Korean Names

• In Korean culture the woman keep their own surnames after marriage. The children then take on their husband’s surname. The surname is placed before the given name. Most of these names are monosyllabic (one character).
• “A long history of the use of family names has caused surname extinction. There are only about 250 Korean family names currently in use, and the three most common (Kim, Lee, and Park) account for nearly half of the population… Each family name is divided into one or more clans (bon-gwan), identifying the clan's city of origin. For example, the most populous clan is Gimhae Kim; that is, the Kim clan from the city of Gimhae. Clans are further subdivided into various pa, or branches stemming from a more recent common ancestor, so that a full identification of a person's family name would be clan-surname-branch.”
• ** this is very true and it is a little humorous when us teachers from various schools get together and we all refer to the owner of our private schools as “Mr. Kim”…. And it is all true… it makes over generalizing and blanket statements uncanningly easy.
• “Given names are typically composed of hanja, or Chinese characters. … In South Korea, section 37 of the Family Registry Law requires that the hanja in personal names be taken from a restricted list.[5] Unapproved hanja must be represented by hangul, or Korean characters, in the family registry. …Thus there are now 5,038 hanja permitted in South Korean names, in addition to a small number of alternate forms….While the traditional practice is still largely followed, since the late 1970s, some parents have given their children names that are native Korean words, usually of two syllables. This has been largely restricted to girl's names. Popular native Korean given names of this sort include Haneul (하늘; "Heaven" or "Sky"), Areum (아름; "Beauty"), Gippeum (기쁨; "Joy") and Iseul (이슬; "Dew").”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_name
A Korean friend also once told me that often a mother will give a name to her unborn child and then give the ‘real’ name to the child after it arrives.

Pragmatics
• It is generally rude to refer to someone by their first name (especially adults/elders). Often the suffix ssi (씨) is added to the full name to make it more polite. However, it is inappropriate to address someone by their surname alone, even with such a suffix.[8] Whenever the person has an official rank, it is typical to address him or her by the name of that rank (such as "Manager"), often with the honorific nim (님) added.
• * This is why our students call us “Keira Teacher and Roberta Teacher”—our title… plus the added bonus that teachers are held in respect. Sung Sang Neem (or nim) – the ending nim I was told sort of represents someone with greater/more knowledge.