Young (Korean name)

Young, also spelled Yeong, Yong, or Yung, is an uncommon Korean surname, a single-syllable Korean given name, and an element in many two-syllable Korean given names. As given name meaning differs based on the hanja used to write it. There are 43 hanja with the reading yeong on the South Korean government's official list of hanja which may be registered for use in given names, as well as 28 with the reading ryeong and six with the reading nyeong.

As a Korean family name, Young can be written with three different hanja, indicating different lineages. According to the 2000 South Korean Census, a total of 259 people had these family names.^[1]

• 永 (길 영 gil yeong 'eternal'): 132 people and 40 households. Reported bon-gwan (clan hometowns) included Gangnyeong, Gyeongju, and Pyeonghae.^[1] Although the family name was found in numerous historical records, it was recorded under the census for the first time in a 1930 survey by Japanese colonial government with one family living in Seoul.^[2] More families bearing the surname has been found since then in the contemporary census surveys.
• 榮 (영화 영 yeonghwa yeong 'flourishing'): 86 people and 20 households. There was one reported bon-gwan, Yeongcheon, and two people whose bon-gwan was not recorded.^[1] This character is also used to write a Chinese family name now pronounced Róng in Mandarin.
• 影 (그림자 영 geurimja yeong 'shadow' or 'reflection'): 41 people and 15 households. There was one reported bon-gwan, Seoncheon, and one person whose bon-gwan was not recorded.^[1] Seoncheon is located in an area that became North Korean territory after the division of Korea; one person with this family name who had come from North Korea and was living in Seoul stated that there had previously been many more people with that family name living near Seoncheon.^[3]

Article 44 of South Korea's Act on Registration of Family Relations [ko] gives the Supreme Court the power to define the list of hanja permitted for use in given names. Under the Supreme Court's regulations, that list consists of the Basic Hanja for educational use and a list of additional hanja permitted for use in given names. There are nine basic hanja for educational use with the reading yeong, as well as five with the reading ryeong and one with the reading nyeong which may be pronounced as yeong according to the dueum beopchik rule of Korean phonology, among which three have additional approved variant forms^[4]

While as of June 2022^[update], the list of additional hanja permitted for use in given names contains 34 hanja with the reading yeong (including two which are variant forms of another in the same list), 28 hanja with the reading ryeong (with one permitted variant form, and two which are variant forms of one in the list of Basic Hanja for educational use), and five hanja with the reading nyeong:^[4]

Koreans with the single-syllable given name Young include:

• Ch'oe Yŏng (1316–1388), Goryeo dynasty male general
• Song Yeong (born 1950), South Korean male writer
• Chin Young (born 1950), South Korean male politician
• Kim Young (born 1980), South Korean female professional golfer
• Seo Young (born 1984), South Korean actress
• You Young (born 2004), South Korean female figure skater

Names containing this element were popular for newborn boys in South Korea from the 1940s through the late 1960s.^[5] Korean names which begin with this element include:

Korean names which end with this element include:

• List of Korean given names

Name list

This page or section lists people that share the same given name or the same family name.
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