohru]

I'm from Australia, for me it was my nan who gave me my name, originally my mum wanted to call me Sarah, but nan didn't like it since it's such a common name here so she chose Shara instead. For my sister, my parent's just used a baby name book and found her name but altered it slightly so instead of it being Tiana it became Tiarna. So it sounds the way it's spelt. Usually the parent's name the children here and grandparents don't have too much to do with the naming.

[@TopazMagicGirl]

In America, depending on what your family's background is, names are typically chosen by the parents and based on their preferences. My first name, Lucie, was chosen just because my parents like it, but my middle name, Maureen, was the name of my late grandmother.

[@McMinnville13]

We have a book like that for our family tree (the Scandinavian , mostly Norway). The copy we have traces our tree back to around 800 A.D. but it is rumoored that someone else has the rest of it.

[@saradamliad730]

It's the same for us. My family is from Mexico, so since I am their first born and I was born on the Mexican Mother's Day, my first name is my mother's middle name and my middle name is a variation of my grandmother's (on my dad's side) nickname. My three younger sisters don't have a middle name and they aren't named after anyone, even though the youngest shares my birthday.

[@yumyumthewarrior]

There are so many different ways to pick names in America (and in Canada as well). The "family name" is always the last name. Normally when a woman marries, she changes her last name to his, but sometimes they are wound together with a hyphen. Middle names can be just a name that sounds nice or often the first or middle name of another family member. As for first names, they come from family, friends, characters, other languages... It's very diverse. :)

[@coldfusionmusical]

It used to be the Chinese traditional way of naming, too! surname + generational name+ given name, but many don't follow nowadays, but we usually choose characters that have good meaning, also two or three syllables... eg, my family name is Lee and given names Shi (world) and Guang (light) which translates light of the world, our parents didn't follow the generational name thing. I've however come across one friend's name, a Chinese surname with an English name and that's it, eg Lee Elena, that's rare but we're Chinese Malaysians so anything can happen. As long as one still know Chinese they'll pick and match characters with meaning and of course sounds good too.

[@OzonesElbows]

A lot of people from England get their names from the church. Or at least they used to. Which is why you'll find so many James' & Marks etc etc. But that's becoming less and less common now and people tend to pick a name based on what it means in another language for example a lot of people pick Greek names for their meanings or Turkish ones. Like Melissa and Michelle.

[@SaraB1989]

Here in the UK you can pick any name you like (which accounts for the odd weird name that make you question what on earth were those parents thinking) In my case, my first and middle names are named after relatives on my mum's side of the family but with slight spelling alterations. My first name Sara is after my great grandmother Sarah and my middle name Elisabeth is after my great aunt Elizabeth.

[@daintybunny11]

In the older days in Mexico you would be named after saints or stuff related to Catholics. My mother was named "Manuela" which is a bit odd and funny haha. My grandmothers name is "Maria" which is the most common. There were also villages for people with specific last name such as my grandmother was part of the village "Emiliano's". Ahh I wish we had a book like your culture does. I really want to know about my family history since Mexicans are so diverse. I would like to know where my origins come from.

[@andiestrellitam3]

Here in Mexico parents choose any name they like. Before it was common that the oldest son had his grandparent's or his father's name, but that is actually optional. The thing is that a lot of persons have two names, and it's weird I think but there are a few persons with three or four names. Here also we use two last-names, first the father's first last-name and then the mother's firstlast-name too~ for example: Ana Sofia Garcia Torres; Ana and Sofia are the names, Garcia is the father's first last-name and Torres the mother's first last-name ^^

[@LauraTran7893]

In Vietnam, there are many ways to pick names for baby. Nowadays, most parents try to pick beautiful name for their babies or ask the grandparents or relative. However, it is common in Vietnam that there are 4 syllables in our names, 5 is not really rare :D. Furthermore, there are some families I know try to pick names for their family's member with the same first consonant (like Linh, Lan, Le...) or the same middle name. Hope this help :D

[@ngoctuyettran543]

In Vietnam, a father's family name is also his children's one. The rest is quite optional; they just come up with a pretty first name and that's it.

[@sapphirElf28]

here in Hungary its different. we have namedays that can be found in the calendar, everday is someone's nameday (at least 2 names on a day, there are names that are celebrated more than once a year, but they pick only one day when they celebrate it) and parents just pick the name they like since we dont have syllables like in hangul. there are cases when they give a new name and will be registered in tha calendar later, but thats rare..

[@user-ls2kq2vl5w]

In Bugaria... your parents or grandpparents choose your name, my name is Ralitsa ( name of flower), and my grandmother`s name is Roza ( rose in bulgarian) so my first letter is the same.. something like that ... the names are similar to your grandmother or grandfather`s name.. :) ( sorry for my baaad english, but I can`t write it in korean, I still learn it )

[@mika8453]

My real full name is Jessica Mikaelah Cheneille Sharpe. Sharpe is my mother's second name and she named me Jessica after my gran (my gran was called Jessie but she thought it was Jessica), I have no clue where Cheneille (She-Neil) came from and neither does my parents but my dads called Neil so Idk? And Mikaelah is from my gran's second name McHale it's not spelt the same at all (but I like the spelling) and It's said like 'Michaela' but sometimes 'Me-Kai-La' it's weird haha

[@dudie5403]

Here in The Netherlands we just pick what we like or are called after someone in the family like mine is related to my mom's/ grandmother. I have a question: In Kdrama it happens quite often that names are used for both males and females. Are there really more like 'universal' names in Korea then typical female/male names? And do some names that can be used for both have a 'female version' and a 'male version'? And I know a lot of pretty Korean names.

[@windihari]

In my father’s family there was a tradition to name the first born son names beginning with E, for example my grandfather was Ernest Eugene. Many of my cousins have E.E. names. My grandmother wanted my mom to name my brother an E.E. name but she refused to do it. Strangely enough, I was in a cemetery far from my home town and I saw a grave marker with E.E. Winters. I knew immediately the person was related to me and after much research found out that the man buried there was my great uncle. So although it’s not common these kind of traditions do happen in the United States as well. I gave all my children names that had meanings that reflected good characteristics I wanted for them. For example one child’s name means literally "obedience + light" and another means "lively + joy."

[@radiantsun]

in the Philippines, the father's last name is passed down for our last name.... and sometimes, the ones who want to attach Jr when they copy the name of their dads or if he's already the "III" (3rd) if you copied your name from your grandad.... the list goes on. and of course, if you want to get your name from the bible or from whichever your parents want :D

[@choodingoppar2]

In Singapore, we just choose whatever names that our parents like. My name is named after my 'cousin' that passed away before me. Her name was Nur Syalita Shireen. So my name became Nur Syalita Fatin. Mostly, the people here have common names. I feel that mine doesn't feel like it's common, except for my last name of course~

[@meinoly809]

Here in the Dominican Republic people have the inclination to mix names. For example both parents names or grandparents names. I have a friend whose name is Gloriangelie for both her grandmother's names (Gloria- Angela).

[@Nny11YT]

In the US it changes family to family. In my family (Italian-Americans) we tend to "reuse" names from previous generations. So I had a great-aunt Nancy, my aunt Nancy, and a distant cousin named Nancy. My father and grandfather were both Carmine. Several Alfonzos, Graces, Franks, and a Liberante as well. We mixed Italian and English names for the kids. My generation however took a right left and zoomed off into new territory. I have cousins with heavy Mexican influence, and relatives living in India who leaned on their more traditional names. My parents went with things that were pretty or inspiring. My parents wanted to name me Ayla after the main character in "Clan of the Cave Bears" book series. But they though it was too similar to my sister's name, Alyssa. So they added the K to make it unique, pretty, and still capture the spirit of Ayla.

[@YouKnowItsShowTime]

In Argentina parents choose the name based mostly on how it sounds, but every traditional name has a meaning and a history and you are supposed to know it. Relatives, neighbours and friends can suggest names to the parents, but they do the final decision. And you can have between 1 to 3 names and 1 family name (your father's) or 2 (both parents) It also important to respect and reflect your ancestors cultures, that's why my name is Greta Amorela, which is really unusual, but it reflects my german and italian heritage, and also my two family names ar german and italian.

[@happydubu]

This is kinda similar to the way Chinese pick their names too! The part on the family book, grandparents and fortune teller.. and obviously the most common one, pretty names by our parents!

[@theMusicFairy1]

in Egypt it's randomly picking, but a lot of people pick religious characters and prophets names

[@lilebit]

I'm Indonesian-Canadian, but my parents decided to keep to the Western tradition of keeping middles. Also, all my names have a special meaning to my parents; my first name is from someone my dad admired, and my two middle names come from my grandmothers. But I do have some friends who have their names because their parents thought it was cool.

[@jpfd-2315]

Im from the US, but my mom is from Brazil. So my parents gave us Brazilian names. They also carried the tradition of giving us our mothers maiden name as our middle name. Though this has led to my full name being 5 words long. And when i get married, it will be 6. Heaven help my future kids when they get thwir name lol!

[@animeaddict1101]

Where my parents are from in mexico, the whole town(of about 500 people or so) used to choose their childrens name from this book. Each day had a certain name for example: January 16 could be Roberto and February 1 could be Adrian. So whichever day your child was born in, there was always a name for that day and that would be the name your child would have. One of my sister was born on February 27 and the name for that day was Honorina. She doesnt like her name so we just call her Nonny lol. Luckily by the time i was born those books were no longer being used so my mom just picked a random name

[@sanmanitahazarika9283]

In the province of Assam in India....in our tradition our parents or grandparents usually gives you the names that are usually our official names and by which we are called...and even we get secret names given by a fortune-teller which is used to determine our sunsign by birth....its quite similar to that of Korea.... 😊❤

[@Soreejillah]

My parents almost named me Sarah, after the song "Sara Smile" by Hall and Oates, but one day when my mom went to the hospital for a check-up, she heard four different moms call out "Sarah", and so she decided on a more unique name. And my parents gave my sister a name starting with an A, they gave me a name starting with an M, and they gave my brother a name starting with a Z. So we have names at the beginning, middle, and end of the alphabet!

[@musicmylife2298]

Singapore is a multiracial country. But for the malays, it's mostly starting with 'nur' or 'siti' (for girls) and it will end with binte (the father's name) for the girls and bin (the father's name) for the boys. For Chinese, it's mostly their father's sir name like 'Lee' and 'Tan'

[@MartinadelaCruz]

I am named after my maternal great grandmother and paternal grandmother. My mother named all her kids after family members.

[@TenouGaby]

In Sweden we have namedays as they have in Hungary, works the same way actually. Everyday it's two names, sometimes they're alike someday not. In Sweden it's very common to have two names plus your family name, e.g. Anna Sofie Svensson. My mother picked my two names that both can be found in the Swedish & Hungarian language (I've got Hungarian parents). Names I can use in both countries & names she liked .

[@isseume]

Here in Guatemala people usually have two surnames (first the father's surname and then the mother's surname) then usually two or three names, wich are usually picked out of the Bible.

[@purpleghost106]

I know a few people here in Canada tend to name their children either after someone in their family (example, my brothers middle name is my grandfather's first name -- and my friend's sister has the same first name as her mother - but goes by her middle name) In my parents generation it was more common to give the first name as the inherited name, and for kids to go by their middle name. But in my generation, usually more common for it to be the middle names that are the family/inherited names -- I have known some people with up to 5 middle names because of this. (Trying to appease family members I guess?) Other than that, in all cases it's always been common to give at least one either random/"pretty" name.

[@gmosia]

In Poland we just choose the name we like, it is common though to name a baby after another member of a family, usually grandparents or great-grandparents. Eg my niece`s name is "Weronika Ewa" - the first name chosen just because my sister liked it, the middle name chosen because both of my nieces grandmothers are called "Ewa". We only use the first name in everyday life though ;) And we do shorten it as well (apx. 2 syllables)...

[@tyler62126]

in austria, it was common to pick the name of the father or grandfather for boys. the second name would be the name of the godfather or godmother. but it is less and less common. also, it was common to pick the name of a saint or another religious figure. eg joseph, mary, anne, marcus... today it is very mixed. many people just like to pick a name that sounds beautiful or is unique (ancient names) or foreign (eg french or english) at the moment, the most picked first names are sarah and lukas.

[@dannycampo]

some people like naming theyr children like a grandparent or a very important family member, some give the eldests son they names (dad name is gustavo same is the baby) here they also like biblic names like: maria (mery), jesus, jose (joseph); some people just go and look at baby names books and pick a cute name. here is very common to have combined names so you have 2 names like: juan pablo, juan sebastian, maria camila, maria jose (most mixes are with the name juan for boys and mariafor girls)

[@isabellamathews947]

I'm American and I only have three names: Isabella Ashlyn Mathews. But my mom put a lot of thought in it.

[@TheNicholasJung]

In Finland we usually get 3 names + surname. The given name, the one the parents choose, also the one you use for that person. Then we have two middle names, these are often past down thru generations, so you get one from our mums dad and one from your dads dad (if you are a guy). The middle names or name is sometimes also just chosen by the parents at random. And last the family name that comes traditionally from your dads side, but people doesn't always follow this rule. The same with marriage, mostly the woman takes the mans surname (unlike in Korea where people keep their family names). But nowadays there is sometimes dubble surnames (just adding our partners surname after your with a "-"), sometimes they take the woman's name (mostly if its historical in some way), keep their original (like in Korea) or sometimes comes up with a new one (thought this is very rare). Isn't it problematic to have more than 3 syllables in your name in Korea? Since some online registrations only allows you to type in 3 syllables? And in my school i had to what a long time to get all my name tags because 니콜라스 is 4 syllables.

[@thisgirljoanna]

very interesting video btw. Hyojin and Keith are always so funny! ^_^

[@crystaldew1993]

well, in my family, naming children depends on the parents, they pick the name, but in some other families the grandparents pick the name, some times its something in between,

[@LadyLuna]

A very recent trend in my home country (Puerto Rico) is to combine the names of different family members or modify them to make them into new names. For example, I had a classmate whose name was Tairkiomi (sounds Japanese xD) and it was a combination of four different names from her family. One of my cousin's name is Wilmed which is a combination of her parents' names Wilma and Edwin. My sister's name is Lizbeth which my parents chose because it was similar to my mother's name Elizabeth. Finally I also had a friend who's name was her mother's name backwards. Original name: Damaris / Reversed: Siramad. My name was chosen just because my mother heard it from a movie and thought it had a nice sound to it. So I guess in Puerto Rico people just like to give their kids unique and beautiful names.

[@iateyouricecream]

In the Netherlands most people used to be called after one or more of their grandparents. Nowadays they don't really do that. It depends. The first name is always chosen because they like the name and some people have one or more middle names. My middle name is the same as my grandfathers of my dad's side. And my sister's middle name is the same as my grandmothers of my mum's side of the family. My cousin has all the names of both her grandmothers in her middle names giving the initials YMJDH.

[@mai567]

could you also tell us what are some of the girl and boy names that are considered pretty in Korea?

[@myungsookim7071]

My parents pick my name from a famous Olympic gymnast. Well, my middle name at least. My middle name is Nenaida. I was named after Nadia Comaneci.

[@Lenabobena91]

In America I've found that it kind of varies. I'm named after my grandmother, whereas my sister was named after a politician. Some families go with names starting with the same letter, others go with what sounds good or what they like, or they pick family names like with me. There's no real trend to it.

[@seungjolee9595]

In germany a lot of people take the name of the mother as the secondname of the child like mother :sandra daughter : laura sandra

[@simonandze]

in Bulgaria,parents give their kids the names of their grandparents.my name's Simona-after my grandfather Simeon.but u can find all sorts of 'special' names: Maratonka (sneaker),Peshkir (towel),etc.we're slavic and it's weird for us to have western names like Catherine or Nicholas.we use the equivalents-Katerina and Nikolai.but the western names started comming in,though they don't match our family names.we have 3 names- given,surname and family name.the surname's same as the given of the father

[@adolfo1325]

What about the family name? Since there are one father and one mother, which family name is picked to the child?

[@bloodybutterfly1]

@talktomeinkorean I have a question. Actually I have two korean friends who changed/is about to change his name. Is it common in korea? One day my one friend came to me telling me: Hey my mum changed my name. Please call me 민교 from now on. I asked her why her mum did that, but she couldn't answer. I was afraid that it would be too personal. But are there any common reasons for name changings?

[@dydyana02]

interesting post you guys :D love you both now about the given names in Romania the godparents give the newborn the name and it's usually one of the names of the godparents or the godparents children (if they have children) but lately this tradition is not kept anymore and the parents just give the baby what names they want for example my godmother's name is Elisabeta but she didn't really like it so she told my mother to pick whatever name she wanted so my name is Diana

[@onceme2u]

Also, I know a lot of people who have the same first name throughout their family but different middle names and they would just address eachother by middle names.

[@Rachuulx3]

In my family, i'm ethnically Chinese, our Chinese names, which is usually 2 characters + surname, are "bought" from a fortune teller. The fortune teller will calculate based on your birthdate and time to see which elements (earth, air, water, fire, gold, etc) you lack and insert the characters of those elements into your name. For example, my chinese name 郭鑫枫, pinyin: guo4 xin1 feng1; "郭" is my surname/ family name, and the elements i lack are gold and nature which Chinese characters are "金" and "木: are inserted into my name characters which is 鑫枫. Hope this makes sense :)

[@edendoc381]

I got my name the exact same way! The main character in a book my mum was reading was called Eden, and my mum liked the character, so named me after her, but when I asked what book it was she said she forgot.

[@violettaschmieder2096]

Dude your names so beautiful

[@asyo27]

if korean have common surnames like KIm or Lee...here in philippines there are also common names like REYES,GONZAGA and CASTILLO...and our naming for child is change by generation...long time ago, about 40 years ago,parents gave name base on SPANISH names like RODRIGO, YOLANDA,EMILLIA....during our era, our names were base on ENGLISH names like DENNIS, DONALD,RUTH,JENNY and so on...and now names were still base on english but two names like MICHEAL JUDE, MARY FAITH, DARYL KEITH and so on

[@medinamai1062]

What's the difference between woman's and men's names?