Park (Korean surname)
| Country | Korea |
|---|---|
| Parent house | Itself |
| Titles | King of Silla |
| Founded | 57 BC |
| Founder | King Hyeokgeose |
| Final ruler | King Gyeongae |
| Dissolution | Fall of Silla in 935 |
| Park | |
| Hangul | |
|---|---|
| Hanja | |
| Revised Romanization | Bak |
| McCune–Reischauer | Pak |
Park () is the third most frequent Korean surname, traditionally traced back to King Hyeokgeose Park (박혁거세) and theoretically inclusive of all of his descendants. In Chinese characters (Hanja), it is written as . The name "Park" is usually assumed to come from the Korean noun bak (박), which means "bottle gourd". In Standard Chinese it is read as piáo in China, and piáo or pú in Taiwan. In formal and colloquial Korean pronunciation, it is read as 'bak'.
All the Park clans in Korea trace their ancestry back to the first king of Silla, Hyeokgeose. For this reason marriage between Parks had traditionally been prohibited.
According to a legend, the leaders of the six clans of the Jinhan confederacy were gathering on a hilltop to choose a king, when they looked down and saw lightning strike at the foot of the Yangsan mountain and a white horse bow at the same place. When they went there to check, they found a red egg, which hatched a baby boy. They bathed the boy in the nearby stream, and he was emitting bright light, and the sun and the moon rose at the same time, indicating the divine birth of the child. Thus the child was named Hyeokgeose, meaning "ruling with a bright light", and his clan name became Bak, or "gourd" after the round shape of the egg he hatched from. At age 13 he was given the title geoseogan (거서간), the equivalent of "king" at the time. The birth legends of early Korean kings were necessary to validate the "divine" nature of their rule.
Out of the kings of Silla, ten had the Park clan name. During the rule of King Pasa (80–112), the Park clan became divided and during the reign of King Gyeongmyeong (917–924) it became fractured even more, creating several lineages. This is when the nine Park clans named after the nine sons of Gyeongmyeong came into existence.
70-80% of the current bearers of the surname belong to the Miryang Park clan. In 2000, there were 159 Park clans in South Korea, with an approximate number of 3,8 million people altogether.
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