Stroke count · 획수
Traditional name selection considers the stroke count (획수) of each hanja character. Auspicious totals are believed to harmonize fortune across the five elements (오행).
An interactive guide to how Hangeul (한글) characters combine to form Korean given names — meaning, sound harmony, hanja origin, and the five-elements (오행) tradition behind the characters our parents chose.
i·reum · name
Popular characters in Korean given names by decade. Source: synthetic dataset, illustrative.
Hangeul, romanization, hanja origin and meaning — click a card to flip it.
Traditional name selection considers the stroke count (획수) of each hanja character. Auspicious totals are believed to harmonize fortune across the five elements (오행).
Wood (목), fire (화), earth (토), metal (금), water (수). A balanced name distributes these among its characters. Below, dots beside example characters mark their dominant element.
Many Korean families share a fixed character (돌림자) across all members of the same generation, weaving lineage directly into a personal name.
The generative cycle of the five elements — each element nourishes the next. 상생(相生) · 목→화→토→금→수