Middle Korean Puns

Hello NameNerds!

I am hoping a native Korean speaker can help me out. I am a mixed-heritage Korean person living in North America, and would like to give my baby (arriving in about a week!) a Korean middle name.

Like many children of the diaspora, I have exposure to culture through growing up in a multi-generational household with a Korean grandparent, but I have very limited Korean language skills, and not enough cultural context to know how the following names sound to native speakers.

I would love to know if any of these seem really dated or inappropriate to give a baby, or if I have the name’s gender wrong. Or any other insights you can share about the names. My family uses the generational-name system and so the second syllable has to be “-hee.” I’m also open to any other name suggestions ending in “-hee”!  

Supposedly unisex:

• Yun-hee/Eun-hee (윤희) - some say unisex but some say it’s more feminine?

• Jae-hee (재희)

• Jun-hee (준희)

• Tae-hee (태희)  

Feminine:

• Jin-hee (진희)  

Not sure if unisex or not:

• Kyu-hee (규희)

• Nam-hee (남희)  

Thank you in advance for any help you can offer!

This has long been something I've wondered about. I taught in Chungnam province for EPIK between 2016-2019. I moved up to Seoul in 2019 and have been working in a private elementary school in the city ever since. At both jobs my schools have had a policy of making the students and teachers come back for a week of classes in the middle of the winter break. So for example, the winter term break might start in the end of December and end towards the end of February. However, around the beginning of February there will be a week of school in which all the students will come back for a week of (mostly) random classes unrelated to any curriculum and then will go back on vacation.

I've never gotten a satisfactory answer as to why this practice exists in some public and private schools in SK. I've taught in the US and Thailand and I've never heard of anything similar happening.

I'm wondering if anyone knows what reasons if any are behind this practice as, based off my own observations, I've never seen much of anything productive come out of this random week of classes.

I hope this isn’t a racist thing to ask or it if’s cultural appropriation, and if it is, feel free to hand me my ass.

I often see reference to what Korean influencers or middle eastern influencers do that sounds like it might be more up my alley, but never do I see anyone mention any names. Whenever I try searching myself, I’ll get white westerners reviewing Korean beauty routines or something. That’s not what I’m looking for. I want to expand out in makeup looks. Can I please get some recommendations for Korean or Japanese or Chinese or middle eastern influencers?

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3CqJEYgMCnqrgWB567ERHp?si=90f1ceabe9324846

Did Middle Korean have any words in which the first syllalbe was long and the pitch accent was not on it? If so, how did they mark both vowel length and pitch accent?

Also, do any such words exist nowadays in the Gyeongsang dialect? I know it preserves both vowel length and pitch accent, so it got me wondering.

It's about a girl who is the daughter (niece?) of the king of a country set in medieval/fantasy Korean peninsula. The king dies/is assassinated. She is tasked with protecting the king's successor, her cousin (younger brother?).

I can't remember the girl's name, but she has a really good sense of smell and can smell when demons possess human bodies. She has something like 'a tiger soul'.

Anyway, the kingdom gets invaded by an enemy country, which is either mostly demons or allied with demons. The main character runs, along with the king's successor and a few other characters.

It gets revealed that she is a descendent of the Dragon King, and so is her cousin/younger brother. So they go on this mission to unlock the Dragon King's power, which I know for a fact involves a giant turtle, some riddle/prophecy, and a dragon made of ice.

There is also this really dramatic scene where you see a lot of the royal court ladies jumping off a cliff rather than get captured by the enemy demon/soldiers.

The author was female (I think) and had Korean parents, but grew up in a Western country.

It was intended to be part of a series, so it probably was written sometime between 2008 and 20016.

I heard people said those 3 languages keep the original pronunciation of Sino words from Middle Chinese, and very similiar to Middle Chinese or Cantonese (more than Mandarin)

As a Pakistani, whenever I tell people I'm from Asia, some people would assume I'm probably from China or Japan or any other similar country, until I specify I'm from Middle East.

My partner is Korean and I am Mexican-American. We are naming our son Silas (My Mexican mother has already offered her expected support in the form of, "Well... there's still time to change it." 🙄 But I refuse to change it, I love it and his dad loves it.

But now we are trying to think of a Korean middle name to honor his father's side. Typically a Korean name has two syllables, from what dad has told me, but one-syllable names are becoming increasingly popular.

He offered the names Teo and Han.

I like Teo but I don't much like how it sounds when put with Silas. Silas Teo.

I like Han, it's also short and sweet and, I think, fits much better with Silas. Silas Han.

Could you help us think of other Korean middle names that may fit well with Silas? One or two syllables, I don't mind!