Korean surname checker
Type a surname in any spelling — Lee, Yi, Rhee or 이 — and get an instant answer: is it Korean, how is it written in Hangul and Hanja, what does it mean, and how many people carry it. Chinese, Vietnamese and Japanese surnames are recognised too, with their Korean equivalents.
How the checker works
The database is the complete surname table from Statistics Korea’s 2015 Population and Housing Census: every family name held by five or more people, grouped by Hangul spelling, with its Hanja forms and population. Each surname is indexed under its everyday English spelling, its Revised Romanization, its McCune–Reischauer form and every alternate spelling recorded in passports — so Kwon, Gwon, Kweon and Kwun all resolve to 권. If a spelling is not found, the checker suggests the closest Korean surnames and also checks a list of common Chinese, Vietnamese and Japanese surnames so you get a real answer rather than a blank.
How to read the result
- Rarity badge — Top 10 (ranks 1–10), Common (100,000+ holders), Uncommon (10,000+), Rare (1,000+) or Ultra-rare (under 1,000).
- Hangul — the Korean spelling. Two people with different English spellings but the same Hangul share the same surname.
- Hanja — the Chinese character(s). When several are listed they are separate lineages that happen to sound alike.
- One in every N — how many South Koreans you would need to meet, on average, to find one with this surname.
Try these
Common names with many spellings: Lee, Jung, Yoo. Names that are both Korean and Chinese: Song, Han, Hong. Names that are not Korean at all: Nguyen, Chen, Tanaka. Two-syllable Korean surnames: Namgung, Hwangbo. Ultra-rare: Sam, Mangjeol.
For the full ranked list with population share, see the complete list of Korean last names; for the names most often confused across borders, see Korean vs Chinese last names.