Sagong 사공 — Korean last name
Is Sagong a Korean last name?
Yes. Sagong (Hangul: 사공, Hanja: 司空) is a Korean family name recorded in the 2015 South Korean census with 4,488 holders, making it the #106 most common of the 191 surnames counted. Roughly one in every 11,075 South Koreans is a Sagong. It is a rare surname; most Koreans have never met a Sagong.
How to write Sagong in Korean
In Hangul, Sagong is written 사공. The same Hangul syllable is used by 2 different Hanja (Chinese characters): 司空, 司公. Each character is technically a separate surname with its own clans and ancestry, even though they sound identical and are romanized the same way. The most common by far is 司空.
What does Sagong mean?
The character 司空 means minister of works; an ancient official title. As with most Korean surnames, the meaning comes from the Chinese character rather than from the Korean sound, so it says something about how the name was first written down (often a place, a virtue, an object or a Chinese dynasty) rather than describing the family. Koreans rarely think about the literal meaning of a surname in daily life, but it matters for genealogy and for choosing given names that pair well with it.
Major Sagong clans (bon-gwan)
Korean surnames are subdivided by bon-gwan — the ancestral hometown of the clan founder. Two people named Sagong from different bon-gwan are considered unrelated. The best-known Sagong clans are: Hyoryeong Sagong. The place name comes first (for example "Gimhae Kim" means the Kim clan whose founder settled in Gimhae).
How common is Sagong?
Sagong is rare Korean surname. Just above it in the rankings is On (5,418) and just below it is Si (4,354). For comparison, Kim, the most common surname, has 10,689,967 holders. All figures come from Statistics Korea's 2015 Population and Housing Census, which only counts surnames held by five or more people.
Spellings and romanization
Sagong is the spelling most Korean families use on passports and in English. The official Revised Romanization (used by the South Korean government since 2000) is Sagong, and the older McCune–Reischauer system gives Sagong. Other spellings you will see in real life include Sakong, Shakong, Sagoung, Sagung. The variety exists because Korean passport rules let each family choose its own romanization, so spellings drifted over generations of emigration; in Korean, every one of these is the same 사공.
How to pronounce Sagong
Sagong (사공) is pronounced roughly as the Revised Romanization "Sagong" reads, with even stress on each syllable — Korean does not stress one syllable over another the way English does. Vowels are pure and short: "eo" is the "u" in "sun", "eu" is a tight "oo" with unrounded lips, and "ae" rhymes with "day".
Is Sagong Chinese or Korean?
Both, in a sense — the character is shared, the family is not. Korean surnames were written with Chinese characters for over a thousand years, so nearly every Korean surname has a Chinese (and Vietnamese) reading: 司空 is Sīkōng in Mandarin and Tư Không in Vietnamese. A Korean Sagong and a Chinese family with the same character are not related; they simply adopted the same character at different times and places. If someone spells their name "Sagong" they are almost certainly Korean, because the Chinese and Vietnamese romanizations look different. See our full guide to Korean vs Chinese last names.
Related Korean surnames
Frequently asked questions about Sagong
Is Sagong a Korean or Chinese last name?
Sagong as spelled is Korean (사공). The Hanja 司空 is also used as a surname in China and Vietnam, but with different romanizations (Sīkōng in Mandarin, Tư Không in Vietnamese). The families are not related.
How many people have the last name Sagong?
4,488 people in South Korea had the surname Sagong (사공) in the 2015 census, or under 0.01% of the population. That makes it the #106 most common Korean surname.
How do you write Sagong in Korean?
Sagong is written 사공 in Hangul. In Hanja it is 司空 or 司公, which are separate lineages sharing one pronunciation.
What does the Korean last name Sagong mean?
The Hanja 司空 means "minister of works; an ancient official title". Korean surname meanings come from the Chinese character the name is written with, not from the Korean sound.
Is Sagong a rare Korean last name?
Yes. With 4,488 holders it ranks #106 of 191 — well outside the common surnames. See our list of rare Korean last names for others like it.
Source: Statistics Korea (KOSIS), 2015 Population and Housing Census, surnames by Hangul with five or more holders (total population 49,705,663). Hanja meanings from standard Hanja dictionaries. Check another surname.