Mangjeol 망절 — Korean last name
Is Mangjeol a Korean last name?
Yes. Mangjeol (Hangul: 망절, Hanja: 網切) is a Korean family name recorded in the 2015 South Korean census with 8 holders, making it the #183 most common of the 191 surnames counted. Roughly one in every 6,213,208 South Koreans is a Mangjeol. It is one of the rarest surnames in Korea — fewer than a thousand people carry it.
How to write Mangjeol in Korean
In Hangul, Mangjeol is written 망절. Its Hanja (Chinese character) is 網切. Unlike many Korean surnames, Mangjeol has a single Hanja form, so every Mangjeol in Korea shares the same character.
What does Mangjeol mean?
The character 網切 means net-cutting; a surname of Japanese origin. 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.
How common is Mangjeol?
Mangjeol is ultra-rare Korean surname. Just above it in the rankings is Nan (8) and just below it is Eogeum (8). 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
Mangjeol 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 Mangjeol, and the older McCune–Reischauer system gives Mangjŏl. Other spellings you will see in real life include Mangjul. 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 망절.
How to pronounce Mangjeol
Mangjeol (망절) is pronounced roughly as the Revised Romanization "Mangjeol" 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".
Related Korean surnames
Frequently asked questions about Mangjeol
Is Mangjeol a Korean or Chinese last name?
Mangjeol as spelled is Korean (망절). The Hanja 網切 is also used as a surname in China and Vietnam, but with different romanizations. The families are not related.
How many people have the last name Mangjeol?
8 people in South Korea had the surname Mangjeol (망절) in the 2015 census, or under 0.01% of the population. That makes it the #183 most common Korean surname.
How do you write Mangjeol in Korean?
Mangjeol is written 망절 in Hangul. In Hanja it is 網切.
What does the Korean last name Mangjeol mean?
The Hanja 網切 means "net-cutting; a surname of Japanese origin". Korean surname meanings come from the Chinese character the name is written with, not from the Korean sound.
Is Mangjeol a rare Korean last name?
Yes. With 8 holders it ranks #183 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.