How English names are written in Korean

Korean writes foreign names by sound, using the official loanword rules (외래어 표기법) kept by the National Institute of Korean Language. Here are the rules that matter for names, with examples from our list of 214 names.

1. Only the 24 basic letters, and only 7 can end a syllable

Loanwords use the 24 basic Hangul letters. At the bottom of a syllable block (받침) only ㄱ ㄴ ㄹ ㅁ ㅂ ㅅ ㅇ are used. The doubled "tense" letters ㄲ ㄸ ㅃ are not used for p, t, k. (Chapter 1, Articles 1, 3, 4)

2. Sounds Korean does not have

f → ㅍ (Jennifer → 제니퍼, Faith → 페이스) and v → ㅂ (Kevin → 케빈, Olivia → 올리비아).
th → ㅅ as in "thin" (Ethan → 이선, Ruth → 루스). Thomas is pronounced with a plain t, so it is 토머스.
z → ㅈ (Zoe → 조이, Hazel → 헤이즐).
r before a vowel is ㄹ (Ryan → 라이언). An r that is not followed by a vowel is not written: Mark → 마크, Peter → 피터, Taylor → 테일러. (Chapter 2, Table 1)

3. Consonants at the end of a name

After a short vowel, a final p, t, k becomes a bottom consonant: Nick → 닉, Matt → 맷, Jack → 잭. Otherwise it gets the vowel ㅡ (eu): Mike → 마이크, Kate → 케이트. (Ch.3 §1 Art.1)
b, d, g at the end or before a consonant always take ㅡ: Caleb → 케일럽, David → 데이비드. (Art.2)
s, z, f, v, th likewise: James → 제임스, Max → 맥스, Rose → 로즈. sh at the end is 시 (Josh → 조시). (Art.3)
ch and j at the end are 치 and 지; before a vowel they are ㅊ and ㅈ. (Art.4)
m, n, ng become bottom consonants ㅁ ㄴ ㅇ: Tom → 톰, John → 존, Frank → 프랭크. (Art.5)

4. The double ㄹ

An l between vowels is written ㄹ + ㄹ: Ella → 엘라, Lily → 릴리, Holly → 홀리. At the end of a name it is a bottom ㄹ: Paul → 폴, Carol → 캐럴. (Art.6)

5. Vowels

Long vowels are not marked: "ee" and "ea" are simply 이. (Art.7)
Gliding vowels keep each part: "i" in Mike is 아이, "a" in Kate is 에이, "oy" is 오이 — but the "o" in Joe or Rose is just 오. (Art.8)
w and y merge with the next vowel: William → 윌리엄, Owen → 오언. After d or t, w starts a new syllable: Edward → 에드워드. (Art.9)

Standard vs. common spelling

Many names have a well-known spelling that differs from the standard, for example 다니엘 (Daniel), 사라 (Sarah) or 매튜 (Matthew). Both are understood. Our list shows the standard form first and the common one next to it.

Limits of the automatic converter

English spelling does not always show pronunciation, so for names outside our checked list the converter guesses the sound from the letters. It is labeled "approximate". Names from Spanish, Filipino, French and other languages are written in Korean by their original pronunciation — the second option (closer to the letters) is often better for those. For official documents, check with the issuing office.

Sources

외래어 표기법 (Korean loanword orthography), Ministry of Education notice 85-11, 1986, maintained by the National Institute of Korean Language (국립국어원) — published in the Korean language norms (어문 규범) section of korean.go.kr.
Romanization shown as "sounds like" uses the letters of the Revised Romanization of Korean (2000), applied block by block without sound-change rules.
The name list (standard and common spellings) was compiled and checked by hand for this site.

Privacy

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Contact

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