Whats In a Korean Name?
A name is meant to convey certain information about the person who carries it or about the thing it is attached to. A name must be distinctive as well as descriptive. But human names are seldom descriptive. If a name is descriptive, it usually is a nickname. If a name is only distinctive, but not descriptive, Shakespeare was right with ‘a rose by any other name…’ However, names are descriptive, maybe not about personality and physique, but about origin, and family relations. Some early human names also described physical characteristics as well. A typical Roman name consisted of three parts: praenomen, nomen, and cognomen. Praenomen was the given name or first name. Nomen indicated the gens, or the family origin. Cognomen is equivalent to the last name. For example, take the most famous name of Julius Caesar. His full name was Gaius Julius Caesar, Gaius being the given name. Julius, or the gens Julia, indicates his family’s origin. There were many branches of the family Julius (gens
