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Your Name in Korean

Korean writes foreign names by sound, not by letter, so the spelling follows how the name is said. Type yours in to see it in Hangul, broken into syllables you can read back.

First name, full name, either is fine.

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In Hangul

마이클

Sounds like

maikeul

This name already has a settled spelling in Korean, so that is what you get rather than a guess from the letters.

Syllable by syllable

  • 마
    ma
  • 이
    i
  • 클
    keul

Why it looks like that

Hangul syllables need a vowel, so consonants that stand alone in English pick up a short 으 — which is why Chris becomes 크리스 rather than something shorter. Sounds Korean does not have get the closest available one: f becomes ㅍ, v becomes ㅂ, and both th sounds usually become ㅅ.

Learning Korean?

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Transcribing a name is a convention rather than a fact, and more than one spelling is often acceptable. If you already write your name a particular way in Korean, keep doing that.