韓國의 姓氏制度의 變遷

The Changes of Korean Family Name System

&nbsp;&nbsp;Until quite recently, no Korean can change his/her last name which he/she shares with his/her father and his ancestors after registration of birth. The Korean Civil Law and most of Koreans have thought that the last name is a symbol of his/her own tribe and it is not to be changed even when a person changes his/her status by marriage or adoption. It is believed even one of the time-honored tradition.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;But the Korean National Assembly has passed the bill of amending the Civil Law including changes of family name system early last year. According to the bill, newly marrying couple could decide whether their children follow mother&quot;s last name by agreement before their marriage and the last name can be changed for the welfare of the child afterwards. This historic change of Civil Law was derived from some arguments about changeability of last name, historical feature and relationship between blood and last name.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;Some people believe that they has found some evidences about several people sharing last names with their mother and being allowed changing their last names. Furthermore they insist that a lot of people suffers from old fashioned family name system. The bill was estimated to accept these insistences.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;But still now, more than a half Koreans are opposite to the bill and amendment of family name system. They think that the present family name system has lots of merits as well as the new system. For now, the last valuation cannot be made because the new bill will take effects from the year 2008. Till then we have to find out the best result.