# Korean Names in Everyday Conversation

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/korean-names-in-everyday-conversation/683394>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 11, 2014, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/korean-names-in-everyday-conversation/683394 "2014-03-11T00:43:47Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\
**Post date:** [March 13, 2014, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/korean-names-in-everyday-conversation/683394/21 "2014-03-13T03:17:44Z")

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> [@HazelNutCoffee](#):
>
> As a Korean I find it fascinating that people avoid using names as much as possible. There are countless titles you can use among family members that are very specific (for example, what you call your husband’s brother’s wife is different from what you’d call his sister, even though technically they are both your sisters-in-law, and you would NEVER call either of them by name even if they were younger than you). In the workplace people address each other by title as well, even their subordinates.

Interesting. In Japan people will also avoid names for some of these cases, but not others. For example, you call the boss by their title, but usually subordinates by name.

The custom to call family members by “title” (older sister or older brother) or by name depends on the subgroup in Japan. Edokko, the traditional blue-collar folks tend to use names where the upper classes and more “sophisticated” families would use the titles.

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**Author:** ![HazelNutCoffee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@HazelNutCoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HazelNutCoffee)\
**Post date:** [March 13, 2014, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/korean-names-in-everyday-conversation/683394/22 "2014-03-13T04:12:03Z")

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> [@John\_Mace](#):
>
> OK, and I wasn’t too far off on what I thought I was hearing. In case you aren’t familiar with the show, the couple was quite young. Would it be unusual for someone in their 20s or early 30s to use that term? Sun was supposedly from a very wealthy family and Jin was poor, but working for her father.

What you call your spouse depends a lot on what your relationship was before you married. Couples of my parents’ generation often married without really knowing each other that well, so are used to addressing each other politely. If you met in college, you might call your husband obba, which is what girls call boys that are older than them in a casual context. I’ve never met a Korean couple where the woman calls the man just by his name, although I’m sure they exist somewhere.

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**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\
**Post date:** [March 13, 2014, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/korean-names-in-everyday-conversation/683394/23 "2014-03-13T15:18:45Z")

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> [@Green\_Bean](#):
>
> Are there Korean names/expressions that are used to mean “random anonymous person” and “ordinary typical person,” like we’d use John Doe or “a regular Joe?”\*

Amusingly, the North Korean protagonist of the [novel](http://www.amazon.com/The-Orphan-Masters-Son-Pulitzer/dp/0812982622) “The Orphan Master’s Son,” who has a shifting, murky identity, is named Pak Jun Do.

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