Hello

I wonder if anyone can help me with a story I am writing. It is set on a fictional island off the coast of Korea (it was around 580 AD but I've moved it forward to 660 AD now). It centres around a soldier who has to fight against a small army led by hwarang. The soldier ends up getting cursed in a sacred land and turns against his lord.

What I am really struggling with is the names for my characters and places. I don't want to have names plucked from a Korean name dictionary as they might not sound authentic and will show me up as an ignorant westerner. Is there anyone out there that could maybe help me come up with authentic sounding names for my characters and places? I'm running out of time!

The main things I need right now are:

The name of the island nation
The name of the sacred land on the island
The name of the regions on the island nation
The names of monks
The name of the soldier/general
The name of his wife
The name of the lord
The name of the king of the island
The name of a spy
The names of several supporting characters - soldiers
The names of two hwarang and their female leaders

Also, if anyone can help me find a picture of an aristocrat/lord's house from that period.

I've been doing a lot of research into this period but the names part is proving incredibly difficult. This is a fantasy piece and will have mystical creatures etc. so I don't want to use 'real' people from history.

Thanks for reading this (and helping me, if you can).

Sorry if the translations are a little off. I can read Korean, but I don't write it well. This is my first posting on this site, or any other site of this type so I hope I did it right.


The name of the island nation

Japan in Korean is Il-bon...it means son begins or better known as land or the rising sun. In Korean islands end in do meaning island so you could take any Korean word and use it. I would think that an intersting way would be to take a Han-Cha dictionary and combine some of the sylabbles for what you are looking for..for instance Ryok-do could be Power or Strength Island. Tae-san-do could be great mountain island. Hwa-san-do could be Volcano Island. Even if you create words that aren't authenic Korean through the combinations they will sound authenic enough to fool many Koreans because they come from their Chinese alphabet.

The name of the sacred land on the island...here you could do the same thing. Tang means land. Nara means nation. You could do the same. I'm not familar with hold words other than Jesus, God, and some of the other Church basics.

The name of the regions on the island nation...Ho-su is lake, san is mountain, on-dok is hills, 골짜기 kol-jja-gi for valley...you get the picture. You can combine names with these as well. The name proceeds the type of area. Ma-ul is village, ssup is forrest.

The names of monks...nim adds respect at the end of a name. son-saeng-nim would be teacher or someone reveared.

These two names are names of fictional folklore characters that always bring a smile. The male was a man that wore out several women to death in search for the perfect woman. When he would pee the ground would shake from his power. The woman was the perfect mate he finally found.

The name of the soldier/general...Pyon-Kang-Soi (Swey)
The name of his wife...Ong-Nyo


The name of the lord...lord is ju-in such as a land lord jip-ju-in

The name of the king of the island...wang is king

The name of a spy...wen-su is a name called to someone when they despise you. They would be called a wen-su-ya if calling it to them directly.

The names of several supporting characters - soldiers
The names of two hwarang and their female leaders

Names of peope come from the Chinese characters to give meaning. The middle sillable used to be and sometimes still is as a generation marker. Say a person had 4 children. The names could be Chong-sun, Ho-sun, Hwa-sun, Un-sun. They all would take the fthers name such as Lee, Kim, Chong, Pak, etc.

I hope this helps and in time. I haven't lived in Korea in over 6 years now. It has been about that long since I last studied it. While I was there I was facinted and dedicated several hours each week if not each day to studying. I can fool people about being fluent when I talk to them, but I'm only proficient.

Thanks - it helped, and just in the nick of time!

Hwarang or Flower of Youth Troops. I had been thinkingand I just remembered reading about them in a class a few years back. They were mid-teens trained in martial arts and nationalism. They were key in supporting the Shilla Dynasty and it's success.

Maybe it would be worth noting that the Hwarang took names based on historical and legendary historical figures.

I refreshed my memory by reading a page in Notes on Things Korean by Suzanne Crowder Han and published by Hollym. It is a really descriptive book on Korea. It tales about the many things you questioned. It tells about the history and culture from a broad perspective.