Korean Family Names: How Common Are Kim, Lee and Park?

Korea has a small set of very common family names and a very long tail of rare ones. In the 2015 census, the source used here, the ranking was Kim (金), Lee (李), Park (朴), Choi (崔) and Jeong (鄭). The top ten names covered 63.9 percent of Koreans, while the census counted 5,582 different family names in total. These figures are from the census date of November 1, 2015, so newer data may differ.

1. Reading a Korean name

Korean names are written with the family name first. A common pattern is a one-syllable family name followed by a two-syllable given name, so 김민준 is family name 김 (Kim) plus given name 민준 (Min-jun). The census release writes the top family names with their Chinese characters, such as 金 for Kim, because many family names have a hanja form. The census counted 1,507 family names that have Chinese characters and 4,075 that do not.

2. The numbers

The 2015 census reports these figures, in the words of the English release:

The top ten names were the same as in 2000. Those figures make two points clear. Almost everyone shares one of a few dozen names: the top 50 covers 94.2 percent of Koreans. And the rare names are rare indeed. The 153 names with over 1,000 holders account for 99.8 percent, which leaves the other 5,429 names (5,582 minus 153) sharing the remaining 0.2 percent.

2.1. Not all Kims are the same family

A Korean family name is paired with a bon-gwan (본관), which the census translates as "family origin." The census labels them by place name, as in Gimhae Kim and Miryang Park, which shows that one surname is split into many separate origins. Two people named Kim can therefore come from different origins.

The 2015 census counted 36,744 family origins, of which 858 had more than 1,000 people and covered 97.8 percent of Koreans. The top 10 origins held 35.7 percent of Koreans and the top 20 held 46.4 percent. Three single origins stood out:

As a check: 4,457 out of 49,706 thousand Koreans is 8.97 percent, which rounds to the 9.0 percent the census reports. That is roughly one Korean in eleven who belongs to the Gimhae Kim family origin alone.

3. Rare names appear in the dictionary too

The National Institute of Korean Language's Standard Korean Dictionary includes family names as entries and lists origins for them. For example, it has an entry for 시 (施), described as a Korean family name, with origins such as Jeolgang (浙江) and Seongju (星州) surviving today. It likewise lists 반 (班) with origins such as Gaeseong (開城) and Pyeonghae (平海). Even one-syllable names this uncommon get their own entries.

4. Practical points for readers

• When you meet someone named Kim, Lee or Park, the name alone says little. The census counted 36,744 origins, so the origin is what narrows it down.
• For the most current counts, check Statistics Korea directly. The 2015 figures here are the ones in the release cited above.

5. Key takeaways

• The 2015 census ranked Kim, Lee, Park, Choi and Jeong as the top five family names.
• There were 5,582 family names in total, but the top 10 held 63.9 percent of the population.
• Gimhae Kim alone was 9.0 percent of Koreans; Miryang Park 6.2 percent and Jeonju Lee 5.3 percent.
• A family name plus its origin (bon-gwan) identifies the line, and Kim alone splits into many origins.
• Figures are from the November 1, 2015 census date.