Wikipedia:Naming conventions (Korean)

In naming Korea-related topics and article titles, please follow these conventions. For infoboxes, templates, romanizations, and other style issues, see also Manual of Style (Korea-related articles).

Romanization of names
Personal, organization, and company names should generally be romanized according to their common usage in English sources. If there is no established English spelling, then Revised Romanization should be used for South Korean names and McCune–Reischauer for North Korean and pre-1945 Korean names.

Generally, Korean templates should be used to show the native script and both romanizations. Please be sure to create redirects from both romanizations and any other likely romanizations and common misspellings.

Name order
Unless the subject is known to prefer otherwise, family name should be written first.

Family name
For many family names, such as Kim, Lee, and Park, there is a single clear common spelling. In cases where the subject has no known personal preference and there is no established English name for the subject, family names are romanized according to the surname's common spelling, which may not necessarily be the Revised Romanization or McCune–Reischauer romanization.

Given name
Koreans variously spell two-syllable given names as a joined word or separated by a hyphen or a space, with the second syllable occasionally capitalized. If there is no personal preference and no established English spelling, hyphenate the syllables, with only the first syllable capitalized (e.g., Hong Gil-dong).

Royalty
The article titles for monarchs should use the format Name (the Great) of Kingdom. For example: Queen Seondeok of Silla; Sejong the Great; Gojong of Korea.

See List of Korean monarchs formatted as above, together with Wikipedia links to the articles for the individual monarchs.

Appropriate infobox templates should be used.

Place names
Articles about places should use the appropriate infobox templates.

Generally, place names are romanized according to the official romanization system of the country the place is a part of. Thus, North Korean place names use McCune-Reischauer Romanization, while South Korean place names use the Revised Romanization of Korean.

Provinces
Translate the terms for administrative divisions "-do". For example, North Gyeongsang Province, not Gyeongsangbuk-do.

Cities
For cities, use the romanization of the city name, without the "-si" (e.g., Seoul, Busan). If disambiguation is needed, "City" may be added.

Counties
For counties, use the romanization of the county name with "County" as the translation for "-gun" or "-kun". If disambiguation is needed, the upper level administrative division's name may be added as the generic class (e.g., Unsan County, South Pyongan).

Districts
There are two kind of districts, autonomous districts (자치구) and non-autonomous districts (일반구). For autonomous districts, use the romanization of the district name with "District" translated the "-gu". Non-autonomous districts are named "X-gu". For North Korean locales, use the romanization of the district name with the "-guyok". For North Korean locales -ku, -chigu, use the romanization of the county name, without the "-ku, -chigu".

Towns, neighbourhoods and villages
For clarity, non-autonomous divisions' articles should be titled with the full name. Towns are named "X-eup" (although "-eup" can be omitted), Townships "X-myeon", Neighbourhoods "X-dong" and villages "X-ri".

Mountains
If there is no clear WP:COMMONNAME for a mountain, apply the following:
 * If the mountain's Korean name ends with either of the terms "san" (산) or "bong" (봉), title their articles with their full unhyphenated Korean names. For example, Seoraksan and Moranbong.
 * If disambiguation is needed, "mountain" can be added—see Disambiguation.
 * If the mountain's name ends in "oreum", split the name. For example, Yongnuni Oreum and not Yongnunioreum.
 * Splitting appears to be the general WP:COMMONNAME convention for oreum. Splitting also results in fewer spelling ambiguities and more segmented names that are easier to quickly parse.

Rivers
Articles about rivers should be named with the river's short Korean name (without gang or kang) followed by the word River. Thus the article on the Nakdong (Nakdonggang) is at Nakdong River.

If disambiguation with a non-Korean river is needed, "(Korea)" can be added -- see Disambiguation. An example of this would be Han River (Korea).

Islands
For islands, the full unhyphenated Korean name including do or seom should be used, as in Baengnyeongdo. If disambiguation is needed, "island" can be added -- see Disambiguation.

This convention applies to islands without an accepted English name. If a different name has been established in common English usage, it should be used, per Use common names.

Sea of Japan
For all articles use:  which is the common name for the sea among English-language sources.

Temples
For Buddhist temples, the full unhyphenated Korean name including sa should be used, as in Bulguksa. If disambiguation is needed, "Temple" can be added -- see Disambiguation.

This convention applies to temples without an accepted English name. If a different name has been established in common English usage, it should be used, per Use common names.

This convention may be applied mutatis mutandis to Confucian and other shrines which lack common or official English names, such as the Jongmyo.

External references

 * dictionary.seoul.go.kr - Seoul City Government Web site giving official English names and romanizations for various concepts, including places, foods, railway lines, etc.
 * Korean Romanization Converter
 * Culture Ministry sets guideline for Romanizing Korean names