Tae (Korean name)


Tae, also spelled Tai or Thae, is a rare Korean family name, a single-syllable masculine Korean given name, and an element used in many two-syllable Korean given names. As a family name, it is written with a hanja meaning "great", while in given names, it may have a variety of meanings depending on the hanja used to write it.

As a family name

As a family name, Tae is written with only one hanja, meaning "great". The 2000 South Korean Census found 8,165 people with the family name Tae. In a study by the National Institute of the Korean Language based on 2007 application data for South Korean passports, it was found that 28.5% of people with that surname spelled it in Latin letters as Tai in their passports, vs. 57.1% as Tae. People with this surname trace their origins to various bon-gwan, including Namwon, Jeollabuk-do and Yeongsun-myeon, Gyeongsangbuk-do, both in what is today South Korea. They claim descent from King Go of Balhae.
People with this family name include:

Hanja

In given names, the meaning of "Tae" depends on the hanja used to write it. There are 20 hanja with this reading on the South Korean government's official list of hanja which may be used in given names; they are:
  1. : "great"
  2. : "exalted"
  3. : "idle"
  4. : "almost", "dangerous"
  5. : "form", "shape"
  6. : "to wash"
  7. : "to change"
  8. : "platform"
  9. : "unborn child"
  10. : Tai, an ancient city-state in modern Shaanxi, China
  11. : "to flog"
  12. : "lichen"
  13. : "to trample"
  14. : "typhoon"
  15. : "titanium"
  16. : "jade pattern"
  17. : "blowfish"
  18. : "to undress"
  19. : "beautiful"
  20. : "to arrive"

    As name element

Given names containing this element include:
;First syllable
;
;Second syllable