Park (Korean name)

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Park (Korean name)
Hangul:	박
Hanja:	朴
Revised Romanization:	Bak
McCune-Reischauer:	Pak

Park or Pak is one of the more numerous family names of the Korean people in Korea. When written with a Chinese character (hanja), it uses a character that means "sincere," "simple" and "unadorned." When the case is based on the surname, it means plain. North Korea no longer uses Chinese characters and South Korean usage is limited. Both countries use native hangeul alphabet instead. In hangeul, it is spelled with the characters B-A-G and pronounced Bak (rhymes with rock). It has been anglicized into either Pak (as in Pak Se Ri, a women golfer) or Park (as in Park Chan Ho, a Major League pitcher). Nine percent of the Korean population uses this surname.

1 History
2 Clans
3 List of people with the name "Park"
4 See also

[edit] History

According to the legend, Bak Hyeokgeose was the founder of this Korean surname. He was said to be hatched from an egg and when the egg shell cracked, there were rays of light that came from it. Since the Korean verb for "to shine" or "to be bright" is spelled B-A-R-G in hangeul characters, his last name became Bak. When he turned thirteen, he became the founding king of the ancient Korean kingdom of Silla in 57 BCE. The kingship of Silla rotated between Park, Kim, and Seok families. The last Park king of Silla (which lasted between 57 BCE to 935 CE) had nine sons. The last one became a Buddhist monk. Other eight princes were sent to various different local regions. They became the founders of the original eight Park clans named after the region they ruled. The first son was sent to Milyang (Milseong) and therefore, this clan is most numerous. The eighth son was sent to Sangju. Since then clans have split up many times and now there are many numerous Park clans.

[edit] Clans

As with most other Korean family names, there are many Park clans, each of which consists of individual Park families. According to the last census in 2000[1], there are 161 Park clans in South Korea consisting in total of 1,215,918 households made up of 3,895,121 individuals.

Even within each clan, people in different families are not related to each other. These distinctions are important, since Korean law used to prohibit intermarriage in the same clan, no matter how remote the relationship; now, however, only those in a relationship of second cousins or closer may not marry.

As with other Korean family names, the Park clans are distinguished by the place from which they claim to originate. Of these clans, the Miryang (Milseong) clan is the largest at 3,031,478 people (about 77% of all Parks). Other notable clans include the Goryeong clan which produced South Korean leader Park Chung Hee.