Hangul Name Converter
Type your name in English letters and see it written in Hangul, the Korean alphabet — one syllable at a time, using the same rules Korean newspapers and textbooks follow.
How this converter works
Writing a foreign name in Hangul is not a matter of swapping one letter for another. Korean is written by sound, so a name has to be transcribed the way it is spoken, not the way it is spelled. This converter works in three tiers, and it tells you which one produced your result so you always know how much to trust it.
The first tier is a list of established spellings. Some names have a single Hangul form that Korean media has used for decades — think of the way major actors, musicians, and historical figures are written in Korean newspapers. When your name matches one of these, the tool returns that standard form directly, because a rule-based guess would only introduce error.
The second tier is a pronunciation-based conversion. When a name is in the pronunciation dictionary, the tool reads its phonemes — the actual speech sounds — and maps each one to the closest Korean syllable using the official loanword rules. This is where sound beats spelling decisively. Take the name Sean: read letter by letter it looks like it should become 세안, but Sean is pronounced "shawn," so the correct Hangul is 숀. Spelling would mislead you; pronunciation gets it right. The syllable-by-syllable breakdown under each result shows exactly which sounds produced which Korean characters.
The third tier is a spelling-based estimate, used only when a name is absent from the pronunciation dictionary. Here the tool falls back to reading the letters and applying regular English spelling patterns. The result is a Korean speaker would recognize, but it is a reasoned guess rather than a verified standard. The tool labels these clearly so you never mistake an estimate for an official spelling.
The official system: 외래어 표기법
Korea does not leave foreign spellings to chance. The National Institute of Korean Language maintains 외래어 표기법, the loanword orthography that governs how foreign words and names are written in Hangul. Newspapers, textbooks, broadcast subtitles, and official documents all follow it, which is why the same foreign brand or celebrity name appears identically across Korean print.
A few of its rules explain most of what you see in your result. A final voiceless stop after a short vowel becomes a 받침, a final consonant tucked under the syllable: cat becomes 캣, not 캐트. A voiced stop that cannot sit cleanly at the end of a syllable takes the neutral vowel ㅡ to give it a home: David becomes 데이비드, with that trailing 드 carrying the final d. And Korean marks no vowel length, so a long English vowel is written plainly: team is 팀, with no doubling or length mark. These rules are consistent, which is what lets a system convert thousands of names the same way every time.
Why your Korean friends might write it differently
If you show your result to a Korean friend, they may spell your name a little differently — and that does not mean either version is wrong. The gap is between the standard and the popularspelling. The name Sean is a good example: the standard form is 숀, but many people write 션 because it matches the rhythm of how they hear it. Both are understood, both are common, and in a text message or on a name tag either one is fine.
The difference matters only when consistency does. A published article, a textbook, a subtitle file, or a government form uses the standard spelling so that every reference to the same name looks the same. Casual writing has no such need, so popular spellings flourish alongside the official ones. This tool gives you the standard form first, so you have the version that holds up in print — and now you also know why a friend's spelling might differ without being mistaken.
This is transliteration, not a Korean name
It is worth being precise about what this tool does. It transliterates: it writes the name you already have in a different alphabet. That is a different thing from taking a Korean name — a family name like 김, 이, or 박 followed by a given name chosen for its meaning and sound. Many foreigners who live in Korea eventually pick a Korean name, either with a Korean friend's help or from a teacher, and that is a personal choice with its own considerations. The Hangul here is simply your own name, made readable and pronounceable for Korean speakers.
Want to understand what the converter did, or work out a name by hand? The guide How to Write Your Name in Korean walks through the sound-first principle, the vowel matching, and the 받침 decisions step by step.
Going the other way — reading a Korean name and working out how to say it — is the Korean name pronunciationtool. It maps a romanised spelling back to Hangul, applies the sound changes the spelling hides, and gives you an English respelling.
If you enjoyed seeing your name in Hangul, the Korean Age Calculator is another quick tool for making sense of everyday life in Korea — it works out your age the way Koreans count it, including the rule that changed in 2023.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this my official Korean name?
No. This tool writes your existing name in the Korean alphabet — it transliterates the sounds. It is not a Korean name in the way 김민준 or 이서연 are, which come from family names and given names with their own meanings. The Hangul spelling here is how Koreans would read and write your foreign name.
Why does the tool show a different spelling than my Korean friend uses?
This converter follows 외래어 표기법, the standard loanword orthography that newspapers, textbooks, and official documents use. Everyday Koreans often write foreign names by ear or by whatever spelling became popular online, so a friend might pick a slightly different Hangul spelling. Neither is wrong in casual use — the standard simply keeps published text consistent.
Can I use this for official documents in Korea?
For legal documents, your name is your passport name written in Roman letters, and that is what banks, immigration, and government offices record. The Hangul rendering is for everyday life — introducing yourself, a name tag, a delivery label, a coffee order — not for official identification.
Why does the tool convert pronunciation instead of spelling?
Korean writes sounds, so a name is transcribed by how it is said, not how it is spelled. Sean is pronounced "shawn," so it becomes 숀, not 세안. Converting the pronunciation is what produces a spelling a Korean speaker actually recognizes.