Unity and Consistency in the Romanization of Korean Personal Names.

한국인의 로마자 인명 표기의 통일성과 일관성: ≪영어영문학≫게재자를 중심으로

The aim of this paper is two-fold. First, it examines the romanization of personal names of the teachers who teach English at a university and compares it with the romanization of the general public to see whether there is a unity between the two groups. Second, it explores whether the teachers romanize their personal names consistently and, if they don't, how differently they romanize their names. The data used in this study are the romanized names of the 313 authors who published their articles in The Journal of English Language and Literature from 1991 to 2000. The study shows that the English teachers and the general public differ in the order of the given name and surname as well as formatting. Most of the English teachers prefer to put their surnames last while the majority of the general public put their surnames first. The English teachers opt Gn-Gn and Gngn whereas the general public select Gn Gn for their given names. However, both groups, in general, spell the surname with the same Roman alphabets. The study also shows that the English teachers frequently reverse the order of the given name and surname, and change the formatting of their given names. They, however, spell their names rather consistently. This result indicates that Koreans may be lenient with the order of the given name and surname and formatting of their given names. However, they will unlikely change the spelling of their names even when a new policy on personal names is promulgated.