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*[[Park Sang-min]] (born 1970), South Korean actor
*[[Park Sang-min]] (born 1970), South Korean actor
*[[Se Ri Pak]] (born 1977), South Korean golfer
*[[Se Ri Pak]] (born 1977), South Korean golfer
*[[Park Seung-Hi]] (born 1992), South Korean short track speed skater, Olympic bronze medalist in the 1500m
*[[Park Shi Yeon]] (born 1979), South Korean actress, 2000 Miss Korea 2nd runner up
*[[Park Shi Yeon]] (born 1979), South Korean actress, 2000 Miss Korea 2nd runner up
*[[Park Shin-yang]] (born 1968), South Korean actor
*[[Park Shin-yang]] (born 1968), South Korean actor

Revision as of 20:41, 25 February 2010

Park
Hangul
박
Hanja
朴 (樸)
Revised RomanizationBak
McCune–ReischauerPak
percentage of family names in Korea
  Kim, Gim
  Lee, Yi, Rhee
  Bak, Park, Pak
  Choi
  Jung, Jeong, Chung, Cheong

Park or Pak (pronounced bahk) is a common Korean family name, whose origin goes back to King Park Hyeokgeose, the founder of the Silla dynasty in 57 BCE. When written with a Chinese character (Hanja), it uses a character that means "sincere," "simple" and "unadorned." When the case is based on the surname, it means plain. It is usually transliterated as either Pak (as in Pak Se Ri, a golfer) or Park (as in Park Chung Hee, former president of Korea, Park Chan Ho, a Major League Baseball pitcher, and Park Ji-Sung, a Manchester United player). Nine percent of the Korean population share this surname.

History

According to the legend, Park Hyeokgeose was the founder of this Korean surname. A horse lead a village chief to the location of a big egg, and he was said to have been hatched from the egg. When the egg shell cracked, there were rays of light that came from it. A big egg resembled "bahk," lagenaria leucantha, a family of gourd widely found in Asia similar to African Calabash. When he turned thirteen, he became the founding king of the ancient Korean kingdom of Silla in 57 BCE.

Clans

As with most other Korean family names, there are many Park clans, each of which consists of individual Park families. According to the last census in 2000 [1], there are 161 Park clans in South Korea consisting in total of 1,215,918 households made up of 3,895,121 individuals.

Even within each clan, people in different families are not related to each other. These distinctions are important, since Korean law used to prohibit intermarriage in the same clan, no matter how remote the relationship; now, however, only those in a relationship of second cousins or closer may not marry.

As with other Korean family names, the Park clans are distinguished by bon-gwan, the place from which they claim to originate. Of these clans, the Miryang (Milseong) clan is the largest at 3,031,478 people (about 77% of all Parks). Other notable clans include the Goryeong clan which produced South Korean leader Park Chung Hee.

List of people with the name "Park" or "Pak"

See also

— Royal house —
House of Park
Founding year: 57 BC
Preceded by Ruling House of Korea
57 BC – 935 AD 		Next:
House of Wang
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