Dawn
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11:03 Dec 04, 2025
If you meet a South Korean, there‘s a 45 per cent chance that their surname is either Kim, Lee or Park. And there’s an even higher probability — some say nearly 90 per cent — that their surname originates from a bogus family tree. According to the latest census data from Statistics Korea, these three surnames account for nearly half the population, which is over 20 million people. Expand that to the top 10 surnames, and you’re looking at 64 per cent of the population. This remarkable concentration has given rise to the Korean expression, “finding Mr Kim in Seoul,” to describe an impossible task — something akin to finding a needle in a haystack. Name game Korean family names may seem simple at first glance. Most are a single syllable, with a staggering concentration of a few popular names rarely seen elsewhere. However, there are many sub-branches even within the same surname. Each surname is associated with a clan name, which indicates the name‘s regional origin or ancestral hometown. Although there are trad...