Young-ja


Young-ja, also spelled Yeong-ja, is a Korean feminine given name. According to South Korean government data, it was the most popular name for baby girls born in 1940. Its meaning depends on the hanja used to write it.

Hanja and meaning

There are 34 hanja with the reading "young" on the South Korean government's list of hanja which may be used in given names. The syllable "ja" is generally written using a hanja literally meaning "child". In Japan, where this character is read ko, it was originally used as suffix for the names of girls in the aristocracy. The practice of adding -ko to girls' names spread to the lower classes following the 1868 Meiji Restoration. Names containing this character, such as Soon-ja and Jeong-ja, became popular when Korea was under Japanese rule from 1910 to 1945, but declined in popularity afterwards. By 1950 there were no names ending in "ja" in the top ten. Some ways of writing the name Young-ja in hanja include:
People with this name include:
Fictional characters with this name include: