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Korean surname From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Oh or O is a family name in Korea. It is written using the hanja characters, 吳, 五, 伍, 吾, and 晤. According to the 2015 census in South Korea, there were 763,281 people carrying the O surname.[1]
Oh | |
Hangul | 오 |
---|---|
Hanja | 吳 五 伍 吾 晤 |
Revised Romanization | O |
McCune–Reischauer | O |
The earliest ancestor of the Korean Oh family is believed to be Oh Eung (Korean: 오응; Hanja: 吳應) from Silla, the son of Oh Cheom known to be the Chinese royal descendant who migrated from China to Korea and married the daughter of Kim Jong-ji in Silla.[2]
16 clans have historically emerged under the family name Oh. The largest five clans, in order, are Haeju, Dongbok, Boseong, Hamyang, and Gunwi Oh clans. Out of these clans, the three largest clans were founded by the three brothers of Oh Hyeon-bo, Oh Hyeon-jwa, and Oh Hyun-pil, who each was given the governor position of Haeju, Dongbok, and Boseong counties as the rewards for defending Goryeo against the attack by the Khitan people.[3]
Each of the five biggest clans traces its founder back to:
In the modern era, the O (or Oh) family of North Korea is a North Korean family whose members have been considered close to the ruling Kim family over several generations because of O Jung-hup, who was a revolutionary fighter closely associated with Kim Il-sung. They are regarded as being highly influential in the North Korean regime and second only to the Kim's.[8]
Most Koreans in the US prefer the surname Oh rather than O as a single letter name can often be misunderstood as an abbreviation or misprinting.[9]
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