Ok (Korean name)
# Ok (Korean name)

Ok, sometimes spelled Oak or Ock, is an uncommon Korean family name, a single-syllable Korean given name, and an element in some two-syllable Korean given names. It is usually written with a hanja meaning "jade".

## Family name

The 2000 South Korean census found 22,964 people and 7,288 households with the family name Ok. The surviving bon-gwan (origin of a clan lineage, not necessarily the actual residence of the clan members) at that time included:

* Uiryeong County, South Gyeongsang Province: 19,368 people and 6,157 households
* Geoje, South Gyeongsang Province: 1,085 people and 345 households
* Kaesong, North Hwanghae Province: 708 people and 232 households
* Miryang, South Gyeongsang Province: 537 people and 174 households
* Jinju, South Gyeongsang Province: 441 people and 145 households
* Uiseong County, North Gyeongsang Province: 467 people and 138 households
* Sacheon, South Gyeongsang Province: 197 people and 61 households
* Other or unknown: 161 people and 36 households

In a study by the National Institute of the Korean Language based on 2007 application data for South Korean passports, it was found that 84.8% of people with this family name spelled it in Latin letters as Ok in their passports, while another 9.0% spelled it as Ock. Rarer alternative spellings (the remaining 6.2%) included Oak and Ohk.

People with this family name include:

* Ok Kwan-bin (died 1933), Korean independence activist
* Simon Ok Hyun-jin (born 1968), South Korean Roman Catholic priest, Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Gwangju
* Ock Joo-hyun (born 1980), South Korean singer, former member of Fin.K.L
* Ok Taec-yeon (born 1988), South Korean singer, member of boyband 2PM
* Justine Ok, 21st-century American artist and songwriter of Korean descent

## Given name

### Hanja and meaning

There are five hanja with the reading "ok" on the South Korean government's official list of hanja which may be registered for use in given names; they are:

* 玉 (구슬 옥; guseul ok): "jade"
* 屋 (집 옥; jip ok): "house"
* 獄 (옥 옥; ok ok: "prison"
* 沃 (물 댈; mul dael ok): "irrigate"
* 鈺 (보배 옥; bobae ok): "treasure"

### People

People with the single-syllable given name Ok include:

* Yeo Ok, poet of the Gojoseon Kingdom which fell in 108 BC
* Jeon Ok (1911–1969), South Korean actress
* Kim Ok (born 1964), North Korean government employee, personal secretary to Kim Jong-il

### As name element

One name containing this element, Kyung-ok, was the 10th-most popular name for newborn girls in South Korea in 1950.

Names containing this element include:

* Jong-ok (unisex)
* Kyung-ok (feminine)
* Myung-ok (feminine)
* Seon-ok (feminine)
* Sun-ok (feminine)
* Yeong-ok (unisex)
