Truly Odd Korean Name Game

[JonnyCoop]

As we all know by now, the new Ladies Junior World Figure Skating Champion is Yu-Na Kim of South Korea.

Well -- a trip to the ISU website about a half hour ago shows that the brand-new Ladies Junior World SPEED Skating Champion is Yu-RIM Kim of South Korea.

True story. Truly Odd.

 

[R.D.]

well, well. Coincidence or just plain odd?

 

[CalloftheBlade]

How is that odd? Yu-na and Yu-rim are two completely different names... I'm Korean btw

And just to clear up something a lot of people get confused with... Koreans don't have middle names... so Yuna is one name and Yurim is another... and people are called by their family name first, which happens to be Kim in both cases.

 

[JonnyCoop]

How is that odd? Yu-na and Yu-rim are two completely different names... I'm Korean btw

And just to clear up something a lot of people get confused with... Koreans don't have middle names... so Yuna is one name and Yurim is another... and people are called by their family name first, which happens to be Kim in both cases.

I just think it is odd that 2 young ladies from the same country with very similar names (at least to my ignorant Anglo eyes/ears) are the current reigning Junior Champions in fairly similar sports (or at least related sports) at the same time.

As far as the middle names, I didn't actually know that, but I was just entering it in the way it appears on the results sheets.

 

[R.D.]

oh. I wasn't aware of that. Now it makes much more sense...

 

[Mathman]

This is not really so surprising. Kim is the most common family name in Korea. There are 40 million people named Kim in South Korea -- about 20% of the population.

The president of South Korea from 1993 to 1998 was Kim Young-sam, and the President from 1998-2003 was Kim Dae-jung.

The long-time President of North Korea (1948-1994) was Kim Il-sung, and the current president is Kim Jong-il (Il-sung's son).

MM

PS. Kim means "gold" in Korean -- a nice omen for Kim Yu-na in 2010. :agree:

 

[rjulie510]

Kim is the most common last name in Korea. They are millions of them. (Also common other Korean last names are: Lee, Park, Choi, Jung/Chung, Kang, Song/Sohng, Yu/Yoo/Lieu/Lew.)