A Korean passport name starts from the Hangul on the family register, spelled in Roman letters syllable by syllable. On given names, the government's letter table usually matches what people carry: counting the foreign ministry's list dated 31 October 2024, we found the table's spelling was the commonest form for 74 of the 100 syllables listed. For surnames it was 7 of 20. That list, the annex to notice 외교부고시 제2024-10호, puts 98.77% of the 5,817,761 people with the surname 이 on a valid passport on LEE. The ministry's own name search, on the one 이 name we tried on 1 November 2026, offered LEE and YI and did not offer the letter table's I.
LEE and YI greet a search for 이 on the ministry's site
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) runs a recommended-spelling search, 추천 로마자 성명 검색, for what many web pages call 여권 영문 이름 and the rules call 로마자성명. We ran 12 queries by hand on 1 November 2026, on invented names and MOFA's own example, across 10 surnames. That is a small sample, run without automation, and only 이서연 carried the surname 이, so the heading above rests on that one query. Below are five of the results we saw, next to a plain reading of the letter table.
| Name entered | Letter table reads | MOFA's search offered |
|---|---|---|
| 이서연 | I SEOYEON | LEE SEOYEON, YI SEOYEON |
| 김빛나 | GIM BITNA | GIM BITNA, KIM BITNA |
| 박영희 | BAK YEONGHUI | BAK YEONGHUI, PAK YEONGHUI |
| 강아 | GANG A | KANG AH |
| 노일 | NO IL | NOH IL |
Each result we saw was labelled as a spelling under the current romanization rules, "현행 로마자 표기법(문화체육관광부 고시 제2014-0042호)에 따른 표기입니다", and the list was described as examples only: "아래 목록은 예시일 뿐이며".
The holder counts paint a different picture again. MOFA's 2024 list has 96.59% of 박 holders on PARK, a spelling the search did not offer for 박영희, and 79.67% of holders of the syllable 영 on YOUNG, where it returned YEONGHUI alone. We found no published logic for the search, so we read no cause into either result.
GIM and BAK read straight off a letter table whose notice leaves surnames out
The letter table belongs to Revised Romanization, the Culture Ministry's system. Article 2-2(1) of the Passport Act Enforcement Rule says the registered name follows that ministry's notice (고시), syllable by syllable to match the sound, with a hyphen allowed in the given name. The notice, as the National Institute of Korean Language shows it, then says of surnames: "성의 표기는 따로 정한다", to be set separately.
Where that clause came from and how the system compares with McCune-Reischauer have their own guides. We found no official statement of what the rule's reference to the notice means for a surname, so GIM, BAK and I are what the table reads and no more. MOFA's page on the basic rule shows both halves in one example: 김빛나 becomes KIM BITNA. BITNA is the syllable rule, with no sound change carried across. KIM comes from outside the table.
JEONG gains on JUNG while KIM stands still
MOFA's two lists, from notice 제2018-1호 and from the 2024 notice, cover the same 20 surnames and 100 syllables. We did not find them compared anywhere. KIM went from 99.53% to 99.55% of 김 holders. For the surname 정, JUNG went from 46.02% to 46.13% and JEONG from 40.96% to 42.48%.
The letter-table share edged up on both sides, by our arithmetic: in 13 of the 17 surnames we could compare, and in 72 of 100 syllables, with 28 falling. Only on given names did that change the commonest spelling. No surname's leader moved, and five syllables flipped, among them 철 from CHUL to CHEOL. These are stocks of valid passports, so a rising share says nothing certain about what parents choose today.
CHOL and BYONG stay on the list by head count alone
MOFA's notice, in force 31 December 2024, sets a bar: a spelling used by 50% or more, or by 10,000 or more, of the people with that Hangul surname or syllable. The earlier notice said 1% or 10,000. A spelling at or above the bar cannot be changed on the ground that it mismatches the sound, and MOFA's explanation, posted by its Siem Reap consulate on 9 January 2025, confines the test to that case. The other grounds in the decree stand apart from it. A spelling that does match the sound is restricted whatever its count: "사용자 수와 관계없이 변경이 제한됩니다".
The 10,000-holder rule carries more weight than the percentage suggests. On the list dated 31 October 2024, by our count, 179 of 282 spellings sit below 50%, and 137 of those are also off the letter table. MOFA prints CHOL at 11,274 of 543,903 holders of 철 and BYONG at 11,793 of 459,512 holders of 병. MOFA calls the list illustrative and says it does not include every name, so absence from it settles nothing about a spelling.
Until 2 November 2026 our Korean passport name romanizer headlined I SEOYEON for 이서연 under the label "Passport name", and gave verdicts from MOFA's 2018 counts against the 2024 bar. Both were our defects. It now holds no MOFA counts. Enter 이 and 서연 and it gives SEOYEON by the passport rule, I as a letter-table reading only, and a link to MOFA's search. A full name appears only as a preview from a family-name spelling you type yourself, so YI gives YI SEOYEON.
BARK and DUCK illustrate the ministry's ground of negative meaning
The Passport Act Enforcement Decree, art. 3-2(2), lists 11 grounds for changing a romanized name, and whether one applies is for the passport office. Ground 5 covers a plainly negative meaning. MOFA's page of grounds gives BARK for 박 and DUCK for 덕 among its examples.
Others include a legal change of the Hangul name and a first passport not yet used. Ground 8 concerns a spelling kept from the last passport issued under 18, where the holder wants the same Hangul spelled differently; MOFA's guidance limits that to once.
The Enforcement Rule names the hyphen alone, while MOFA's basic-rule page also allows a space. That page routes a change to either through the 여권 로마자성명 변경 신청서 form, and warns that a visa may become unusable.
YI, LEE and I await the surname rule the notice promised
This is all based on Republic of Korea practice for valid passports, and MOFA's list does not say how many people carry the spelling I. By our sum, the listed spellings of 이 cover 99.70% of holders, which leaves 17,577 on spellings the list does not show, and I is not among those shown.
The 2024 notice sets a review of its rule by the end of 2027. It promises no new list, and a review of the 50% or 10,000 bar is a different thing from the separate surname rule. Whether such a rule would ever choose among LEE, YI and I, and what it would mean for names already issued, no text we read says.
