names

"When I was very little, perhaps only six years old, my father came up to me one day and said, ‘You must change your name.’ He had been to a name-giver, who had looked at my name, my birthdate and the time I was born. Based on that information, he figured that my name was not suitable for me. He told my father that if I kept that name, I would die sooner than I was supposed to. My father really freaked out, and he decided to change my name.

"Actually, my first name was given to me by my mother. At the time my mother was expecting, my parents were renting a room in a big house. The landlandy’s daughter had the name Suh-ki, which means ‘modest’ or ‘quiet’ girl. What a nice name, eh? Anyway, my mother thought that name was really, really nice. She decided that if she gave birth to a girl, she would name her that.

"Getting back to the name-giver, he said that Suh-ki was not a good name for me. He gave me my present name, Ji-min. Ji means ‘wisdom’ and min means ‘to become.’ So my name means ‘to become wise,’ or ‘get wisdom.’ I really like the name. It’s much more intellectual than ‘quiet’ girl. The name- giver told my father if I changed my name, I would become the president of Korea. So I will see what happens.

"Also, my sister changed her name. It was Mi-ran, which means something like ‘beautiful flower.’ Now her name is Su-min. Su means ‘bright’ or ‘smart,’ so her name means ‘to become smart.’

"By looking at both my name change and my sister’s, I think you can see how attitudes about women have changed in Korea. In my mother’s generation, the fashion was to use names for girls that meant ‘quiet,’ ‘modest,’ ‘beautiful,’ or ‘flower.’ Nowadays, min is getting to be very popular. In addition to meaning ‘to become,’ it also means ‘fast’ and ‘very smart.’ This syllable gives the feeling of a very active, modern person.

"For Koreans, first names are also important in terms of family. If you look at my name and my sister’s, we both share one syllable: min. My little sister also has the same syllable, min, as part of her name. Making the same syllable part of each of our names shows we have this strong family bond."

	Document Revision: by easc@indiana.edu