Please help with saying my character's name in korean

unhaelily
Posts:1
Joined:2022-02-24, 6:18
Gender:female
Please help with saying my character's name in korean

Postby unhaelily » 2022-02-24, 6:21

I have a character that is named Unhae but her last name is Snowlily. I know Unhae is 운해 but I'm having problems with the last name, should I go with just lily and have it as 백합 or have it sounded out in korean like they do for american first names? If I kept it as Snowlily, how would it look in korean?

Thank you for your time and I hope I could get some help on this matter.

User avatar
linguoboy
Posts:25540
Joined:2009-08-25, 15:11
Real Name:Da
Location:Chicago
Country:USUnited States (United States)

Re: Please help with saying my character's name in korean

Postby linguoboy » 2022-02-24, 18:54

unhaelily wrote:I have a character that is named Unhae but her last name is Snowlily. I know Unhae is 운해 but I'm having problems with the last name, should I go with just lily and have it as 백합 or have it sounded out in korean like they do for american first names? If I kept it as Snowlily, how would it look in korean?

The normal practice would be to transcribe it. This would look like 스노릴리 or possibly 스놀릴리. "Translating" one's name from English to Korean would be extremely unusual. What I have seen before is Westerners adopting a common Korean surname that resembles theirs in sound and/or meaning in order to make things easier.

For instance, my surname is German. Transcribing it into Korean doubles the number of syllables; moreover, it includes several sounds (such as /v/ and /f/) which aren't found in Korean. So when I began studying the language, I took a Korean surname, 교, which has a meaning ("bridge") similar to one of the elements in my actual surname. (I doubt most Koreans would make the connexion; 교 is a very rare surname in Korea and the more common practice is to choose an equivalent based on sound rather than meaning anyway.)

So I guess it comes down to the character's background and how they want to be addressed. Do they want to stand out with a surname that is difficult for Korean speakers to spell and pronounce? Or do they want to blend in? If the latter, then you have a lot of choice of what to go with. 백합 would be unusual, because two-syllable surnames are very rare in Korea, but 백 by itself would be completely unremarkable. (You can find a comprehensive list of Korean surnames here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Korean_surnames.)
"Richmond is a real scholar; Owen just learns languages because he can't bear not to know what other people are saying."--Margaret Lattimore on her two sons

Karavinka

Re: Please help with saying my character's name in korean

Postby Karavinka » 2022-07-29, 13:47

운해 스노우릴리.

Names are almost never "translated" into Korean.


Return to “Korean (한국어)”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 6 guests