Surname first
A Korean name is a surname followed by a given name, with no middle name; in Hangul there is usually no space between them (Wikipedia: Korean name). In Latin letters, the official Revised Romanization writes the surname first, a space, and the given name joined up — 민용하 Min Yongha, with Min Yong-ha also allowed (Chapter 3, Article 4, Korean).
Surnames are short and few
Most surnames have one syllable; 13 of the 191 in the 2015 census table have two, such as 남궁, 황보, 제갈, 사공, 선우, 서문. 김 Kim, 이 Lee and 박 Park alone account for 44.7% of the people counted in that table. See the surname table.
Given names usually have two syllables
Given names usually have two syllables, although one, three or more also exist (Wikipedia). All 93 names in the yearly top-20 birth lists for 2008–2025 have two syllables. See the lists by year.
Hanja from an official list
Given names are typically made of hanja (Chinese characters), each chosen for its meaning. In South Korea, Article 37 of the Regulations on Registration of Family Relations requires the hanja of a name to come from the Supreme Court’s list of hanja for personal names (Wikipedia; Supreme Court search, Korean). Since 1993, a new given name can be at most five syllables long (Wikipedia).
Native Korean names
Since the late 1970s some parents have chosen native Korean words as names, such as 하늘 (sky) and 다솜 (love). Among newborns, their share rose from 3.5% in 2008 to 7.7% in 2015 (Wikipedia). Native names in the birth statistics we use include 가을 (autumn), 겨레 (kinsmen), 겨울 (winter), 마음 (mind), 미르 (dragon), 보람 (fruitfulness).
Generation names
Traditionally, one of the two syllables of a given name is shared by everyone in the same generation of a family (돌림자, a generation name). Today it is usually no longer shared by cousins but is still often shared by siblings (Wikipedia).
Boys’ and girls’ names
Many names are used for both. Of the 1,984 names in our list from the birth statistics, 255 were registered for boys and for girls with neither above 80%.