# Romanisation convention of Korean personal names



## dtyt2009

As a non–Korean speaker, it appears to me there’re two types of Romanisation systems for personal names in Korean: an ‘academic’ type and a ‘non-academic’ type.

The ‘academic’ ones are McCune–Reischauer, Revised Romanization, and the like, and I get the impression that they’re used to Romanise the names of historical figures; meanwhile, there appears to be a ‘non-academic’ Romanisation system used to Romanise the names of contemporary people.

Example 1: the name of Myung Bak Lee, a former South Korean president

Korean: 李明博
McCune–Reischauer: Yi Myŏng Bak
Revised Romanization: I Myeong Bak
‘Non-academic’ Romanisation: Lee Myung Bak

Example 2: the name of Jong Un Kim, the current North Korean leader

Korean: 金正恩
McCune–Reischauer: Kim Chŏng Ŭn
Revised Romanization: Gim Jeong Eun
‘Non-academic’ Romanisation: Kim Jong Un

I wonder if:
(1) there is a rule or convention as to when to use an ‘academic’ system and when to use the ‘non-academic’ system;
(2) there is a name for the ‘non-academic’ system; and
(3) whether the ‘non-academic’ system is a standardised system which allows direct conversion to any of the ‘academic’ Romanisations?


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## pollohispanizado

According to Wikipedia, there are many romanization systems, though 4 main ones. McCune–Reischauer was the first to be widely used, as of 1937, though the RR system, adopted in 2000, is the offical system in Korea today.



> South Korea now officially uses this system which was approved in 2000. Road signs and textbooks were required to follow these rules as soon as possible (...) Almost all road signs, names of railway and subway stations on line maps and signs etc. have been changed. Romanization of surnames and existing companies' names (e.g. Hyundai) has been left untouched; the government encourages using the new system for given names and new companies.


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## Bosung

dtyt2009 said:


> As a non–Korean speaker, it appears to me there’re two types of Romanisation systems for personal names in Korean: an ‘academic’ type and a ‘non-academic’ type.
> 
> The ‘academic’ ones are McCune–Reischauer, Revised Romanization, and the like, and I get the impression that they’re used to Romanise the names of historical figures; meanwhile, there appears to be a ‘non-academic’ Romanisation system used to Romanise the names of contemporary people.
> 
> Example 1: the name of Myung Bak Lee, a former South Korean president
> 
> Korean: 李明博
> McCune–Reischauer: Yi Myŏng Bak
> Revised Romanization: I Myeong Bak
> ‘Non-academic’ Romanisation: Lee Myung Bak
> 
> Example 2: the name of Jong Un Kim, the current North Korean leader
> 
> Korean: 金正恩
> McCune–Reischauer: Kim Chŏng Ŭn
> Revised Romanization: Gim Jeong Eun
> ‘Non-academic’ Romanisation: Kim Jong Un
> 
> I wonder if:
> (1) there is a rule or convention as to when to use an ‘academic’ system and when to use the ‘non-academic’ system;
> (2) there is a name for the ‘non-academic’ system; and
> (3) whether the ‘non-academic’ system is a standardised system which allows direct conversion to any of the ‘academic’ Romanisations?


Okay... As a Korean, now, we don't use McCune-reischauer system. For me, and for almost every native Korean use 'Non-academic' Romanisation system.

So... the answers for your questions are
(1) For sure, 99% of Korean use non-academic system only. Actually, I've never seen any other system.
(2) There's no name for that because we use only one system so you called 'non-academic'
(3) Like I said, we only use 'non-academic' system. If you use other system writing a name than the native Koreans would feel awkward.


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## maengsu

Bosung said:


> Okay... As a Korean, now, we don't use McCune-reischauer system. For me, and for almost every native Korean use 'Non-academic' Romanisation system.
> 
> So... the answers for your questions are
> (1) For sure, 99% of Korean use non-academic system only. Actually, I've never seen any other system.
> (2) There's no name for that because we use only one system so you called 'non-academic'
> (3) Like I said, we only use 'non-academic' system. If you use other system writing a name than the native Koreans would feel awkward.


Yep, as Bosung mentioned, I have never seen other than 'non-academic' English names.


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## CharlesLee

dtyt2009 said:


> As a non–Korean speaker, it appears to me there’re two types of Romanisation systems for personal names in Korean: an ‘academic’ type and a ‘non-academic’ type.
> 
> The ‘academic’ ones are McCune–Reischauer, Revised Romanization, and the like, and I get the impression that they’re used to Romanise the names of historical figures; meanwhile, there appears to be a ‘non-academic’ Romanisation system used to Romanise the names of contemporary people.
> 
> Example 1: the name of Myung Bak Lee, a former South Korean president
> 
> Korean: 李明博
> McCune–Reischauer: Yi Myŏng Bak
> Revised Romanization: I Myeong Bak
> ‘Non-academic’ Romanisation: Lee Myung Bak
> 
> Example 2: the name of Jong Un Kim, the current North Korean leader
> 
> Korean: 金正恩
> McCune–Reischauer: Kim Chŏng Ŭn
> Revised Romanization: Gim Jeong Eun
> ‘Non-academic’ Romanisation: Kim Jong Un
> 
> I wonder if:
> (1) there is a rule or convention as to when to use an ‘academic’ system and when to use the ‘non-academic’ system;
> (2) there is a name for the ‘non-academic’ system; and
> (3) whether the ‘non-academic’ system is a standardised system which allows direct conversion to any of the ‘academic’ Romanisations?




 李明博 is Lee as my first name is, but for the very famous general, 李舜臣, his name is written in English as in

Yi, and the rare case for the first Korean President, 李承晩, was written in English as in Rhee.

Rhee graduated from George Washington, Harvard Universty, and Prinston University.

Before 1900s, the South Koreans pronounced 李 as in Lee like English as *North Korea does it currently*.

However, South Koreans changed the pronunciation 李(리) as '이'.

Talking about 2nd topic of Korean: 金正恩
McCune–Reischauer: Kim Chŏng Ŭn
Revised Romanization: Gim Jeong Eun
‘Non-academic’ Romanisation: Kim Jong Un

 It's about the sound system of a language. South Koreans do Not pronounce Kim as 킴, which Westerners

hear as their own sound. We pronounce it as Gim(김) but write as Kim for family name.

The reason why Chong was referred(In westerner's ears) rather than Jeong is because of phonology.

The sound Westerners hear when Koreans spoke in Korean has been different so far.

In the 19 century, 조선 was written in English Chosun. It's not 초, but 조 in phonology.

Those days there are many foreigners who speak Korean well like native speakers.

They know the difference between ㄱ, ㅋ sound, and ㅈ, ㅊ sound. 

I hope it was helpful for you.






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## nat_kovalenko

My number one reason for starting to learn Korean was because the romanization. It reminded me of the last year`s Comic Con in Kyiv. I was searching for a stage where a Korean singer should perform and when I asked the MC if 송원섭 is gonna perform there, he glanced at me and said "Oh, so it`s SOB, not SUB".
The thing is, people who are not much into Korean can`t even read romanized names properly.


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