“Chongjanggwanjonso” and Origin of Some Common

“Chongjanggwanjonso” is a huge 75-volume collection of works by Ri Tok Mu (1741-1793), an 18th-century realist scholar, in which he introduces a lot of Korean surnames of those days, as well as those of the former times.

There he also describes some rare (queer) surnames and their interesting origins. In volumes 55, 56 and 60 in the part of “Angyopgi”, there are mentioned queer surnames like Nyu, Wak, Hwing, Hal, Ppyom, etc. of obscure origin, which are said to have existed in the period of Koryo dynasty.

In addition, there is recorded Tamul, an indigenous Korean two-character surname. While explaining about the queer surnames, the author also writes about the origin of surnames So and Sun (volume 62).

Through the above-mentioned data of some surnames, we can see not only the history of the diverse indigenous surnames of the Korean nation, but also the aspects of their life with beautiful minds and noble personalities of helping and leading each other