Korean Name Pronunciation
Type a Korean name the way you have seen it written — romanised or in Hangul — and get how it is actually said: audio in a Korean voice, an English respelling, the IPA, and the sound changes that the romanisation does not show.
Why the spelling misleads
Revised Romanization writes the underlying form of a Korean word rather than its surface sound. Korean then applies sound changes where syllables meet, and the spelling keeps none of them. 석진 is romanisedSeokjin but said [석찐], because a consonant following a stop comes out tense.
Personal names add a second layer. Koreans romanise their own names by preference, not by the standard — 이 is written Lee far more often than the standard I, 정 appears as Jung, Jeong and Chung, and the 국 in Jungkook follows no system at all. A reader working from the Latin letters has no way to recover the Hangul, which is where the pronunciation rules live. This tool maps the spelling back to Hangul first, then applies the rules.
The three sounds that cause most errors
ㅓ, romanised "eo" — one vowel, the sound in "cut". Not "ee-oh", not a long "o". It turns up in Seokjin, Jeong, Yeon, Hyeon and a large share of other names.
ㅡ, romanised "eu" — no English equivalent. Shape your mouth for "oo" but spread your lips flat instead of rounding them. Substituting "you" or "uh" is the usual fallback and is audibly wrong.
ㄹ, romanised "r" or "l" — neither English sound. At the start of a syllable it is a single flap, the tt in American "butter". At the end of one it is a clear "l" with the tongue tip forward.
There is no stressed syllable
Korean has no lexical stress. Every syllable carries roughly equal weight and equal length. English speakers automatically place a stress somewhere, which is why a name can have every vowel right and still sound foreign. The respelling above is hyphenated rather than capitalised for this reason — the hyphens mark syllable boundaries, not beats.
The surname boundary is genuinely unsettled
Where a surname meets a given name, the rules stop being clear-cut. Asked directly whether 김연아 should be [기며나] or [김녀나], the National Institute of Korean Language answered that no standard pronunciation has been established for that boundary. Both readings occur in ordinary speech.
The tool applies the linking reading, which follows the 박열 → [바결] model the Institute cited, and flags the result whenever a sound change falls on that boundary. Where you see that flag, treat the answer as one of two acceptable readings rather than the only one.
What this tool cannot do: stage names
This works on Korean given names. It does not work on stage names, and it fails in a way worth knowing about: instead of refusing, it returns a confident wrong answer.
Karina reads as three perfectly valid Korean syllables and comes out as 가리나, which is not her name. Hanni comes out as 한니, also not her name. Nothing in the letters marks these as foreign, so no rule can catch them. The same applies to any English-word stage name, and to members whose names are Thai, Japanese or Vietnamese.
If the Hangul in the result does not look like the name you expected, that is the signal. There is more on this inHow to Pronounce K-pop Idol Names.
Going the other way — putting a non-Korean name into Hangul — is what theHangul name converter does.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you pronounce Seokjin?
Roughly "suhk-jjeen". Two things the spelling hides: "eo" is one vowel, the sound in "cut", and the j is tense because it follows a k — 석진 is said [석찐]. Reading it as "sock-jin" with an English "gin" misses both.
Why does the romanisation not match the pronunciation?
Revised Romanization spells the underlying form of a word, not its surface sound. Korean applies sound changes at syllable boundaries — a stop tenses the consonant after it, a stop before ㄴ or ㅁ becomes a nasal — and the romanisation does not show them. The written form is correct; it is just not phonetic.
What sound is "eo" in Korean names?
One vowel, ㅓ, close to the u in "cut". It is not "ee-oh" and not a long "o". It appears in a large share of Korean names — Seokjin, Jeong, Yeon, Hyeon — and mispronouncing it is the single most common error.
Which syllable of a Korean name is stressed?
None. Korean has no lexical stress, so every syllable gets roughly equal weight. English speakers instinctively stress one syllable, which is why a correctly pronounced Korean name can still sound wrong to a Korean ear.
Is the surname pronounced together with the given name?
It varies, and there is no rule to fall back on. Asked whether 김연아 is [기며나] or [김녀나], the National Institute of Korean Language answered that no standard pronunciation has been established. Both are heard. This tool shows the linked reading and flags the boundary when a sound change lands there.
Why do two Korean names romanised the same sound different?
Because romanisation of personal names is a matter of personal preference, not a rule. "Sun" is written for both 선 and 순, which are different vowels. Where a spelling maps to more than one syllable, the tool lists the options rather than picking silently.