Lee (Korean surname)
| Lee | |
|---|---|
.svg)
The one of hanja for Yi
|
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| Pronunciation | [iː] or [riː] |
| Language(s) | Korean |
| Origin | |
| Language(s) | Chinese |
| Word/Name | Korean peninsula |
| Meaning |
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| Other names | |
| Variant(s) | I, Yi, Ri, Rhee, Rhie |
| See also | Li, Lý |
| Families | |
| Deoksu clan, Jinseong clan, Yong-in clan, Gyeongju clan, Yeoju clan, Jeonju clan, Danyang clan, Yangsan clan, Suan clan, Seongjoo clan, Hongju clan, Yeonan clan | |
| Yi (Ri) | |
| Hangul | 이 (리) |
|---|---|
| Hanja | , , |
| Revised Romanization | I (Ri) |
| McCune–Reischauer | Yi (Ri) Note: North Korean usage for only "李" is in parentheses, also between North and South usage for "異" and "伊" is only out of parentheses |
Lee is the typical romanization of the common South Korean surname I (Hangul ), North Korean surname Ri (). The name is written identically to the Chinese name Li 李 in Hanja characters. It is the second-most-common surname in Korea, behind only Kim.
Though the official Revised Romanization spelling of this surname is I, South Korea's National Institute of the Korean Language noted in 2001 that one-letter surnames were quite rare in English and other foreign languages and could cause difficulties when traveling abroad. However, the NIKL still hoped to promote systemic transcriptions for use in passports, and thus recommended that people who bore this surname should spell it Yi in the Roman alphabet.
The overwhelming majority of South Koreans with this surname ignored this recommendation and continue to spell it as Lee. In a study based on 2007 application data for South Korean passports, it was found that 98.5% of people with this surname spelled it in Latin letters as Lee in their passports, while only 1.0% spelled it Yi.
A few people with this surname historically spelled it Ye, as in Ye Wanyong of the Korean Empire. Rhee has also been used as the Latin letters as in Syngman Rhee and Simon Hang-bock Rhee
As with all Korean family names, the holders of the Yi surname are divided into different patrilineal clans, or lineages, known in Korean as bon-gwan, based on their ancestral seat. Most such clans trace their lineage back to a specific founder, and are generally not related to one another. This system was at its height under the yangban aristocracy of the Joseon Dynasty, but it remains in use today. There are approximately 241 such clans claimed by South Koreans. Most people with surname Yi (李) in Korea belong to either the Jeonju or Gyeongju clans. Also surname Yi (異) and Yi (伊) each have a different clans.
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