What's in a Name? Introducing the new "Create Your Korean Name" Facebook Application!

Go find the app on Facebook here!

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet". I'm sure we are all familiar with this quote from Shakespeare's, "Romeo and Juliet". A name can weigh much on the lives for many, for Romeo and Juliet, their family names held the entire tragic love story. I'm sure many of us have once questioned the origin of our own names and its meaning; What does my name mean? Who gave me my name? Etc. But the name game runs a bit differently here in Korea than other parts of the world. In celebration of the launch of our new Facebook application entitled "Create Your Korean Name", team AT&D Korea will take this time to shed more light on the unique way names in the Korean Language (or Hangul) is done.

The invention of Hangul came from The Great King Sejong

Before names, let's talk about the invention of the Hangul language for a bit first. Before the invention of the Korean alphabet, Hangul, Koreans used logographic Chinese characters (Hanja) to write Korean. However in 1443 the 4th king of the Joseon Dynasty had completed the invention of Hangul. The Great King Sejong devoted years of his life to developing an alphabet and script that all people could easily learn and understand, regardless of class. The shape and design of the letters were based on the shape and airflow of each sound. Thus, the 24 consonants and vowels of the Hangul script uses the phonetics of the Korean language as its base, which is an underlying reason as to why the language can be easily learned. The Hangul consonants and vowels are grouped into blocks and then each block transcribes into a syllable that is referred to as one "character".

Here is an example of Hangul consonants and vowels grouped into a block to form one character. This character reads as "han"

The Launch of the "Create Your Korean Name" Facebook Application!

A Korean name most commonly consists of 3 block "Characters". The first character is the family name and the 2nd and 3rd character will comprise the individual's name. Traditionally, Koreans put much hope and thought when making a name and the names were derived from logographic Chinese characters. However nowadays, many use authentic or pure Hangul names that solely come from Korean roots.

With this said, let's take a quick look at the steps to create your own Korean name within the app:

Step 1: Choose the type of name you want. Like I mentioned before, do you want a traditional Korean name based on Hanja letters or an authentic Korean name based purely on Hangul meaning?

Step 2: After you choose the kind of name you want, if you choose "Korean Name" you will be prompted to choose 2 character meanings and if you choose "Authentic Korean Name" you will be prompted to choose 1 character meaning

Step 3: Select the name that you like the most! At this stage, you are able to see your choices of names and hear the sounds, and then select which one you like best!

Step 4: Confirm your name and the meaning of your new unique Korean name!

Step 5: Enjoy and share your new name with your profile picture formatted into the "Create Your Korean Name" app name card. You are able to share this on your Facebook wall, through Twitter or download the picture directly onto your computer!

The new "Create Your Korean Name" application is a fun app that gives off an almost mini-game feel to it. The music in the background and narration in the background are there to give more authentic meaning to the overall experience of creating a Korean name. Participants are able to choose between the 2 types of Korean names and see what kind of unique Korean name awaits them! Unlike other make your Korean name programs, this app does not arbitrarily assign names to the participants' birthday. This "Create Your Korean Name" application has tried to emulate the true naming process that Korean people go through. The data base is equipped with real names and much editing and development has been put into the content of this application.

How are people enjoying this application after the first few days of the launch?

After the first few days of the launch, we have received an overall positive response from those abroad and here domestically. Although local Koreans and 2nd generation Koreans may already have Korean names, we see many of them enjoying the process of being able to "re-pick" a name that they may consider to be more appropriate. Foreigners and fans of Korean culture and languages seem to enjoy having a choice of names that are not arbitrary, but are all names that incorporate their personal characteristics and/or features.

This is Advanced Technology and Design Korea's first application and we are glad to have fans from all over enjoy the app. It's still a relatively new app and so we hope to keep updating the data base in the future with even more names and we hope that many people around the world will be able to enjoy a small part of Korea and the history through the "Create Your Korean Name" Facebook application. If you haven't already, get at it yourself here!! >> WWW.CREATEKOREANNAME.COM