Jwa 좌 — Korean last name
Is Jwa a Korean last name?
Yes. Jwa (Hangul: 좌, Hanja: 左) is a Korean family name recorded in the 2015 South Korean census with 3,383 holders, making it the #111 most common of the 191 surnames counted. Roughly one in every 14,693 South Koreans is a Jwa. It is a rare surname; most Koreans have never met a Jwa.
How to write Jwa in Korean
In Hangul, Jwa is written 좌. The same Hangul syllable is used by 2 different Hanja (Chinese characters): 左, 佐. 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 左.
What does Jwa mean?
The character 左 means left. 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 Jwa?
Jwa is rare Korean surname. Just above it in the rankings is Seung (3,430) and just below it is Paeng (2,935). 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
Jwa 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 Jwa, and the older McCune–Reischauer system gives Chwa. Other spellings you will see in real life include Joa, Choa, Chua, Jua, Chaw. 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 좌.
How to pronounce Jwa
Jwa (좌) is pronounced roughly as the Revised Romanization "Jwa" 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 Jwa 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: 左 is Zuǒ in Mandarin and Tả in Vietnamese. A Korean Jwa 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 "Jwa" 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 Jwa
Is Jwa a Korean or Chinese last name?
Jwa as spelled is Korean (좌). The Hanja 左 is also used as a surname in China and Vietnam, but with different romanizations (Zuǒ in Mandarin, Tả in Vietnamese). The families are not related.
How many people have the last name Jwa?
3,383 people in South Korea had the surname Jwa (좌) in the 2015 census, or under 0.01% of the population. That makes it the #111 most common Korean surname.
How do you write Jwa in Korean?
Jwa is written 좌 in Hangul. In Hanja it is 左 or 佐, which are separate lineages sharing one pronunciation.
What does the Korean last name Jwa mean?
The Hanja 左 means "left". Korean surname meanings come from the Chinese character the name is written with, not from the Korean sound.
Is Jwa a rare Korean last name?
Yes. With 3,383 holders it ranks #111 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.