Traditional Korean given names are similar to Chinese given names in that they are usually composed of two Hanja (Chinese characters, though the characters are pronounced differently in Korean). Occasionally, given names are a composed of a single character. Some modern parents give names based on native Korean elements with no corresponding Hanja.
Korean surnames are usually based on a single Hanja character, though there are some very rare two-character surnames. The four most common surnames (Kim, Lee, Park and Choi) account for about half the population.