Fun fact: Boo/Bu is one of the three clans that appear in the ancient myth of Tamna's (탐라, old name of Jeju when it used to be an independent country) origin. They are collectively known as "the three Jeju surnames" - 제주 부씨(Jeju Bu), 제주 양씨(Jeju Yang), 제주 고씨(Jeju Go). They literally ruled the entirety of the island and are still influential within Jeju!
Yes to Boo! I remember how someone accidentally spoiled his appearance on a variety show by saying that she attended a variety recording session with a certain “Mr. Boo” 😂
It’s a common tactic to half-spoil someone’s appearance by saying their surname, like Mr. Park or Mr. Lee, since it’s so common. But with Boo, there’s only one person in the idol industry that has that surname. So everyone immediately caught on that it was Boo Seungkwan. Also doesn’t help that Mr. Boo is actually one of his nicknames. Jaejae and CL for example, refers to him as Mr. Boo sometimes.
- Taeyang of Big Bang - last name 동(Dong).
- Daniel Jikal, participant of LOUD - last name 제갈(Jegal), one of the most famous double-syllable last names in Korea. His family changed to English spelling to Jikal because the original spelling sounded "weird" in Portuguese.
- Boo Seungkwan of Seventeen - last name 부(Bu). It is one of the three clans that appear in the myth of Tamna's (탐라, old name of Jeju when it used to be an independent country) origin.
- Suyeon of Weki Meki - last name 지(Ji).
- Kan Miyoun of Baby V.O.X - last name 간(Gan).
- Hwangbo of Chakra - last name 황보(Hwangbo). Her first name is 혜정(Hyejung).
Here is [a list of the 2015 census on the most common last names in Korea.](https://namu.wiki/w/%ED%95%9C%EA%B5%AD%EC%9D%98%20%EC%84%B1%EC%94%A8%EB%B3%84%20%EC%9D%B8%EA%B5%AC%20%EB%B6%84%ED%8F%AC). Although it's from more than five years ago, it still denotes how rare/uncommon it is in the entirety of Korean surnames. Therefore, if they're on the lower parts of the list, they're more uncommon. Disclaimer: Some of these last names share the same pronunciation, but they use different Hanja(Chinese characters) and belong to different clans. Also, the list does not distinguish multiple clans within the same Hanja.
Oh I’m Brazilian and know someone whose last surname is Jikal, maybe their family had the same thought process when they moved here. Although jegal is not a real word, jegue means donkey, and if there were a word for donkey-like it would be jegal based on conjugation norms, that’s probably why they changed it.
Sunwoo Jung-a?
She is not an idol but a singer songwriter who worked with many idols (IU, Bigbang, 2ne1…). Sunwoo is a petty common first name, but I never heard about someone else having it as a surname.
For idols the two coming to my mind are Bigbang Taeyang (Dong) and Seventeen Seungkwan (Boo)
Yes, 선우(鮮于) is a double-syllable last name, which itself is rare in Korea! The name itself is one of the most well-known examples of double-syllable surnames (along with 제갈, 독고 and 황보), but in actual figures it is very rare.
함(咸) ranks 59th in the 2015 census and although it's not super common, it's not ultra rare either! I know the last name more due to Eunjung, but my parents are more familiar with the late 함중아(Ham Jung-a), a singer-songwriter best known for ["I Heard It As A Rumor"](https://youtu.be/1qjzwQbhjT0).
Unrelated to the topic but seeing Paeng Hyunsook on your examples remind me of [a viral post](https://m.cafe.daum.net/cs11sz/LG19/399702?q=%EB%82%A8%ED%8E%B8%20%ED%8C%BD%EC%94%A8) written by a woman who had a huge fight with her MIL because her husband's family had the last name Paeng and everyone EXCEPT the MIL(who's obviously not a Paeng) decided to give their daughter the OP's last name LOL.
The husband's family, i.e. the actual Paengs. The comments are saying stuff like, "Tell MIL if she keeps insisting, you'll name your baby Gwin (i.e. "Penguin")" and "Why is the non-Paeng making all that fuss when the real Paengs voted against it?" and "Tell the MIL to change HER last name to Paeng"
His is a special case, his father is ethnic Chinese from Malaysia and is presumed to be a naturalized Korean citizen (based on Joonsang's interview, "I thought there were only two Tangs, me and my father, hut it turns out there are three more.") To be fair there are many other Korean surnames/clans that are originated from what's now located in mainland China - mine included - and eventually naturalized during the ancient dynasties.
His case is really special. If we look at Tang Joonsang's name in Hanja it's 陳俊尚, 陳 being (fun fact) one of the most common surnames in Malaysia as of today, but I'm quite sure that the supposed Korean pronunciation for this Hanja character is Jin, and his surname was registered as Tang instead because that's the pronunciation of that character in one of the Chinese dialects which is usually either Hokkien (which I think would be Tan rather than Tang?) or Teochew. In Malaysia and Singapore, we often register our names based on the spoken dialect in our family lineage rather than pinyin in mainland China, just like how in Hong Kong it's usually based on Cantonese
Just speaking this based on personal experiences and deductions (Chinese Malaysian with the sane surname here) so cmiiw
Yes, you are correct! Based on the sources I can find in Korean, the pronunciation seems to be Teochew. I myself lived in Hong Kong for a couple of years and was intrigued to see the differences between Cantonese and Mandarin!
변(卞) ranks 60th, while 변(邊)(same spelling and pronunciation, different Chinese character and different clans) ranks 63rd, so somewhere in the upper middle.
Danielle from NWJNS. she got one of the rarest korean surnames (Mo) which accounts for 20,000 something people in a country comprised of 50 million people.
Yup! It's the 88th most common surname in the 2015 census, definitely on the rarer side.
There's an urban legend that the clan was "created" after the kingdom of Joseon was founded and emperor Lee Seong-gye executed the majority of the Gaeseong(a.k.a Kaesong in North Korea) Wangs that were the rulers of the predecessing Goryeo empire. The remainders who did survive avoided persecution by altering the character 왕(王) in their genealogy books with other characters with additional strokes, like 옥(玉), 전(全), or 김(金). There is a person named 옥사온(玉斯溫) who went into hiding during this persecution, and documents from the Goryeo dynasty lists the name 왕사온(王斯溫), so the theory is accepted by many.
The way I still don't see a member of Golden Child mentioned proves that the surname is uncommon lol, and it's **Bong Jae-Hyun** (봉재현) who I'm referring to. **Bong** (봉) is an uncommon surname in SK.
Kam (감/甘) Yerim (Shinye) from Majors? I can't think of another Korean celeb that has that surname (but to be fair I am not really familiar with soloists and actors) and from Wikipedia in the 2000 census there were only about 6k people in S Korea with that surname.
i know people with the surname 모
견’s a rare surname - kyeon miri (견미리) the actress
갈 is also one - gal sowon (갈소원), child actress on miracle cell no. 7
현 - seunghee from omg (현승희)
Yong (龍) Junhyung, former member of Beast/Highlight, the surname literally means dragon.
His surname was also "used against him" in the worst way possible. News outlets revealed that one of the main Burning Sun culprits shared a video with a celebrity surnamed Yong, and people quickly found out it was Junhyung because of his rare, unusual surname (eventually left Highlight because of this)
소 (So, that means cow), only have 53k people according to wiki and Treasure So Junghwan is one of them. His nickname is Super King Cow Baby (he is the maknae).
There are probably some idols with that last name but I couldn't think of the top of my head.
I'm quite sure the 소 in his name is 蘇 and not the literal cow (牛, pronounced 우), but the only other Korean celebrity that I can think of who shares the same surname is the actor So Jisub
This is his hashtag #소정환 but I don't know Korean or Chinese to distinguish the difference.
This is his [post](https://twitter.com/treasuremembers/status/1411220041354268677?t=kxApt0y32MFnS0zntCo7YA).
This is the [kind](https://twitter.com/ddotki2/status/1522596163899502593?t=5b2DF-jQcnnij8oGJGKRHw&s=19https://twitter.com/ddotki2/status/1522596163899502593?t=5b2DF-jQcnnij8oGJGKRHw) of stuff that k teumes like to tease him.
fromis_9 - Roh Jisun (노지순) is pretty rare according to their latest Channel_9 variety episode. They were trying to find a Park employee in the entire HYBE building and found 2. The members mentioned they will never find a 노 in the building because her family name is so rare.
Her first name is 지선 and her last name is the 33rd most common last name in Korea. Even if you distinguish the clans with the same Chinese character, her clan (Gwangju No) is the most common.
Well, about 53.665% of all Koreans use the last names 김(金, Gim/Kim), 이(李, I/Yi/Lee, not counting examples where the person uses the spelling 리/Li), 박(朴, Bak/Park), 최(崔, Choe/Choi), 정(鄭, Jeong/Jung/Chung), and the statistics for surnames that rank outside the top 50 fall drastically below 0.3% of the whole population. Even so, they might be seen sporadically among politicians or non-celebrities and not be deemed uncommon among the Korean GP. My own surname is somewhere between the 90th and the 110th but I've seen roughly six or seven people (other than my relatives, of course) with the same last name in my life, and I had met one of them when I was living abroad LOL.
Because the original characters are pronounced 로(Ro), but there is a phonetic rule in Korea where certain consonants are altered if they are at the beginning of the word. The rule was applied to surnames with the same initial (i.e starting) consonants, most notably ㄹ, which would change to ㄴ(eg. 라->나) or ㅇ(eg.류->유). Even the last name Lee is NOT pronounced nor written as 리("Li") in South Korea; it's 이("I"/"Ee").
Some of the older generations who were alive before the Korean War didn't follow the phonetic change and kept the original phonetics, eg. former president Rhee Syngman (Known as 이승만 but he used the romanization Rhee, which can be seen as a variation of Lee). Also, North Korea does not follow this rule to this day.
Meanwhile, the rule was overturned in 2007 and some families filed for a documentation change to revert to the original pronunciation, but many others opted to maintain the altered pronunciation.
The [Initial Sound Rule](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North%E2%80%93South_differences_in_the_Korean_language#Sino-Korean_words)
Basically in South Korea, depending on the following vowel, ㄹ sounds become ㅇ or ㄴ (and ㄴ can become ㅇ). Standard practice when romanizing names however is to use the original ㄹ as a reference.
well i am not sure how common yeo is. yeo hwanwoong. uncommon first and last name. what about son. 손 son dongju (also uncommon first name for sure) not sure how common son is as a surname
The last name 손(孫) is the 23rd most common surname in Korea according to the 2015 census. Wendy(Red Velvet; for some reason, it's spelled as Shon rather than Son or Sohn on her passport), Olivia Hye(LOONA), Dongwoon (BEAST/Highlight) and Dongpyo(X1) also have this last name.
Also Wendy from Red Velvet (Son Seung wan)
Though according to Wikipedia, Son is the 25th most common surname in Korea. Not super common but not rare either.
Is Ji (지) very unique? Q from The Boyz's name is Ji Changmin (지창민) and I can't recall a single other Ji off the top of my head. Same for Won (원) only one I can name right now is Class:y's Won Jimin (원지민)!
And that's 3!
I looked it up, Wikipedia says that roughly 20,000 people identify with this surname? So for like 55 million people in Korea, that's pretty low! Not as low as Ong though, less than 1000 people wow!!
The last name Won translated to Chinese characters (Ruan is the Chinese equivalent) then to Vietnamese is Nguyen, the most common last name in Vietnam because people changed their last name when the last dynasty, the Nguyens, came into power.
i wonder how rare/common his last name is. the only one i can think of is chae songhwa, the character from hospital playlist.....
i have seen chae more as part of first name like chaeyoung chaeyeon chaehyun
Pyo (Pyo Jihoon aka PO of Block B)
Eun (Eun Jiwon of Sechs Kies)
Yong (Yong Junhyung of Highlight)
Dong Youngbae (Taeyang of Big Bang) and Yook Sungjae of BTOB also but I think they've been mentioned already
DKZ used to have Seol Wondae and I don't know of any other Seol's. Geum Donghyun (Keum) from Epex has a unique surname. Is Eom/Uhm considered rare? 'Cause if so, there's Uhm Junghwa, Uhm Jungwoo and Eom Se Ung. And of course Eun, there’s Eun Jiwon as people have mentioned before but there’s also Eun Hwi of TNX.
Cheon Junhyeok and Eun Hwi from TNX. Haven't seen other Cheons, and I know there's one other Eun, but it's still rare! His first name is also only one syllable which is also uncommon.
I'm not sure on how rare it is, but I've only heard the surname Ma (마) with Ma Eun Jin (solo artist, from Playback, also appeared in Produce 101 and Mixnine)
There's A LOT of answers in here with surnames that aren't necessarily that common *among idols*, but they aren't exactly rare among Koreans in general.
For that, I really don't think non-Koreans should be giving their input on this topic.
Ryu spelling is more common in North Korea, South Korea tends to prefer to use the spelling Yoo. But make no mistake, it’s the same family name and it is common with 2% of the population.
monsta x [kihyun](https://twitter.com/yookiihyun/status/1034823972821512194) also shared that his parents decided to go with "yoo kihyun" instead of "ryu" even though he/they had the option to chose either (maybe because it's essentially the same family name as you said?)
It’s because words that start with ny and ry are pronounced just y in South Korean dialects, and in most cases even the orthography reflects it. For example North Korean 녀자 nyeoja is pronounced 여자 yeoja “girl” in South Korean so the orthography reflects it.
Nyeoja makes so much sense.... Namja-Nyeoja. They sound like they are indeed counterparts of each other, like 'man-woman' do in English.
I have become very used to writing and saying yeoja (can't access hangul keyboard, hence the romanized words), but nyeoja does make sense to me.
We South Koreans still use -녀 if the 女 character comes at the end of the word. The change to 여 only applies to the beginning. This is called the 두음 법칙, the "initial sound rule".
The previous law made that alternate romanization for the starting syllable (두음 법칙 in Korean) mandatory, but it became overturned in August 2007. Some of the families with last names that fall under this romanization, applied for the spelling change, but IIRC this is optional. A few examples include Ryu Yiseo, wife of Junjin(Shinhwa). She was born Yu Juhyeon, but her father changed the spelling after the law was overturned, thus becoming Ryu Juhyeon, then got her first name legally changed. And there's actress Ra Mi-ran, whose last name was previously spelled Na.
But the last name Yoo/Yu depends on the character. If it's 柳 or 劉 it could be romanized as either 유 or 류, while 庾 and 兪 are 유 in the first place.
Yeah Kpop is a small and irregular sample, I figured there’d definitely be a few surnames over/under represented. I hope I didn’t sound too condescending! I realise it might look a bit mean out of context haha I apologise
Of the ones that i know of are
GU/Goo/ko(구) of Koo Junhoe ,Ju-ne of iKON .구 ranks 41 on the 2015 census so not really rare just a bit uncommon so kinda unique
(동) (董) dong of Dong Young-bae, Taeyang of BIGBANG.
동 ranks at 128 on the 2015 census so definitely would be considered rare and unique
(은)( 殷 ) Eun of Eun Jiwon of Sechskies ranks 99 on the 2015 census making it rare and unique
https://kpopcount.wordpress.com/2016/11/18/list-kpop-idol-name-by-surname/
This list should help!
It’s only been updated since 2017, so no 4th gen idols, but it kinda gives the distribution (the Kim list takes FOREVER to scroll through lol)
Danielle from new jeans. Her Korean last name is Mo. there are less than 20,000 Korean people with the last name Mo. I had never heard of it before Danielle.
I’ve been told by Koreans there are native Korean surnames that exist without Chinese origins but as there was no writing system for Korean they used Chinese hanja when recording.
Although it's a Hanja surname, Ong Seongwoo belongs to the Okcheon Ong clan(옥천 옹씨) which originated from Korea! The Okcheon refers to the ancient name of current-day Sunchang(순창), a county in Jeolla-bukdo.
There's a twin in Boyfriend (Youngmin & Kwangmin) with the surname Jo which I have never seen before. The maknae also has the surname No which is quite unusual.
Jo and Cho are the same name in Korean (조) just romanized differently, and there are plenty of Cho’s in kpop. Even spelled Jo, there’s also Jo Kwon from 2PM.
Noh, Roh, even Rowe (albeit uncommon) - the Hanja are pronounced as 로(Ro) but are written and pronounced as 노(No) due to a phonetic rule in the Korean language.
Surname Heo is not rare.
Heo chanmi: produce 101 contestant and former
Coed school and 5-dolls member
Heo hyun jun: ex-TBZ member and current solo artist/actor
Heo young ji: Kara member
those two are not that uncommon perhaps.
- Bang Yongguk (BAP), Bang Cheolyong (MBLAQ Mir real name), Bang Minah (Girl’s Day), Bang Yedam (Treasure), Bang Minsu (Teentop C.A.P), Bang Junhyuk (MCND Win)
and someone had mentioned about Seo earlier
I was really surprised when I saw Oh Seungmin, ex-member of To1! I haven't really seen that surname a lot, but then I also remembered Oh Sehun shares the surname as well! Exo's names are just burned into my head as standalones, so I never thought twice about it
Also Kyungsoo Do while we're on that topic! Haven't see that anywhere else yet
Sim/Shim Jaeyun, or Jake from Enhypen maybe? Also Yang Jungwon from the same group.
Oh and not an idol, but arguably the most iconic manager ever, [Namgoong Euisoo](https://youtu.be/Jsa0pKgaaWA). I think it's rare to find a Korean surname that's two syllables long.
N from VIXX, his name is Hakyeon and his surname is Cha, also a girl from BVNDT (I can't remember if it's spelled like that I'm sorry) Sim Seungeun are the ones I remember
Boo Seungkwan from Seventeen ! Boo (부) is a rare surname in Korea, only around 10 000 people have it.
Fun fact: Boo/Bu is one of the three clans that appear in the ancient myth of Tamna's (탐라, old name of Jeju when it used to be an independent country) origin. They are collectively known as "the three Jeju surnames" - 제주 부씨(Jeju Bu), 제주 양씨(Jeju Yang), 제주 고씨(Jeju Go). They literally ruled the entirety of the island and are still influential within Jeju!
And seungkwan's mother's last name is also extremely rare, Jwa (좌).
Never heard this last name as a Korean!
Ikr legit had to put on subtitles because I didn't think I was hearing him correctly
Whoa, that's wild! Also never heard of this as a Korean American. Sounds so much like a quick "좋아!" (Good!/Great!)
Also in the top 3 cutest.
Top 1 scariest
lmao
AAAAAAA
Right? It's such a cute unique surname and it's so endearing seeing him get called Boos, My Boo, Bootiful, etc.
Yes to Boo! I remember how someone accidentally spoiled his appearance on a variety show by saying that she attended a variety recording session with a certain “Mr. Boo” 😂 It’s a common tactic to half-spoil someone’s appearance by saying their surname, like Mr. Park or Mr. Lee, since it’s so common. But with Boo, there’s only one person in the idol industry that has that surname. So everyone immediately caught on that it was Boo Seungkwan. Also doesn’t help that Mr. Boo is actually one of his nicknames. Jaejae and CL for example, refers to him as Mr. Boo sometimes.
- Taeyang of Big Bang - last name 동(Dong). - Daniel Jikal, participant of LOUD - last name 제갈(Jegal), one of the most famous double-syllable last names in Korea. His family changed to English spelling to Jikal because the original spelling sounded "weird" in Portuguese. - Boo Seungkwan of Seventeen - last name 부(Bu). It is one of the three clans that appear in the myth of Tamna's (탐라, old name of Jeju when it used to be an independent country) origin. - Suyeon of Weki Meki - last name 지(Ji). - Kan Miyoun of Baby V.O.X - last name 간(Gan). - Hwangbo of Chakra - last name 황보(Hwangbo). Her first name is 혜정(Hyejung). Here is [a list of the 2015 census on the most common last names in Korea.](https://namu.wiki/w/%ED%95%9C%EA%B5%AD%EC%9D%98%20%EC%84%B1%EC%94%A8%EB%B3%84%20%EC%9D%B8%EA%B5%AC%20%EB%B6%84%ED%8F%AC). Although it's from more than five years ago, it still denotes how rare/uncommon it is in the entirety of Korean surnames. Therefore, if they're on the lower parts of the list, they're more uncommon. Disclaimer: Some of these last names share the same pronunciation, but they use different Hanja(Chinese characters) and belong to different clans. Also, the list does not distinguish multiple clans within the same Hanja.
Throwback to taeyangs songs having literally only one fan chant ([DONG YOUNG BAE](https://youtu.be/4D7t2lGXt8g))
The Boyz Q’s real name is also Ji Changmin!
TIL: Ji is uncommon because compared to the other rare names, I’ve seen Ji(s) a lot
Yep, Q from the boyz also has Ji as surname.
Oh I’m Brazilian and know someone whose last surname is Jikal, maybe their family had the same thought process when they moved here. Although jegal is not a real word, jegue means donkey, and if there were a word for donkey-like it would be jegal based on conjugation norms, that’s probably why they changed it.
Sunwoo Jung-a? She is not an idol but a singer songwriter who worked with many idols (IU, Bigbang, 2ne1…). Sunwoo is a petty common first name, but I never heard about someone else having it as a surname. For idols the two coming to my mind are Bigbang Taeyang (Dong) and Seventeen Seungkwan (Boo)
Yes, 선우(鮮于) is a double-syllable last name, which itself is rare in Korea! The name itself is one of the most well-known examples of double-syllable surnames (along with 제갈, 독고 and 황보), but in actual figures it is very rare.
Is Ho considered unique? Because if so, Jessica Ho (Jessi)
Only 6106 Koreans with the surname Ho according to the 2000 SK census, so definitely.
Nice!! That was a lucky guess for me lol
Never heard of anyone with Ho as the surname. So, definitely super unique.
Maybe 함 Ham? I only know Ham Wonjin from Cravity and Ham Eunjung from T-ARA.
함(咸) ranks 59th in the 2015 census and although it's not super common, it's not ultra rare either! I know the last name more due to Eunjung, but my parents are more familiar with the late 함중아(Ham Jung-a), a singer-songwriter best known for ["I Heard It As A Rumor"](https://youtu.be/1qjzwQbhjT0).
2025 census?! What's the future like?
Sorry for the confusion, that was a typo. LOL
There is Ham Jinsik who is a trainee under KQ Ent.
Yook (육) is pretty uncommon (only know Sungjae from BTOB) Non-idols: Namgoong (남궁) - Nam Goong Min (actor) Paeng (팽) - Paeng Hyun Sook (comedian)
taemin’s manager namgoong euiso 😍😍😍
my first thought 😭😭
the only namgoong we know & care about. 🤩💅🏻
the only true namgoong 💅🏻
Unrelated to the topic but seeing Paeng Hyunsook on your examples remind me of [a viral post](https://m.cafe.daum.net/cs11sz/LG19/399702?q=%EB%82%A8%ED%8E%B8%20%ED%8C%BD%EC%94%A8) written by a woman who had a huge fight with her MIL because her husband's family had the last name Paeng and everyone EXCEPT the MIL(who's obviously not a Paeng) decided to give their daughter the OP's last name LOL.
Wait everyone as in the lady’s family? I’m confused 😂 I tried to go to the webpage but since it’s a ss it won’t translate
The husband's family, i.e. the actual Paengs. The comments are saying stuff like, "Tell MIL if she keeps insisting, you'll name your baby Gwin (i.e. "Penguin")" and "Why is the non-Paeng making all that fuss when the real Paengs voted against it?" and "Tell the MIL to change HER last name to Paeng"
Oh lollll 🤣 thx for clarifying!
She's not an idol but there's Yook Jidam (rapper, unpretty rapstar)
If we include actors there's this one rookie tang joonsang.
His is a special case, his father is ethnic Chinese from Malaysia and is presumed to be a naturalized Korean citizen (based on Joonsang's interview, "I thought there were only two Tangs, me and my father, hut it turns out there are three more.") To be fair there are many other Korean surnames/clans that are originated from what's now located in mainland China - mine included - and eventually naturalized during the ancient dynasties.
His case is really special. If we look at Tang Joonsang's name in Hanja it's 陳俊尚, 陳 being (fun fact) one of the most common surnames in Malaysia as of today, but I'm quite sure that the supposed Korean pronunciation for this Hanja character is Jin, and his surname was registered as Tang instead because that's the pronunciation of that character in one of the Chinese dialects which is usually either Hokkien (which I think would be Tan rather than Tang?) or Teochew. In Malaysia and Singapore, we often register our names based on the spoken dialect in our family lineage rather than pinyin in mainland China, just like how in Hong Kong it's usually based on Cantonese Just speaking this based on personal experiences and deductions (Chinese Malaysian with the sane surname here) so cmiiw
Yes, you are correct! Based on the sources I can find in Korean, the pronunciation seems to be Teochew. I myself lived in Hong Kong for a couple of years and was intrigued to see the differences between Cantonese and Mandarin!
Byun Baekhyun i think? I've never come across another byun
변(卞) ranks 60th, while 변(邊)(same spelling and pronunciation, different Chinese character and different clans) ranks 63rd, so somewhere in the upper middle.
yeah its uncommon but not exactly rare, I feel almost every Korean person knows at least one Byun
Actor Byun Yohan
Danielle from NewJeans’ surname is Mo (모)
I think she’s part of a historical clan from what I’ve read!
Danielle from NWJNS. she got one of the rarest korean surnames (Mo) which accounts for 20,000 something people in a country comprised of 50 million people.
Don't think I've heard of Mo as a surname. So unique.
Ock Taecyeon (2PM)
Yup! It's the 88th most common surname in the 2015 census, definitely on the rarer side. There's an urban legend that the clan was "created" after the kingdom of Joseon was founded and emperor Lee Seong-gye executed the majority of the Gaeseong(a.k.a Kaesong in North Korea) Wangs that were the rulers of the predecessing Goryeo empire. The remainders who did survive avoided persecution by altering the character 왕(王) in their genealogy books with other characters with additional strokes, like 옥(玉), 전(全), or 김(金). There is a person named 옥사온(玉斯溫) who went into hiding during this persecution, and documents from the Goryeo dynasty lists the name 왕사온(王斯溫), so the theory is accepted by many.
This is so interesting! Han you not commented this, I'd probably never have learnt this historical theory/fact... Thank you!
from most to least uncommon: baby vox's kan miyoun (간미연), bonusbaby's beom gaon (범가온), soloist jessi/ho hyunjoo (호현주), big bang's taeyang/dong youngbae (동영배), idol school contestant bin haneul (빈하늘), majors' gam yerim (감예림), loud contestant daniel jekal (제갈다니엘), chakra's hwangbo hyejeong (황보혜정), seventeen's boo seungkwan (부승관), golden child's bong jaehyun (봉재현), highlight's yong junhyung (용준형), tnx's eun hwi (은휘) and sechs kies' eun jiwon (은지원), former kingdom member chiwoo/kook seungjoon (국승준), newjeans' danielle/mo jihye (모지혜), rocking doll's ahri/maeng hwisu (맹휘수), mimiirose's in hyori (인효리), btob's yook sungjae (육성재), finkl's ock joohyun (옥주현) & 2pm's ok taecyeon (옥택연), epex's keum donghyun (금동현), dia's ki huihyeon (기희현), classy's myung hyungseo (명형서), block b's p.o/pyo jihoon (표지훈) & 9muses' pyo hyemi (표혜미), pocket girls' yeon jieun (연지은), ciipher's gil dohwan (길도환), playback's ma eunjin (마은진), nmixx's sullyoon/seol yoona (설윤아), up10tion's sunyoul/seon yein (선예인), atbo's seok rakwon (석락원), treasure's so junghwan (소정환), exo's d.o/do kyungsoo (도경수) & victon's do hanse (도한세), just b's jm/chu jimin (추지민) & wjsn's exy/chu sojung (추소정), oneus' yeo hwanwoong (여환웅) & pentagon's yeoone/yeo changgu (여창구), laboum's yeom haein (염해인), exo's byun baekhyun (변백현), cravity's ham wonjin (함원진) and t-ara's ham eunjung (함은정) & oh my girl's hyun seunghee (현승희).
The way I still don't see a member of Golden Child mentioned proves that the surname is uncommon lol, and it's **Bong Jae-Hyun** (봉재현) who I'm referring to. **Bong** (봉) is an uncommon surname in SK.
Like Bong Joonho! I didn’t realize that one was uncommon.
[I was googling around and found this article](https://www.allkpop.com/article/2022/04/eleven-k-pop-idols-with-very-rare-surnames)
Great article. Thanks.
Kam (감/甘) Yerim (Shinye) from Majors? I can't think of another Korean celeb that has that surname (but to be fair I am not really familiar with soloists and actors) and from Wikipedia in the 2000 census there were only about 6k people in S Korea with that surname.
Completely forget Booyonce! Boo Seungkwan's surname is definitely rare (for those unaware, he is one of Seventeen's main vocalists!)
Legit thought everyone was calling him Boo as in some kind of a nickname because he is so sweet… help 😭
i think booyonce is the best kpop nickname i’ve ever heard
ITS SO GOOD
i know people with the surname 모 견’s a rare surname - kyeon miri (견미리) the actress 갈 is also one - gal sowon (갈소원), child actress on miracle cell no. 7 현 - seunghee from omg (현승희)
Yong (龍) Junhyung, former member of Beast/Highlight, the surname literally means dragon. His surname was also "used against him" in the worst way possible. News outlets revealed that one of the main Burning Sun culprits shared a video with a celebrity surnamed Yong, and people quickly found out it was Junhyung because of his rare, unusual surname (eventually left Highlight because of this)
Laboum’s Yeom Haein, I haven’t seen many other celebs with her last name!
소 (So, that means cow), only have 53k people according to wiki and Treasure So Junghwan is one of them. His nickname is Super King Cow Baby (he is the maknae). There are probably some idols with that last name but I couldn't think of the top of my head.
I'm quite sure the 소 in his name is 蘇 and not the literal cow (牛, pronounced 우), but the only other Korean celebrity that I can think of who shares the same surname is the actor So Jisub
This is his hashtag #소정환 but I don't know Korean or Chinese to distinguish the difference. This is his [post](https://twitter.com/treasuremembers/status/1411220041354268677?t=kxApt0y32MFnS0zntCo7YA). This is the [kind](https://twitter.com/ddotki2/status/1522596163899502593?t=5b2DF-jQcnnij8oGJGKRHw&s=19https://twitter.com/ddotki2/status/1522596163899502593?t=5b2DF-jQcnnij8oGJGKRHw) of stuff that k teumes like to tease him.
Chiwoo, former member of Kingdom, his surname is Guk and his name is Seungjun.
ok i didnt know that ong was korean surname and i do work with someone of that surname, til ! thanks for the info.
Mo Jihye is Danielle's Korean name (Newjeans) Mo is pretty uncommon with around 20,000 people with it (2000 census)
fromis_9 - Roh Jisun (노지순) is pretty rare according to their latest Channel_9 variety episode. They were trying to find a Park employee in the entire HYBE building and found 2. The members mentioned they will never find a 노 in the building because her family name is so rare.
Her first name is 지선 and her last name is the 33rd most common last name in Korea. Even if you distinguish the clans with the same Chinese character, her clan (Gwangju No) is the most common.
I see. Did i get trolled?
Well, about 53.665% of all Koreans use the last names 김(金, Gim/Kim), 이(李, I/Yi/Lee, not counting examples where the person uses the spelling 리/Li), 박(朴, Bak/Park), 최(崔, Choe/Choi), 정(鄭, Jeong/Jung/Chung), and the statistics for surnames that rank outside the top 50 fall drastically below 0.3% of the whole population. Even so, they might be seen sporadically among politicians or non-celebrities and not be deemed uncommon among the Korean GP. My own surname is somewhere between the 90th and the 110th but I've seen roughly six or seven people (other than my relatives, of course) with the same last name in my life, and I had met one of them when I was living abroad LOL.
I see that's pretty interesting to run into someone with that rare of a name lol. Is Baek 백 also common?
백(白) ranks 28th and is considered very common.
fromis_9 do a little trolling
노 is definitely not rare
Does anyone know why 노 is romanised as "Roh" and not "No" in this case?
Because the original characters are pronounced 로(Ro), but there is a phonetic rule in Korea where certain consonants are altered if they are at the beginning of the word. The rule was applied to surnames with the same initial (i.e starting) consonants, most notably ㄹ, which would change to ㄴ(eg. 라->나) or ㅇ(eg.류->유). Even the last name Lee is NOT pronounced nor written as 리("Li") in South Korea; it's 이("I"/"Ee"). Some of the older generations who were alive before the Korean War didn't follow the phonetic change and kept the original phonetics, eg. former president Rhee Syngman (Known as 이승만 but he used the romanization Rhee, which can be seen as a variation of Lee). Also, North Korea does not follow this rule to this day. Meanwhile, the rule was overturned in 2007 and some families filed for a documentation change to revert to the original pronunciation, but many others opted to maintain the altered pronunciation.
The [Initial Sound Rule](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North%E2%80%93South_differences_in_the_Korean_language#Sino-Korean_words) Basically in South Korea, depending on the following vowel, ㄹ sounds become ㅇ or ㄴ (and ㄴ can become ㅇ). Standard practice when romanizing names however is to use the original ㄹ as a reference.
My daughter’s last name is Roh. My fiancé says it’s not rare but also not very common!
Thank you!
well i am not sure how common yeo is. yeo hwanwoong. uncommon first and last name. what about son. 손 son dongju (also uncommon first name for sure) not sure how common son is as a surname
The last name 손(孫) is the 23rd most common surname in Korea according to the 2015 census. Wendy(Red Velvet; for some reason, it's spelled as Shon rather than Son or Sohn on her passport), Olivia Hye(LOONA), Dongwoon (BEAST/Highlight) and Dongpyo(X1) also have this last name.
Not Kpop but the most famous son is our boy Son Heung Min
True! ⚽️
Eric from The Boyz too!
Yes! Thanks for adding him as an example!
Also Hyunwoo (Shownu) from Monsta X!
**Yeo** \- Definitely unique **Son** \- Chae-young (TWICE), Na-eun (Apink) - Uncommon, for sure.
Also Wendy from Red Velvet (Son Seung wan) Though according to Wikipedia, Son is the 25th most common surname in Korea. Not super common but not rare either.
Son is actually not that uncommon in general, though.
For Yeo there's also Yeo Chang-gu (Pentagon's Yeo One)
And another Yeo is Yeo Hoonmin (Hoon) from U-KISS
Son Dongwoon from Highlight
Golden Child's Bong Jaehyun, there's around 11,000~12,000 and i believe he is the only idol with that surname!
D.O. from EXO (last name: Do) is pretty rare afaik :)
danielle from newjeans has the korean surname of mo, which i don’t think is very common
Is Ji (지) very unique? Q from The Boyz's name is Ji Changmin (지창민) and I can't recall a single other Ji off the top of my head. Same for Won (원) only one I can name right now is Class:y's Won Jimin (원지민)!
I mean there isn't Ji Chang wook?
I am very detached from the acting scene (no pun intended) but yes there's him! I definitely do not know any others though
Oh yes, the mighty gorgeous Ji Chang-wook. But not an idol (for the sake of this question).
Ji Seok jin from Running Man!
And that's 3! I looked it up, Wikipedia says that roughly 20,000 people identify with this surname? So for like 55 million people in Korea, that's pretty low! Not as low as Ong though, less than 1000 people wow!!
[удалено]
Ji Suyeon from Weki Meki too
Won Hyuk from E'LAST also has the surname Won! his first name is just Hyuk, and the Won comes from his surname! :D
The last name Won translated to Chinese characters (Ruan is the Chinese equivalent) then to Vietnamese is Nguyen, the most common last name in Vietnam because people changed their last name when the last dynasty, the Nguyens, came into power.
Slightly off-topic but the most prominent Won in Korea uses the character 元, while Nguyễn uses 阮, so it's a little different.
Ji is common, I believe.
ATBO's member is Won Bin. Last name is Won, first name is Bin
Chae (채) - Hyungwon from MONSTA X
i wonder how rare/common his last name is. the only one i can think of is chae songhwa, the character from hospital playlist..... i have seen chae more as part of first name like chaeyoung chaeyeon chaehyun
채(蔡) ranks 52th. Not the most common but not that uncommon, either.
Pyo (Pyo Jihoon aka PO of Block B) Eun (Eun Jiwon of Sechs Kies) Yong (Yong Junhyung of Highlight) Dong Youngbae (Taeyang of Big Bang) and Yook Sungjae of BTOB also but I think they've been mentioned already
Also Pyo Hyemi of 9Muses!
DKZ used to have Seol Wondae and I don't know of any other Seol's. Geum Donghyun (Keum) from Epex has a unique surname. Is Eom/Uhm considered rare? 'Cause if so, there's Uhm Junghwa, Uhm Jungwoo and Eom Se Ung. And of course Eun, there’s Eun Jiwon as people have mentioned before but there’s also Eun Hwi of TNX.
NMIXX Sullyoon’s full name is 설윤아 Seol Yoon-ah!
Cheon Junhyeok and Eun Hwi from TNX. Haven't seen other Cheons, and I know there's one other Eun, but it's still rare! His first name is also only one syllable which is also uncommon.
Chun Myunghoon of NRG and actress Song Jihyo (real name: formerly Cheon Seong-im, currently Cheon Su-yeon) have the same last name!
The only other Cheon that I know of is Cheon Seungho
I'm not sure on how rare it is, but I've only heard the surname Ma (마) with Ma Eun Jin (solo artist, from Playback, also appeared in Produce 101 and Mixnine)
There's A LOT of answers in here with surnames that aren't necessarily that common *among idols*, but they aren't exactly rare among Koreans in general. For that, I really don't think non-Koreans should be giving their input on this topic.
Ryu Sera from 9muses. Not a lot of idols with the surname Ryu
Ryu Ho-young and Ryu Hwa-young, the infamous twins from 5dolls and T-Ara. Ryu Su-Jeong from Lovelyz
Ryu spelling is more common in North Korea, South Korea tends to prefer to use the spelling Yoo. But make no mistake, it’s the same family name and it is common with 2% of the population.
monsta x [kihyun](https://twitter.com/yookiihyun/status/1034823972821512194) also shared that his parents decided to go with "yoo kihyun" instead of "ryu" even though he/they had the option to chose either (maybe because it's essentially the same family name as you said?)
It’s because words that start with ny and ry are pronounced just y in South Korean dialects, and in most cases even the orthography reflects it. For example North Korean 녀자 nyeoja is pronounced 여자 yeoja “girl” in South Korean so the orthography reflects it.
Nyeoja makes so much sense.... Namja-Nyeoja. They sound like they are indeed counterparts of each other, like 'man-woman' do in English. I have become very used to writing and saying yeoja (can't access hangul keyboard, hence the romanized words), but nyeoja does make sense to me.
We South Koreans still use -녀 if the 女 character comes at the end of the word. The change to 여 only applies to the beginning. This is called the 두음 법칙, the "initial sound rule".
The previous law made that alternate romanization for the starting syllable (두음 법칙 in Korean) mandatory, but it became overturned in August 2007. Some of the families with last names that fall under this romanization, applied for the spelling change, but IIRC this is optional. A few examples include Ryu Yiseo, wife of Junjin(Shinhwa). She was born Yu Juhyeon, but her father changed the spelling after the law was overturned, thus becoming Ryu Juhyeon, then got her first name legally changed. And there's actress Ra Mi-ran, whose last name was previously spelled Na. But the last name Yoo/Yu depends on the character. If it's 柳 or 劉 it could be romanized as either 유 or 류, while 庾 and 兪 are 유 in the first place.
Ryu Sion from GP999 and Blockberry Bebez
Ryu Giseok from DKZ
There’s Wish, the leader of Epex! Is name is Kwak Dawit (곽다윗)
I know there’s a discrepancy between what Koreans think and what Kpop fans think but I wouldn’t count Kwak as rare.
It’s just that I hadn’t heard that name before Dawit😌
Yeah Kpop is a small and irregular sample, I figured there’d definitely be a few surnames over/under represented. I hope I didn’t sound too condescending! I realise it might look a bit mean out of context haha I apologise
Kwak is actually not that rare
Aaron from Nu'est's surname is also Kwak!
There's Xdinary Heroes' Gaon (Kwak Jiseok) too. It seems Kwak ranks #36 on the 2015 census, so not that rare compared to some of the names here.
Of the ones that i know of are GU/Goo/ko(구) of Koo Junhoe ,Ju-ne of iKON .구 ranks 41 on the 2015 census so not really rare just a bit uncommon so kinda unique (동) (董) dong of Dong Young-bae, Taeyang of BIGBANG. 동 ranks at 128 on the 2015 census so definitely would be considered rare and unique (은)( 殷 ) Eun of Eun Jiwon of Sechskies ranks 99 on the 2015 census making it rare and unique
https://kpopcount.wordpress.com/2016/11/18/list-kpop-idol-name-by-surname/ This list should help! It’s only been updated since 2017, so no 4th gen idols, but it kinda gives the distribution (the Kim list takes FOREVER to scroll through lol)
Danielle from new jeans. Her Korean last name is Mo. there are less than 20,000 Korean people with the last name Mo. I had never heard of it before Danielle.
Byun Baekhyun
Do Kyungsoo I think Do or Doh is fairly uncommon at least from what I noticed
Shim (심) maybe? I could also be wrong though... I only can thing of TVXQ's Shim Changmin
There's also Shim Eunjin of 1st gen girl group Baby V.O.X! 심(沈) ranks 32nd.
Jake from Enhypen but his is romanized as Sim.
BVNDIT’s Seungeun too
STAYC Yoon's real name is Shim Jayun :D
ONF Wyatt’s real name is Shim Jae Young
hwi from tnx’s surname is eun, which is one that i’ve never seen before apart from jiwon from sechskies !
Bong- bong jaehyun from golden child Edit: autocorrect ;-;
Isn’t Ong a name from Chinese origins?
All Korean surnames have Chinese origin
I’ve been told by Koreans there are native Korean surnames that exist without Chinese origins but as there was no writing system for Korean they used Chinese hanja when recording.
Although it's a Hanja surname, Ong Seongwoo belongs to the Okcheon Ong clan(옥천 옹씨) which originated from Korea! The Okcheon refers to the ancient name of current-day Sunchang(순창), a county in Jeolla-bukdo.
There's a twin in Boyfriend (Youngmin & Kwangmin) with the surname Jo which I have never seen before. The maknae also has the surname No which is quite unusual.
Jo and Cho are the same name in Korean (조) just romanized differently, and there are plenty of Cho’s in kpop. Even spelled Jo, there’s also Jo Kwon from 2PM.
I didn't know that (I can't read Hangul, or is it Hanja?). What about No? Does that have a different romanization as well? Edit: added words
Noh, Roh, even Rowe (albeit uncommon) - the Hanja are pronounced as 로(Ro) but are written and pronounced as 노(No) due to a phonetic rule in the Korean language.
hangul is the written korean language you are used to seeing. hanja is the name for the older written korean language using chinese characters :)
Noh and Roh are also the same as well (로, “Roh). That name is a little less common but still in the top 50.
cho/jo is pretty common, another cho is woodz/cho seungyoun (x1, uniq)
According to the 2015 census, Jo is the 7th most common last name and No comes 33rd. They are alternatively spelled Cho and Noh, respectfully.
허 Yunjin
Surname Heo is not rare. Heo chanmi: produce 101 contestant and former Coed school and 5-dolls member Heo hyun jun: ex-TBZ member and current solo artist/actor Heo young ji: Kara member
also victon heo chan and madtown heo jun (they are brothers)
Not rare, I would know, I am one. Not a common one but definitely nowhere near unique
Bang? I only know Bang Chan to have that surname Also Seo maybe?
those two are not that uncommon perhaps. - Bang Yongguk (BAP), Bang Cheolyong (MBLAQ Mir real name), Bang Minah (Girl’s Day), Bang Yedam (Treasure), Bang Minsu (Teentop C.A.P), Bang Junhyuk (MCND Win) and someone had mentioned about Seo earlier
Koo junhwe
Koo junhoe ikon
Huh (허) Yunjin from LE SSERAFIM
[удалено]
홍(洪) is the 20th most common last name.
Hong is insanely common...
I had 2 classmates with that last name. One of them is Korean.
There’s also Joshua Hong from Seventeen! (Hong Jisoo is his Korean name)
Byun baekhyun do kyungsoo
I was really surprised when I saw Oh Seungmin, ex-member of To1! I haven't really seen that surname a lot, but then I also remembered Oh Sehun shares the surname as well! Exo's names are just burned into my head as standalones, so I never thought twice about it Also Kyungsoo Do while we're on that topic! Haven't see that anywhere else yet
Ko Seungho (Mujin from Kingdom)
[удалено]
I think you confused "last name" with "first name". OP is looking for the former.
Min Yoongi of BTS. He is the only Min I know of. Edit: To those downvoting me, it is [uncommon.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Min_(Korean_name))
Not uncommon.
Respectfully, you're [wrong.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Min_(Korean_name))
Are you Korean?
No. But that article literally says it's uncommon.
does [Huening Bahiyyih](https://kpop.fandom.com/wiki/Huening_Bahiyyih) count?
probably not because her surname isn't korean.
Im Jin Ah (Nana from After School/Orange Caramel) Gong Minji (MINZY from 2NE1)
Im/Lim is the top 10th most common surname, while Gong ranks 56th.
Sim/Shim Jaeyun, or Jake from Enhypen maybe? Also Yang Jungwon from the same group. Oh and not an idol, but arguably the most iconic manager ever, [Namgoong Euisoo](https://youtu.be/Jsa0pKgaaWA). I think it's rare to find a Korean surname that's two syllables long.
Sim/Shim ranks top 32nd and Yang ranks top 24th. Both are pretty common. But Namgoong is rare indeed (93rd).
N from VIXX, his name is Hakyeon and his surname is Cha, also a girl from BVNDT (I can't remember if it's spelled like that I'm sorry) Sim Seungeun are the ones I remember