Wikipedia:Naming conventions (Korean)

This page (WP:NCKO) provides guidance on how to render the names of Korea-related concepts in the Latin script. See also Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Korea-related articles (MOS:KO). Both WP:NCKO and MOS:KO are applied together for topics that are significantly related to Korea on Wikipedia.

For some explanations of some of the romanization decisions made on this page, see Wikipedia:WikiProject Korea/Romanization of Korean on Wikipedia.

Naming guidelines

Assume that these principles apply to all Korea-related terms.

Strict romanization vs. naming conventions

Do not mistake the guidelines in WP:NCKO for strict applications of romanization; some of our guidelines differ from official romanization standards.

When strictly romanized text is needed, namely within templates like {{Infobox Korean name}} and {{Korean}}, do not apply the rules of WP:NCKO. Instead, strictly apply the rules of the respective romanization systems.

For example, the spelling "Lee Ha-na" should be used everywhere (e.g. article title, in body of any article, in infobox titles) except for when templates like {{Infobox Korean name}} or {{Korean}} ask for RR or MR. Then you should provide "I Hana" ("I" instead of "Lee" or "Yi"; no hyphen).

Use consistent spellings for terms

Generally, if a concept has an article, you should refer to that concept in the bodies and infoboxes of other articles using the article title verbatim. E.g. in an article primarily about North Korea, do not write "Sŏul" (McCune–Reischauer), write "Seoul" (WP:CONSISTENT, MOS:CONSISTENT, and WP:MODERNPLACENAME).

Translating non-people names to English

When there are non-people names (e.g. organization names, titles of works, objects, etc.) that have an established English-language name, that name is used (WP:TRANSLITERATE). For example: N Yukjo → Y Six Ministries of Joseon.

When there aren't enough sources to constitute an established English name, as a last resort you may translate the names to English if there is no loss in accuracy. If you are not sure of or satisfied with the quality of your translation, do not translate; romanize per MOS:KO-ROMAN and other relevant guidelines in the naming conventions section. If you do translate the term, you must also record the original Korean name somewhere. If an invented translated name is the main topic of an article, create redirects for the romanizations and conceivable alternate translations per WP:RPURPOSE.

Ideally, our terminology should be unified within and across articles, meaningful to non-Korean speakers, and traceable to the original Korean for verification. Inventing English names can aid understanding, but missing any of the steps in this guidance can work against our goals.

Create alternate title redirects

Create redirects for conceivable alternate romanizations, translations, and spellings (WP:RPURPOSE).

People names

In order to determine the Latin spelling of a Korean person's name, follow these steps in order and stop when you reach a step that adequately gives a spelling for your situation.

1. Use common name

Per WP:COMMONNAME, use whichever spelling and name for the person is widely used in English-language sources. This may be a name in some other language and not their Korean name. If there is no clear consensus on spelling in the sources, consider moving onto step 2.

2. Follow personal preference

If the person's preferred English name or Latin spelling is known, use that.

3. Romanize

Following the table below, romanize the person's name depending on when and where they are primarily notable. If significantly notable pre-1945 and after the division, prioritize recency.

Primary notability	Romanization system	Notes
Before the division of Korea in 1945 or Northern or North Korea	McCune–Reischauer	No hyphen or space in the given name or in the surname. Assimilate the surname and given name, but not in between the names. Use diacritics. (e.g. 한복남 → Y Han Pongnam, N Han Poknam) For surnames, do not use the surname table below. Romanize using standard MR. Recommend spelling the surname 이 as "Yi" and not "I". Do not use North Korea's variant of MR.
Southern or South Korea	Revised Romanization	For the given name, put a hyphen in only if the given name is exactly two Hangul characters. Do not assimilate the given name. No hyphen or space in the surname. Do not capitalize after the hyphen. (e.g. 한복남 → Y Han Bok-nam, N Han Bong-nam) For the surname, check the surname table below. If the surname is in the table, use the spelling given in the table. If not in the table, romanize using RR. Keep in mind § Strict romanization vs. naming conventions.
Korean diaspora	See notes	Use whichever language name they are most known by in any language source. For example, if they have a Korean name but are most widely known by their Russian name, use their romanized Russian name. If primarily known by their Korean name or for their affiliation with Korea, determine which row above is most appropriate for them and follow it. E.g. for a Zainichi Korean member of the North Korea–aligned Chongryon, use MR.

Surname conversions for South Koreans

Hangul	RR	MR	Use this spelling
김	Gim	Kim	Kim
이	I	I	Lee
박	Bak	Pak	Park
최	Choe	Ch'oe	Choi
강	Gang	Kang	Kang
신	Sin	Sin	Shin
오	O	O	Oh
우	U	U	Woo

Royalty

Generally, if there is no established common name for a monarch, their article titles should use the format "Name of Kingdom". For example: Taejo of Joseon and Gojong of Korea. There are currently some exceptions to this pattern, due to either common name (e.g. Sejong the Great) or disambiguation (Queen Seondeok of Silla and King Seondeok of Silla).

Article titles on princes should follow the "(Grand) Prince title" format. For example: Grand Prince Yeongchang and Prince Yangpyeong. Common names can also be an exception to this rule, such as Yeonsangun of Joseon.

Appropriate infobox templates should be used.

Geographic features

Mountains and hills

See also: Wikipedia:Naming conventions (geographic names) and Wikipedia:WikiProject Mountains § Naming conventions

Unless there is a clear WP:COMMONNAME, romanize the full Korean name using MOS:KO-ROMAN. Then apply the following:

• For names with the terms "san" (산) or "bong" (봉), use their full unhyphenated Korean names. E.g. Seoraksan and Moranbong.
• For names with "oreum" (오름), split the name. E.g. Yongnuni Oreum and not Yongnunioreum.
  • Splitting appears to be the general common name convention for oreum. Splitting also results in fewer spelling ambiguities and more segmented names that are easier to quickly parse.

For disambiguation, put the administrative district(s) the mountain is located in parentheses, e.g. Maehwasan (Gangwon). If the mountain is located in multiple districts, format them like so: Maebongsan (Wonju and Yeongwol) or Gayasan (North and South Gyeongsang). We disambiguate like this by default because Korea has very few distinct mountain ranges, so disambiguating by mountain range often does not work.

Rivers

See also: Wikipedia:Naming conventions (geographic names) and Wikipedia:WikiProject Rivers § Naming

Unless there is a clear WP:COMMONNAME, romanize the full Korean name using MOS:KO-ROMAN. Then replace "gang"/"kang" with "River". For example, Nakdong River and Taedong River.

Islands

See also: Wikipedia:Naming conventions (geographic names)

Unless there is a clear WP:COMMONNAME, romanize the full Korean name using MOS:KO-ROMAN. Keep and do not hyphenate "do" or "seom", e.g. Baengnyeongdo and Ryŏdo.

Controversial place names

See also: Talk:Sea of Japan/FAQ

For places with disputed English names, namely the Sea of Japan/East Sea and the Liancourt Rocks/Dokdo/Takeshima, use whichever terms match the respective current article title. In most cases, there is no need to mention the alternate name(s). Do not use a WP:PIPELINK. Generally, alternate names should only be mentioned if the naming dispute is relevant to the article itself.

As of August 2024:

N The [[East Sea]] is between Japan and Korea.

N The [[Sea of Japan|East Sea]] is between Japan and Korea.

N The [[Sea of Japan]] (East Sea) is between Japan and Korea.

N The [[Sea of Japan]], or East Sea, is between Japan and Korea.

Y The [[Sea of Japan]] is between Japan and Korea.

Y (in an article about Japan–Korea disputes) There is currently a naming dispute over whether the [[Sea of Japan]] should be called the "East Sea".

This guideline is not an expression of preference for any particular name; it is simply following Wikipedia policy.

These titles have changed in the past, and may change again. If you have a strong understanding of the previous move proposals and Wikipedia's policies, and you think you have a good case to propose renaming such contested articles, you are welcome to do so. Do not make move requests lightly; poorly reasoned move requests will likely be WP:SNOWCLOSED.

Temples

Unless there is a clear WP:COMMONNAME, romanize the full Korean name using MOS:KO-ROMAN. E.g. Bulguksa and not "Bulguk Temple".

Works

See also: MOS:NONENGTITLE

If there is no clear WP:COMMONNAME or WP:ENGLISHTITLE, romanize the full Korean name using MOS:KO-ROMAN.

If the title of the work did not have spaces in it (e.g. if it was in Hanja, which does not have spaces), you may optionally consider inserting them into the romanized title. Try to follow common spacing conventions: use spaces to separate ideas or phrases and avoid inserting them indiscriminately between every character.

Titles of works that have been romanized should be presented in italicized sentence case. This generally means just capitalizing the first word and any proper nouns.

YKing Sejong wrote Wŏrin ch'ŏn'gang chigok.

NKing Sejong wrote Wŏrin Ch'ŏn'gang Chigok.

Alternatively, the romanization can be presented with a parenthetical gloss with the original Hangul and/or Hanja, if relevant. If an English translation is provided (as opposed to a romanization) it should also be italicized but using title case:

YKing Sejong wrote a poem called Songs of the Moon Shining on a Thousand Rivers (월인천강지곡; 月印千江之曲; Wŏrin ch'ŏn'gang chigok).

NKing Sejong wrote a poem called Songs of the Moon Shining on a Thousand Rivers (월인천강지곡; 月印千江之曲; Wŏrin Ch'ŏn'gang Chigok).

Administrative divisions

See also: Administrative divisions of North Korea and Administrative divisions of South Korea

Provinces

Use the following spellings for both article titles and in the body of any article (you can truncate the disambiguation for Gangwon/Kangwon Province).

Note that many of these provinces have official English names that differ from these spellings; see Provinces of South Korea for examples. These titles represent the status quo, and are possibly due to a mix of WP:COMMONNAME, WP:USEENGLISH, and WP:TITLECON.

North Korean

• Chagang Province
• North Hamgyong Province
• South Hamgyong Province
• North Hwanghae Province
• South Hwanghae Province
• Kangwon Province, North Korea
• North Pyongan Province
• South Pyongan Province
• Ryanggang Province

South Korean

• North Chungcheong Province
• South Chungcheong Province
• Gangwon Province, South Korea
• Gyeonggi Province
• North Gyeongsang Province
• South Gyeongsang Province
• North Jeolla Province
• South Jeolla Province
• Jeju Province

Cities

See also: List of cities in North Korea and List of cities in South Korea

Use the Wikipedia:COMMONNAME for the city, without "-si" (시) nor English-language terms such as "Metropolitan City" or "Special Self-Governing City". Also, avoid "City" after the name of a city, e.g. Yeosu City.

An exception to the above is for disambiguating Sejong City vs. the person Sejong the Great. Most other disambiguations can be handled by adding a comma and upper-level administrative division, e.g. Anyang, Gyeonggi (vs. Anyang in China).

For pre-modern cities that still exist and go by the same name, use the modern spelling. E.g. use "Gyeongju" for the city during the Joseon period. For pre-modern cities that no longer exist, follow MOS:KO-ROMAN.

Counties

See also: List of second-level administrative divisions of North Korea and List of counties of South Korea

Romanize per MOS:KO-ROMAN, replace "-gun" and "-kun" with "County", e.g. Jindo County.

Districts

See also: List of second-level administrative divisions of North Korea and List of districts in South Korea

Romanize per MOS:KO-ROMAN. Replace "-gu", "-ku", and "-chigu" with "District". Keep "-guyok" for North Korean locations.

Towns, neighborhoods, and villages

Romanize per MOS:KO-ROMAN. Unless there is a clear WP:COMMONNAME, keep "-myeon", "-dong", and "-ri" and do not translate them. "-eup" is optional.

Visual guide

Below is a visual guide for administrative divisions in both North and South Korea, with examples of how to handle each level.

Administrative divisions of North Korea

Level	Subtype	Hangul	Correct rendering	Incorrect renderings	Separate example of disambiguation for subtype
First-level	Province	황해북도	North Hwanghae Province	Hwanghaebuk-do, North Hwanghae	Kangwon Province, North Korea
	Directly governed city Special city Special administrative region	평양직할시	Pyongyang	P'yŏngyang, Pyongyang Chikhalsi	Sinuiju Special Administrative Region
Second-level	City	신의주시	Sinuiju	Sinuiju-si	Anju, South Pyongan
	County	갑산군	Kapsan County	Kapsan-kun, Kapsan	Unsan County, South Pyongan
	District	중구역 청남구 득장지구	Chung-guyok Chongnam Tukchang	Chung Chongnam-ku Tukchang-chigu	Kumho, South Hamgyong
Third-level	Town	보천읍	Pochon-up	Pochon Town	Kujang (town)
	Neighbourhood Village	기정동 풍계리	Kijong-dong Punggye-ri	Kijong Neighbourhood Punggye Village	—
	Worker's district	남양로동자구	Namyang Workers' District	Namyang Rodongja-ku	—

Administrative divisions of South Korea

Level	Subtypes	Hangul	Correct rendering	Incorrect renderings	Separate example of disambiguation for subtype
Provincial level	Province Special self-governing province	경상북도	North Gyeongsang Province	Gyeongsangbuk-do, Gyeongsangbuk-do Province, Gyeongsangbuk Province, Gyeongbuk Province	Gangwon Province, South Korea
	Special city Metropolitan city Special self-governing city	서울특별시	Seoul	Seoul Teukbyeolsi, Seoul Special City	Sejong City
Municipal level	City	수원시	Suwon	Suwon-si	Anyang, Gyeonggi
	County	칠곡군	Chilgok County	Chilgok-gun, Chilgok	Goseong County, South Gyeongsang
	District	종로구	Jongno District	Jongno-gu, Jongno-gu District	Jung District, Daegu
Submunicipal level	District	덕양구	Deogyang District	Deogyang-gu	Nam District, Pohang
	Town	가은읍 평창읍 문산면	Gaeun Pyeongchang-eup Munsan-myeon	Gaeun Town Pyeongchang Town Munsan Township	Seo-myeon, Gyeongju
	Neighborhood Village	삼성동 노근리	Samseong-dong Nogeun-ri	Samseong Neighborhood Nogeun Village	Buam-dong, Seoul