Lee Jae Myung's disappearing hyphen captures long, quirky history of romanizing Korean names

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Lee Jae Myung's disappearing hyphen captures long, quirky history of romanizing Korean names

Published: 26 Jun. 2025, 18:59 Updated: 26 Jun. 2025, 20:22

SEO JI-EUN
[email protected]

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

President Lee Jae Myung, second from left, attends an expanded session of the G7 summit in Kananaskis, Alberta, Canada on June 17. [PRESIDENTIAL OFFICE]

Two weeks after taking office, South Korea’s new president quietly reintroduced himself — this time, without a hyphen.

The presidential office issued new media guidelines on June 17, declaring that the president’s name should be spelled “Lee Jae Myung,” not “Lee Jae-myung,” as it had been written across global headlines for years.

It’s not just about linguistic precision.

Romanizing Korean names has long been a mix of history, personal preference and communication strategy. A quick scan of presidential nameplates over the years reveals a patchwork of approaches, from Syngman Rhee to Roh Moo-hyun, whose surname spelling shifted mid-career to avoid awkward English connotations.

A sign showing the new romanization of President Lee Jae Myung and first lady Kim Hea Kyung's names [PRESIDENTIAL OFFICE]

What's in a hyphen?

So why the switch for Lee?

The decision to drop the hyphen and capitalize each syllable — "Lee Jae Myung" instead of the long-used "Lee Jae-myung" — feels more abrupt precisely because Lee was already a well-known figure abroad. As a longtime public official and former leader of Korea's main liberal Democratic Party (DP), his name appeared in global media reports, government materials and even in the official English press kit during his presidential campaign.

According to a presidential office spokesperson, the change was to match the name on his passport and to ensure consistency in official documentation overseas.

“During his time as DP leader, there were few formal overseas engagements, but now as president, his name needs to appear consistently on all official documents and across international settings,” the official told the Korea JoongAng Daily.

“Right after his inauguration and ahead of the G7 [Group of 7] overseas trip, the need to standardize his English name came up," the official said. "A formal recommendation was made, and the spelling was unified based on what he had already been using it.”

The spokesperson added that while the presidential office has an internal guideline for how names should appear in official materials, individual naming preferences are respected.

“Names are deeply personal — people have different preferences and styles, and it’s important to respect those choices,” the official added.

Still, the change has raised some eyebrows.

"The hyphen used to help Western media recognize the first name, since in Korean the family name comes first — unlike here, where the last name comes last," one foreign user wrote in a Linkedin post reacting to the change. "Without it, I can already see people referring to them as Mr. Myung and Mrs. Kyung."

It’s not an uncommon concern. Korean names are typically made up of three syllables: a one-syllable family name followed by a two-syllable given name. While never mandated, the hyphen has long served as a visual cue to help non-Korean speakers identify where the surname ends and the first name begins, especially in international contexts.

Lee isn’t the first to make the switch.

Former President Yoon Suk Yeol adopted the hyphen-free version of his name in June 2022, just weeks after taking office.

But unlike Lee, Yoon had not previously been widely known internationally. During his earlier career as a prosecutor general, he had used the spelling “Yoon Seok-youl” — a different romanization system altogether, and one that did not carry over into his political career.

His predecessor, Moon Jae-in, kept the hyphen.

The Blue House [YONHAP]

The rules behind the names

Korea’s official romanization system, known as the Revised Romanization of Korean, was introduced in 2000 to replace the older McCune-Reischauer system.

The goal was to create a system that matched Korean pronunciation more closely, while eliminating apostrophes and diacritics that often confused non-Korean speakers or weren’t keyboard-friendly.

According to the system, even the name of this newspaper, JoongAng, should be Jungang.

But names are a special case.

“Personal names are written with the family name first, followed by a space and the given name," the rule says. "As a rule, syllables in given names should not be separated by hyphens, but using a hyphen between syllables is permitted.”

[GETTY IMAGES BANK]

While these rules apply to place names and official signs, Korean citizens can choose how they spell their names on passports, business cards or publications. That’s why the vast majority continue to use traditional spellings like Kim, Lee and Park, despite what the rules recommend.

“Passports have long allowed individuals to spell their names however they want,” said Lee Sang Oak, an emeritus professor of Korean Linguistics at Seoul National University. "Since official names often appear in diplomatic documents or international news reports, [using a hyphen to separate the syllables of a given name] would cause the least confusion.”

A presidential name game

South Korea’s first president, Syngman Rhee, never used Revised Romanization — because it didn’t exist yet.

Instead, he used a customized spelling — likely with American missionary influence — embedding himself in history books with a name that doesn’t sound even remotely like his Korean name, “Yi Seung-man.” His spelling set the tone for future idiosyncrasies.

His successor, Yun Posun, followed suit. Though his name in modern romanization would be spelled “Boseon,” he used “Posun,” a spelling that now feels almost unrecognizable to younger Koreans, but one that matched the flexible, often phonetic styles of the time.

Over the decades, presidents have picked spellings that reflect personal preference or political pragmatism.

Park Chung Hee kept the spelling “Chung,” and Chun Doo-hwan stuck with “Chun,” even though current romanization rules say “Jeon.”

Late President Roh Moo-hyun [YONHAP]

Perhaps the quirkiest case is that of Roh Moo-hyun.

Early in his political career, he romanized his surname as “Noh” — a more accurate rendering of the Korean pronunciation. But as his national profile grew, he switched to “Roh,” partly to avoid the negative connotation of the English word “no.”

The first lady’s name, now styled “Kim Hea Kyung,” adds a final twist.

Her name in Korean is romanized as “Hye,” not “Hea.” The new spelling departs from both the official system and established media practice.

Prof. Lee called it “a representative example of completely groundless romanization.”

He noted that "Hea" is not supported by any standardized romanization system, and should be corrected to "Hye" to avoid further confusion.

For journalists, the sudden change raises logistical questions. Years of archived stories, headlines and metadata reference “Lee Jae-myung.” Should they be updated? Will future readers — or even editors abroad — know that “Lee Jae Myung” and “Lee Jae-myung” are the same person?

For linguists, it’s a case study in flexible identity. For editors, a tagging headache. And for presidents, it’s just one more way to stand out — hyphen or not.

BY SEO JI-EUN [[email protected]]