Children born to parents of Korean and foreign nationality will no longer face restrictions on the number of characters in their given names when registering their births in South Korea, the Supreme Court of Korea announced Tuesday.
Under revised family registration regulations that took effect on June 20, limits in name length — previously capped at five Hangeul characters excluding the surname — have been removed for children of mixed-nationality couples.
Until now, only children with fathers of foreign nationality and Korean mothers were allowed to register names exceeding the five-character limit, and only if the name matched that recorded in the birth registry of the father’s home country.
In accordance with the latest revision, the exemption now applies regardless of whether the foreign parent is the mother or father.
As long as the child’s given name is officially recorded in the foreign country's registry, it can be registered in Korea without any character limit — regardless of which parent’s surname is used.
The Supreme Court added that for children who have already been registered with shortened or modified names, parents may file a supplemental report to change the child’s recorded name to match that in the registry of the foreign parent’s country.
lee.jungjoo@heraldcorp.com
