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This guideline documents an English Misplaced Pages naming convention. Editors should generally follow it, though exceptions may apply. Substantive edits to this page should reflect consensus. When in doubt, discuss first on this guideline's talk page.

Shortcuts WP:NCKO WP:NC-KO WP:NCKOREAN

This page (WP:NCKO) provides guidance on how to render the names of Korea-related concepts in English. See also Misplaced Pages:Manual of Style/Korea-related articles (MOS:KO). Both WP:NCKO and MOS:KO are applied together for topics that are significantly related to Korea on Misplaced Pages.

Naming guidelines

Unless if stated otherwise in each subsection of § Naming conventions, assume that these principles apply to all Korea-related terms.

Strict romanization vs. naming conventions

• MOS:KO-STRICT
• MOS:KO-TEMPLATEROMAN

Do not mistake the guidelines in WP:NCKO for strict applications of romanization; some of our guidelines differ from official romanization standards.

When strictly romanized text is needed, namely within templates like {{Infobox Korean name}} and {{Korean}}, do not apply the rules of WP:NCKO. Instead, strictly apply the rules of the respective romanization systems.

For example, the spelling "Lee Ha-na" should be used everywhere (e.g. article title, in body of any article, in infobox titles) except for when templates like {{Infobox Korean name}} or {{Korean}} ask for RR or MR. Then you should provide "I Hana" ("I" instead of "Lee" or "Yi"; no hyphen).

Same terms for article titles and in the body

Per WP:CONSISTENT and MOS:CONSISTENT, generally, if a concept has an article, you should refer to that concept in the bodies of other articles using the article title verbatim. E.g. in an article primarily about North Korea, do not write "Sŏul" (McCune–Reischauer), write "Seoul".

Translating non-people names to English

• MOS:KO-TRANSLATENAME

Per WP:TRANSLITERATE, when there are non-people names (e.g. organization names, titles of works, objects, etc.) that have an established English-language name, that name is used. For example: N Yukjo → Y Six Ministries of Joseon.

When there aren't enough sources to constitute an established English name, as a last resort you may translate the names to English if there is no loss in accuracy. If you are not sure of or satisfied with the quality of your translation, do not translate; romanize per § Romanization and other relevant guidelines in the naming conventions section. If you do translate the term, you must also record the original Korean name somewhere. If an invented translated name is the main topic of an article, create redirects for the romanizations and conceivable alternate translations per WP:RPURPOSE.

Ideally, our terminology should be unified within and across articles, meaningful to non-Korean speakers, and traceable to the original Korean for verification. Inventing English names can aid understanding, but missing any of the steps in this guidance can work against our goals.

Create alternate title redirects

Per WP:RPURPOSE, create redirects for conceivable alternate romanizations, translations, and spellings.

People names

In order to determine the Latin spelling of a Korean person's name, follow these steps in order and stop when you reach a step that adequately gives a spelling for your situation.

1. Use common name

Per WP:COMMONNAME, use whichever spelling and name for the person is widely used in English-language sources. This may be a name in some other language and not their Korean name. If there is no clear consensus on spelling in the sources, consider moving onto step 2.

2. Follow personal preference

If the person's preferred English name or Latin spelling is known, use that.

3. Romanize

Following the table below, romanize the person's name depending on when and where they are primarily notable. If significantly notable in multiple categories below, prioritize recency.

Royalty

Generally, if there is no established common name for a monarch, their article titles should use the format "Name of Kingdom". For example: Taejo of Joseon and Gojong of Korea. There are currently some exceptions to this pattern, due to either common name (e.g. Sejong the Great) or disambiguation (Queen Seondeok of Silla and King Seondeok of Silla).

Article titles on princes should follow the "(Grand) Prince title" format. For example: Grand Prince Yeongchang and Prince Yangpyeong. Common names can also be an exception to this rule, such as Yeonsangun of Joseon.

Appropriate infobox templates should be used.

Administrative divisions

Provinces

Use the following spellings for both article titles and in the body of any article (you can truncate the disambiguation for Gangwon/Kangwon Province).

Note that many of these provinces have official English names that differ from these spellings; see Provinces of South Korea for examples. These titles represent the status quo, and are possibly due to a mix of WP:COMMONNAME, WP:USEENGLISH, and WP:TITLECON.

North Korean

• Chagang Province
• North Hamgyong Province
• South Hamgyong Province
• North Hwanghae Province
• South Hwanghae Province
• Kangwon Province, North Korea
• North Pyongan Province
• South Pyongan Province
• Ryanggang Province

South Korean

• North Chungcheong Province
• South Chungcheong Province
• Gangwon Province, South Korea
• Gyeonggi Province
• North Gyeongsang Province
• South Gyeongsang Province
• North Jeolla Province
• South Jeolla Province
• Jeju Province

Cities

Use the Misplaced Pages:COMMONNAME for the city, without "-si" (시) nor English-language terms such as "Metropolitan City" or "Special Self-Governing City".

An exception to the above is for disambiguating Sejong City vs. the person Sejong the Great. Most other disambiguations can be handled by adding a comma and upper-level administrative division, e.g. Anyang, Gyeonggi (vs. Anyang in China).

For pre-modern cities that still exist and go by the same name, use the modern spelling. E.g. use "Gyeongju" for the city during the Joseon period. For pre-modern cities that no longer exist, follow § Romanization.

Counties

Romanize per § Romanization, replace "-gun" and "-kun" with "County", e.g. Jindo County.

Districts

Romanize per § Romanization. Replace "-gu", "-ku", and "-chigu" with "District". Keep "-guyok" for North Korean locations.

Towns, neighborhoods, and villages

Romanize per § Romanization. Unless there is a clear WP:COMMONNAME, keep "-myeon", "-dong", and "-ri" and do not translate them. "-eup" is optional.

Visual guide

Below is a visual guide for administrative divisions in both North and South Korea, with examples of how to handle each level.

Geographic features

Mountains and hills

Unless there is a clear WP:COMMONNAME, romanize the full Korean name using § Romanization. Then apply the following:

• For names with the terms "san" (산) or "bong" (봉), use their full unhyphenated Korean names. E.g. Seoraksan and Moranbong.
• For names with "oreum" (오름), split the name. E.g. Yongnuni Oreum and not Yongnunioreum.
  • Splitting appears to be the general common name convention for oreum. Splitting also results in fewer spelling ambiguities and more segmented names that are easier to quickly parse.

For disambiguation, put the administrative district(s) the mountain is located in parentheses, e.g. Maehwasan (Gangwon). If the mountain is located in multiple districts, format them like so: Maebongsan (Wonju and Yeongwol) or Gayasan (North and South Gyeongsang). We disambiguate like this by default because Korea has very few distinct mountain ranges, so disambiguating by mountain range often does not work.

Rivers

Unless there is a clear WP:COMMONNAME, romanize the full Korean name using § Romanization. Then replace "gang"/"kang" with "River". For example, Nakdong River and Taedong River.

Islands

Unless there is a clear WP:COMMONNAME, romanize the full Korean name using § Romanization. Keep and do not hyphenate "do" or "seom", e.g. Baengnyeongdo and Ryŏdo.

Controversial place names

• MOS:KO-CPN
• MOS:SoJ
• MOS:SEAOFJAPAN
• MOS:EASTSEA
• MOS:LIANCOURT
• MOS:DOKDO
• MOS:TAKESHIMA

For places with disputed English names, namely the Sea of Japan/East Sea and the Liancourt Rocks/Dokdo/Takeshima, use whichever terms match the respective current article title. In most cases, there is no need to mention the alternate name(s). Do not use a WP:PIPELINK. Generally, alternate names should only be mentioned if the naming dispute is relevant to the article itself.

As of August 2024:

N The ] is between Japan and Korea.

N The ] is between Japan and Korea.

N The ] (East Sea) is between Japan and Korea.

N The ], or East Sea, is between Japan and Korea.

Y The ] is between Japan and Korea.

Y (in an article about Japan–Korea disputes) There is currently a naming dispute over whether the ] should be called the "East Sea".

This guideline is not an expression of preference for any particular name; it is simply following Misplaced Pages policy.

These titles have changed in the past, and may change again. If you have a strong understanding of the previous move proposals and Misplaced Pages's policies, and you think you have a good case to propose renaming such contested articles, you are welcome to do so. Do not make move requests lightly; poorly reasoned move requests will likely be WP:SNOWCLOSED.

Temples

Unless there is a clear WP:COMMONNAME, romanize the full Korean name using § Romanization. E.g. Bulguksa and not "Bulguk Temple".

Works

If there is no clear WP:COMMONNAME or WP:ENGLISHTITLE, romanize the full Korean name using § Romanization.

If the title of the work did not have spaces in it (e.g. if it was in Hanja, which does not have spaces), you may optionally consider inserting them into the romanized title. Try to follow common spacing conventions: use spaces to separate ideas or phrases and avoid inserting them indiscriminately between every character.

Titles of works that have been romanized should be presented in italicized sentence case. This generally means just capitalizing the first word and any proper nouns.

YKing Sejong wrote Worin cheongang jigok.

NKing Sejong wrote Worin Cheongang Jigok.

Alternatively, the romanization can be presented with a parenthetical gloss with the original Hangul and/or Hanja, if relevant. If an English translation is provided (as opposed to a romanization) it should also be italicized but using title case:

YKing Sejong wrote a poem called Songs of the Moon Shining on a Thousand Rivers (월인천강지곡; 月印千江之曲; Worin cheongang jigok).

NKing Sejong wrote a poem called Songs of the Moon Shining on a Thousand Rivers (월인천강지곡; 月印千江之曲; Worin Cheongang Jigok).

Notes

1. If inline, in parentheses or in a footnote. If the main article topic, in the {{Infobox Korean name}} and in the lead first parentheses.
2. No hyphen if more or less than two characters.

• Misplaced Pages naming conventions