What's your
Korean name?

How it works

Pick a gender, an era and a vibe — or leave them on “surprise me” — then tap the button. The generator pairs a common Korean surname with two given-name syllables and shows the result in hangul (한글), its romanization, and the meaning behind each syllable. In Korean the family name comes first, so we highlight it on the card. Enter your name first if you'd like it printed. Everything runs in your browser — nothing you type is stored or sent.

A note on names & meanings

This is a playful generator, not a formal naming service. Your choices nudge which syllables it draws from — some lean masculine or feminine, some feel retro or modern — though a great many Korean names are unisex and we treat them that way. The syllables themselves are positive and commonly used ones; we don't invent any.

How Korean names are actually built

Nearly every Korean name is three syllables: a one-syllable family name, then a two-syllable given name. 김민준 is Kim (the family) plus Min-jun (the given name). The family name comes first — always. That's the reverse of English order, and it's why Kim is a surname and never a first name.

Family names are also extraordinarily concentrated. A handful — Kim, Lee, Park, Choi, Jung — cover a very large share of the population, which is why a Korean classroom can comfortably contain four unrelated Kims. That concentration is real, and it's why this generator draws from the sixteen most common surnames rather than inventing exotic ones: a rare surname would make the result *less* plausible, not more.

Why every syllable has a meaning

Most given-name syllables are written with hanja — Chinese characters used in Korean — and each one carries a meaning. 민 (敏) is quick-witted, 준 (俊) is talented or handsome, 서 (瑞) is auspicious. Parents choose the pair for how the meanings combine *and* how the two syllables sound together, which is why Korean names so often feel deliberate rather than merely pretty.

That's the meaning we show you alongside the name. It isn't decoration — it's the actual reason that syllable would be chosen.

Not every name works this way. 순우리말 이름 — pure Korean names built from native words with no Chinese characters at all — are completely ordinary: 하늘 means sky, 슬기 means wisdom. And the romanization we print follows Revised Romanization, the official system, but it's approximate by nature: the same syllable 이 is written Lee, Yi or Rhee depending on what a family has always used. There is no single correct spelling in the Latin alphabet.

The part a generator cannot do

Naming a child in Korea is a considered act, and some of what goes into it is structurally out of reach for a random combiner.

Many families follow 돌림자 (dollimja, also called 항렬) — a generation marker. Everyone of the same generation in an extended family shares one fixed syllable in their given name, assigned by the family genealogy, so cousins are recognisably cousins. Some families still consult a professional namer, who weighs the hanja, the stroke counts and the child's birth details. A generator does none of this and cannot.

So be clear about what you're holding: this is a fun name, not an ancestral or legal one. It pairs a genuinely common surname with pleasant, real syllables and tells you honestly what they mean. That makes it a good way to pick a game handle, a name for a language class, or a K-drama alter ego. It is not a substitute for a decision that belongs to a family.

Same input, same name — on purpose

This generator isn't random. It hashes whatever you type and uses that as the seed for its choices, so the same input always produces the same name. Type your own name today and next year and you'll get the same Korean name back; send the input to a friend and they'll see exactly what you saw.

That's a deliberate design choice, not a limitation. A name you can't reproduce isn't really yours — and "Again" still rotates you through alternatives predictably if you'd like to browse.

It's also rule-based, not AI. The surnames, the syllables and their meanings are a hand-checked table shipped with the page. Nothing you type is sent to a server, because there is no server: the whole thing runs in your browser.

Frequently asked questions

Is this a real Korean name?

The pieces are real: a genuinely common surname and real given-name syllables with the meanings we show. The particular combination is generated, so a Korean speaker would read it as a plausible, ordinary-sounding name rather than a famous or a strange one.

Can I use it on documents or legally?

No. It's for fun — a handle, a class name, a card to share. Legal naming is a different thing entirely, and this isn't it.

Why did I get the same name twice?

Because it's designed that way. The generator seeds itself from your input, so the same input always returns the same name. Change the input, or press Again to rotate through alternatives.

Why is the family name first?

That's simply Korean name order — family name, then given name. 김민준 is Mr/Ms Kim whose given name is Min-jun.

Is the romanization official?

It follows Revised Romanization, the official system, but it's approximate. Real families spell the same syllable differently by tradition — Lee, Yi and Rhee are all the same 이.

Do you keep what I type?

No. There's no server and no account. The generator runs entirely in your browser, and the name you type is not stored.