Korean Place Names

Korean names are used in South and North Korea. Note that depending on the Korean characters used these names can have many other meanings besides those listed here. See also about Korean names.
type
usage
Barein 바레인 (Country & Island) Icelandic, Korean
Icelandic and Korean form of Bahrain.
Beijing 베이징 (Settlement) Chinese, English, Korean
From Chinese (běi) meaning "north" and (jīng) meaning "capital city". This is the name of the capital of China.
Beurajil 브라질 (Country) Korean
Korean form of Brazil.
Chosun 조선, 朝鮮 (Region & Country) Korean
Alternate transcription of Korean Hangul 조선 (see Joseon).
Daehan 대한, 大韓 (Country) Korean
From Sino-Korean (dae) meaning "big, great" and (han) meaning "Korea". This is the official Korean name for South Korea.
Dogil 독일, 獨逸 (Country) Korean
Derived via Japanese from Dutch Duits meaning "German". This is the Korean name for Germany.
Donggyeong 동경, 東京 (Settlement) Korean
Korean form of Tokyo.
Etiopia 에티오피아 (Country) Italian, Polish, Norwegian, Finnish, Georgian, Korean, Indonesian
Italian, Polish, Norwegian, Finnish, Georgian, Korean and Indonesian form of Aethiopia (see Ethiopia).
Goryeo 고려 (Region) Korean
Possibly means "walled city" or "center" in Korean. This was the name of a kingdom that ruled most of the Korean Peninsula. The name Korea is based on it.
Hanguk 한국, 韓國 (Region) Korean
From Sino-Korean (han) meaning "Korea" and (guk) meaning "country, land". This is the term used in South Korea to refer to South Korea or the entire Korean Peninsula.
Hongkong 홍콩 (Political Subdivision, Settlement & Island) German, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Estonian, Hungarian, Czech, Slovak, Polish, Slovene, Macedonian, Korean, Khmer
Form of Hong Kong used in various languages.
Hyanghang 香港, 향항 (Political Subdivision, Settlement & Island) Korean
Korean variant form of Hong Kong.
Indo 인도, 印度 (Country) Japanese, Korean
Japanese and Korean form of India. It is usually written in katakana in Japan and Hangul in Korea.
Indonesia 인도네시아 (Country) Indonesian, Malay, Buginese, Minangkabau, English, Italian, Spanish, Norwegian, Finnish, Korean
From Greek Ἰνδός (Indos), referring to the Indus, combined with νῆσος (nesos) meaning "island". This name has been used since the 18th century by colonial powers to refer to the Indonesian archipelago and since 1945 to refer to the independent nation.
Iran 이란 (Country) Persian, Arabic, English, French, Italian, German, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, Romanian, Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, Slovene, Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Greek, Hebrew, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Urdu, Hindi, Indonesian, Malay, Burmese, Thai, Tagalog, Japanese, Korean, Mongolian
Derived from Middle Persian Eran, related to Old Iranian Arya meaning "Iranian, Aryan". This is the name of a country in western Asia, formerly called Persia in the West.
Itallia 이탈리아 (Country) Korean
Korean form of Italia (see Italy).
Joseon 조선, 朝鮮 (Region & Country) Korean
This was the name of two kingdoms in the history of Korea. The first was conquered by the Han Empire in the 2nd century BC. The second ruled Korea from the 14th century until the 19th century. The name of these kingdoms was written using the Sino-Korean characters (jo) meaning "dynasty" and (seon) meaning "new", though the actual origin is assumed to be Korean. This name is now used in North Korea to refer to the country of North Korea.
Jungguk 中國, 중국 (Country) Korean
Korean form of Zhongguo.
Kaenada 캐나다 (Country) Korean
Korean form of Canada.
Mallawi 말라위 (Country) Korean
Korean form of Malawi.
Malli 말리 (Country) Korean
Korean form of Mali.
Miguk 미국, 美國 (Country) Korean
Korean form of Meiguo, referring to the United States of America.
Miju 미주, 美洲 (Region) Korean
Korean form of Meizhou, referring to the continents of North and South America.
Monggo 몽고, 蒙古 (Country, Political Subdivision & Region) Korean
Korean form of Mongolia.
Nairobi 나이로비 (Settlement) English, Swahili, Kikuyu, French, Italian, Spanish, German, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Hungarian, Romanian, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Slovene, Turkish, Japanese, Korean
From Maasai enkare nyrobi meaning "cold water", referencing a nearby river. This is the name of the capital city of Kenya. It was founded in 1899 by the British colonial authorities.
Namibia 나미비아 (Country) English, German, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish, Polish, Italian, Spanish, Romanian, Albanian, Georgian, Armenian, Swahili, Indonesian, Malay, Japanese, Korean
From the name of the Namib Desert, meaning "desert, vast place" in Khoekhoe. This is a country in southwestern Africa.
Oman 오만 (Country) English, French, Italian, Catalan, German, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Polish, Romanian, Slovene, Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Greek, Russian, Ukrainian, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Turkmen, Mongolian, Hindi, Bengali, Thai, Indonesian, Malay, Korean, Tagalog
From Arabic عمان (ʿUmān), probably from the name of an ancient town called Omana by the Roman author Pliny the Elder in the 1st century. It can probably be identified with the modern city of Suhar, and is from an Arabic root meaning "to settle, to remain, to dwell". This is the name of a country on the southeastern corner of the Arabian Peninsula.
Panama 파나마 (Country & Settlement) English, French, Italian, German, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Icelandic, Finnish, Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Hungarian, Romanian, Slovene, Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Ukrainian, Russian, Belarusian, Turkish, Azerbaijani, Armenian, Georgian, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Tajik, Uzbek, Persian, Urdu, Hindi, Bengali, Burmese, Thai, Lao, Khmer, Indonesian, Malay, Tagalog, Japanese, Korean
From Spanish Panamá, of uncertain meaning. It may be derived from the name of a tree commonly found in the area (species Sterculia apetala). Alternatively it could be related to Guaraní panambi meaning "butterfly" or Kuna bannaba meaning "distant, far away". This is the name of a country in Central America. It is also the name of its capital, usually called Panama City in English.
Pari 파리 (Settlement) Japanese, Korean, Burmese
Japanese, Korean and Burmese form of Paris.
Raoseu 라오스 (Country) Korean
Korean form of Laos.
Reosia 러시아 (Country) Korean
Korean form of Russia.
Ribia 리비아 (Country) Japanese, Korean
Japanese and Korean form of Libya.
Senegal 세네갈 (River & Country) Portuguese, English, Spanish, Italian, German, Swedish, Dutch, Norwegian, Danish, Icelandic, Finnish, Estonian, Russian, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Slovene, Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Romanian, Turkish, Armenian, Persian, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Tajik, Uzbek, Turkmen, Mongolian, Hindi, Bengali, Korean, Indonesian, Malay, Tagalog
From Portuguese, possibly from the name of the Berber Zenaga people of northern Senegal. This is the name of a river in West Africa, and a country named after it. It gained independence from France in 1960.
Siria 시리아 (Country) Italian, Spanish, Albanian, Georgian, Armenian, Thai, Korean
Form of Syria in various languages.
Uganda 우간다 (Country) English, Ganda, Swahili, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Hungarian, Romanian, Russian, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Slovene, Croatian, Serbian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Turkish, Georgian, Armenian, Hebrew, Persian, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Malay
From Buganda, the name of a kingdom within Uganda, which means "land of the Ganda" in the Luganda language. The Ganda are an ethnic group, their name possibly deriving from a Bantu word meaning "family". Uganda is a landlocked country in East Africa.
Urugwai 우루과이 (Country & River) Korean
Korean form of Uruguay.
Weosingteon 워싱턴 (Settlement & Political Subdivision) Korean
Korean form of Washington.
Yemen 예멘 (Country) English, Danish, Italian, Spanish, Romanian, Russian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Turkish, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Chinese, Korean, Thai, Tagalog
From Arabic يمن (Yaman), probably derived from يمين (yamīn) meaning "right hand, south". This is the name of a country at the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula.