Woo (Korean name)

Woo
Hangul
Hanja

Family/given:


Given name only:

Revised Romanization U
McCune–Reischauer U

Woo, also spelled Wu or U, is a Korean family name, a single-syllable Korean given name, and an element in some two-syllable Korean given names.

Family name

As a family name, Woo may be written with either of two hanja ( and ). Each has one bon-gwan: for the former, Danyang, Chungcheongbuk-do, and for the latter, Mokcheon-eup (목천읍), Dongnam-gu, Cheonan, Chungcheongnam-do, both in what is today South Korea.[1] The 2000 South Korean census found 180,141 people with these family names.[2]

People with these family names include:

Given name

There are 41 hanja with the reading "woo" on the South Korean government's official list of hanja which may be registered for use in given names; they are listed in the table at right.[3]

In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, some names containing this element were popular for newborns in South Korea, including:[4][5][6][7]

Masculine
  • Hyun-woo (5th place in 1980, 2nd place in 1990, 3rd place in 2008, 5th place in 2009)
  • Kun-woo (6th place in 2008, 7th place in 2009)
  • Shi-woo (4th place in 2011)

Feminine
  • Ji-woo (8th place in 2008, 4th place in 2009, 5th place in 2011)

Other names containing this element include:

First syllable

Second syllable

See also

References

  1. "한국성씨일람" [List of Korean surnames]. Kyungpook National University. 2003-12-11. Retrieved 2013-10-30.
  2. "성씨인구분포데이터 (Surname population and distribution data)". South Korea: National Statistics Office. Retrieved 2013-05-28.
  3. "인명용 한자표" [Table of hanja for use in personal names] (PDF). South Korea: Supreme Court. Retrieved 2013-10-17.
  4. "한국인이 가장 줗아하는 이름은 무엇일까?". babyname.co.kr. Retrieved 2012-11-09.
  5. 이진희 [Yi Jin-hui] (2009-01-28). "너도 민준이니… 어! 또 서연이야". Hankook Ilbo. Retrieved 2012-10-27.
  6. "남자 → '민준' 여자 → '서연' 가장 많아". Law Times. 2010-01-20. Retrieved 2011-09-19.
  7. 2011년 인기 이름 리포트 (in Korean). Johnson's Baby Center. Retrieved 2013-10-22.