Why So Many Koreans Are Named Kim (and Why Some Couldn't Marry)
7-minute video · EpicKor
One in five Koreans is named Kim — 10.7 million people in the government's 2015 count — and five surnames cover half the country. Why "Which Kim?" is always the next question, how a city's nobility went from 9% to 70%, and why some Kims were barred by law from marrying each other until 1997.
Read the full guide
Chapters
- 0:00One in five Koreans is a Kim
- 0:22The 2015 count: Kim, Lee, Park, Choi, Jung
- 0:47Which Kim? The bongwan and two legends
- 2:23How everyone became a Kim
- 4:07Two Kims, one law: the marriage ban
- 6:09So, which Kim?
Sources
- Statistics Korea (now the National Data Office), 2015 Population and Housing Census, surname and bongwan results (7 September 2016)
- National Institute of Korean History, New History of Korea vol. 34 (Daegu household registers) and Database of Korean History (Samguk yusa, Samguk sagi)
- Academy of Korean Studies, Encyclopedia of Korean Culture, "Surnames" and "Minjeok Act"
- Civil Code arts. 809 and 781, and the Special Acts on Marriage of 1977, 1987 and 1995 (Korea Law Information Center)
- Constitutional Court, 95Hun-Ga6, 16 July 1997
- National Archives of Korea
- Hankook Ilbo, 17 July 1997 (couple counts)
