Jeong-ja, also spelled Jung-ja, Jong-ja, or Chung-ja, is a Korean feminine given name. The meaning differs based on the

hanja Hanja (; ), alternatively spelled Hancha, are Chinese characters used to write the Korean language. After characters were introduced to Korea to write Literary Chinese, they were adapted to write Korean as early as the Gojoseon period. () ...

used to write each syllable of the name.

Hanja and meaning

There are 65 hanja with the reading " jeong" and 28 hanja with the reading "ja" on the South Korean government's official list of hanja which may be used in given names. Typically, "ja" is written with the hanja meaning "child" (; ). In Japan, where this character is read ''ko'', it was originally used as suffix for the names of girls in the aristocracy. The practice of adding ''-ko'' to girls' names spread to the lower classes following the 1868

Meiji Restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored Imperial House of Japan, imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Althoug ...

. Jeong-ja is one of a number of Japanese-style names ending in "ja", along with Young-ja and Soon-ja, that were popular when Korea was under Japanese rule from 1910 to 1945, but declined in popularity afterwards. According to South Korean government data, it was the sixth-most popular name for baby girls in 1940. By 1950 there were no names ending in "ja" in the top ten. Some ways of writing this name in hanja include: * , first hanja meaning "chastity" or "purity" (). The same characters correspond to a number of

Japanese given name in modern times consist of a family name (surname) followed by a given name. Japanese names are usually written in kanji, where the pronunciation follows a special set of rules. Because parents when naming children, and foreigners when adoptin ...

s, among them various names which use ''

kun'yomi is the way of reading kanji characters using the native Japanese word that matches the meaning of the Chinese character when it was introduced. This pronunciation is contrasted with ''on'yomi'', which is the reading based on the original Chi ...

'' readings of the first character, including

Sadako Sadako is a Japanese name, commonly used for women. The same name can be written with a variety of kanji, and the meanings of the name differ accordingly: *, "chaste child"; the same characters can also be read as a Korean female given name, Jeong ...

, and another less common one Teiko which uses the ''

on'yomi , or the Sino-Japanese vocabulary, Sino-Japanese reading, is the reading of a kanji based on the historical Chinese pronunciation of the character. A single kanji might have multiple ''on'yomi'' pronunciations, reflecting the Chinese pronuncia ...

'' reading of the first character. * , first hanja meaning "correct" or "upright" (). The same characters correspond to various Japanese given names, including Masako (''kun'yomi'' of first character) and

Seiko , commonly known as Seiko ( , ), is a Japanese maker of watches, clocks, electronic devices, and semiconductors. Founded in 1881 by Kintarō Hattori in Tokyo, Seiko introduced the world's first commercial quartz wristwatch in 1969. Seiko is ...

(''on'yomi'' of first character).

People

People with this name include: * Ho Jong-suk (born Ho Jong-ja; 1908–1991), Korean independence activist and North Korean politician * Lee Jung-ja (born 1951), South Korean former volleyball player * Sin Jung-ja (born 1980), South Korean basketball player

References

{{given name Korean feminine given names Feminine given names

Hanja and meaning

People

See also

References