My Name in Korean

Write your name in Hangul. For common English names you get the spelling Koreans actually use; for everything else, the closest the Korean sound system can get.

What this tool does, and what it cannot do

Korean is written in syllable blocks, and every block needs a vowel. English packs consonants together in ways Korean cannot — there is no way to write str or a bare final t — so an English name always gains syllables on the way in. Chris becomes three blocks, 크리스, because the k and the s each need a vowel to sit with.

Korean also lacks distinct sounds for f, v, z, th and the difference between r and l. Each of those collapses onto the nearest Korean sound: f and p share ㅍ, b and v share ㅂ, r and l share ㄹ. That is why Bob and Bov, or Ray and Lay, come out looking the same. Nothing is wrong with the conversion; the distinction simply does not exist in Korean.

So a Hangul version of your name is an approximation of how it sounds, not a translation. It carries no meaning. If you want a Korean name with actual meaning behind it, that is a different thing — see the Korean name generator.

Where the spellings come from

This tool works in two steps. First it checks a list of roughly 300 common English given names whose Korean spelling is already settled by usage — the way Michael is 마이클 and not something a rule would produce. If your name is on that list, you get the spelling Koreans would recognise on sight.

If it is not, the tool falls back on the rules behind Korea's official loanword transcription standard: r after a vowel is not written (Peter is 피터, not 피터르), short vowels before a final p, t or k close the syllable (Scott is 스콧), and f, v, s, z and th always take their own syllable. The result is labelled as an approximation, because that is what it is.

Why your name may appear in more than one form

Two people with the same name often write it differently in Korean, and both can be right. The official standard says Sarah is 세라; plenty of Sarahs in Korea write 사라 because that is the biblical form. Daniel is 대니얼 by the standard and 다니엘 in everyday use. Neither version is a mistake — one follows the rule, the other follows habit.

The practical answer: whichever version you write on your first form in Korea is the one you should keep using. Consistency matters more than correctness here, because a bank, a phone shop and an immigration office comparing two spellings of the same name will treat them as two different people.

Writing your name on Korean forms

Korean forms usually put the family name first, matching Korean name order, and often provide separate boxes for the Hangul and the Latin-alphabet spelling. When a form asks for both, the Latin spelling should match your passport exactly — that is the version that gets checked. The Hangul is there so staff can read your name aloud.

Long names get shortened in practice. If your full name runs past five or six syllables in Hangul, Koreans will usually use your given name alone, and you will hear it with 씨 attached — Jennifer becomes 제니퍼 씨. That is the normal polite form for an adult you are not close to, and it is a good sign, not a distancing one.

Related tools

To get a Korean name rather than a transcription of your own, try the Korean name generator. To work out your age the way Korea counts it, use the Korean age calculator, and check the time before calling with Seoul time.