[dba7dba]

>I mean I understand that America's influence on South Korea probably can't be overstated.

I would like to point out that every Korean person's name also has Chinese character behind it.

The new president of S Korea is Moon Jae-in Here are his names that were given by his parents, and used in legal documents.

Korean: 문 재인

Hanja: 文 在寅

[ddoolin]

Not every. Actually it's kind of a trend now to give your kids "pure Korean" names with no Chinese character backing. Both of my children are half Korean and live in Korea and their first names bear no Chinese origin. Similarly there's a trend of giving your children a single syllable given name rather than two syllables.

To clarify, the mother of my children and her family are staunchly Korean with one half from 경상도 and the other 전라남도...not particularly raised with extraordinary exposure to foreigners so I was quite surprised when she agreed with the names.

[dba7dba]

Thanks for pointing it out. Like 2 decades ago I knew a guy with 1 syllable name (like Hoon, Yi) which was quite unique. It had been done for a long time but not as common. I guess it is less rare.

Lol 2 families from 경상도 and 전라남도 joined by marriage...