Lee, Seo-Rah & Kang, Hyeon-Seok. (2023). “A Socio-onomastic Study of the Recent Trends and Characteristics of Koreans’ Names”. The Sociolinguistic Journal of Korea, 31(4), 121-147. This study examines the latest trends and changes in Korean naming practice within the socio-onomastic framework. Using the data from the website of the Supreme Court of Korea, the present research analyzes the linguistic features of baby names registered between 2010 and 2021 and identifies how these features reflect the social and cultural characteristics of Korea. The study focuses on popular names (and their first and last letters), syllable structure, types of the coda consonant, and unisex names. The most preferred names for males and females were ‘서준 (Seo-Jun)’ and ‘서윤 (Seo-Yun)’, respectively. Both male and female names showed a preference for ‘지(Ji)’ as the first letter of the name. ‘준 (Jun)’ and ‘은 (Eun)’ were the most frequently used second letter for male names and female names, respectively. For both male and female names, the syllable structure without a coda is increasing while the CVC structure is rapidly decreasing. For both genders, ‘ㄴ’ is the coda consonant with the highest frequency. Male names were found to end with a coda such as ‘ㄱ, ㄴ, ㄹ, ㅁ, ㅂ, ㅇ, ㅊ’, but the use of obstruents ‘ㄱ’, ‘ㅂ’ is sharply decreasing. For female names, ‘ㄴ, ㄹ, ㅁ, ㅇ’ were almost categorically used for the final coda. The study also finds that ‘unisex names’ have significantly increased since the 1970s in Korea.

1. 들어가는 말
2. 선행 연구 및 연구 목적
3. 연구 방법
4. 연구 결과
    4.1. 최근 이름의 동명 빈도 및 변화 추세
    4.2. 남녀 이름 첫 글자와 끝 글자의 빈도와 변화 추세
    4.3. 남녀 이름의 음절 구조 차이와 변화 추세
    4.4. 음절말 자음의 유형과 변화 추세
    4.5. 음절수 유형과 변화 추세
    4.6. 중성적 이름의 증가
5. 요약과 맺음말

• 이서라(Visiting Professor, English Department, Dankook University; 119 Dandaero, Dongnamgu, Cheonan, Chungnam 31116, Korea) | Lee, Seo-Rah
• 강현석(Professor, English Department, Dankook University; 119 Dandaero, Dongnamgu, Cheonan, Chungnam 31116, Korea) | Hyeon-Seok Kang Corresponding author