 From Smith to Kardashian, from Johnson to Becerra, it's impossible to know how much there is exactly, but it's estimated that there are 1.5 million to 2 million unique surnames in the United States alone. In Korea however, we do know exactly how much. In 2015, there were 286 surnames used in Korea. And I don't know about you guys, but in a country of 51 million people, that doesn't seem like a lot of variety. In fact, Korea seems to be dominated by the big three. No, not that big three. These big three. Kim, Lee, Park. In fact, it's estimated that there were 10,689,967 individuals with the last name Kim. Or approximately 20.6%. That's 1 in 5 Koreans with the last name Kim. 14.1% had the last name Lee, and 8.1% had the last name Park, which would mean 42.8% of Koreans would have the last name Kim, Lee, Park. That's nearly half of the Koreans in the whole entire world. I mean, let's think about it. Just how many Kims do we know? The rest of the top 10 are Choi, Jang, Kang, Jo, Yoon, Jang, and Im. If we compare that to the United States, the number one last name is Smith, with 2.4 million people, or 0.73% of the population. Combining the top three last names, Smith, Johnson, and Williams, that would only be 1.6% of the US population. For a name to be held by one-fifth of the population, that's pretty insane to think about. So how exactly did it get this way? Why does everyone in Korea have the same last names? Are all Kims related? Right off the bat are all Kims, Yees, and Paks related. First and foremost, absolutely not. Each surname has a different story, but let's take a closer look at Kim to understand we have to go back. No, way back. All the way back to the first kingdoms in Korea. There were two kingdoms, Kaya and Shilla. The royal family for both kingdoms had the last name Kim, the Shilla Kingdom, which was from 57 BC to 935 AD. And the Kaya Kingdom ruled from 42 AD until 562, when they were absorbed by the Shilla Kingdom. In fact, the first king of the unified Shilla Kingdom was King Munmu of Sia, his birth name Kim Bo-min. Kim became a highly sought after and famous last name. But actually up until the last couple centuries, surnames were very, very rare. Last names were reserved for special people like royalty or people in the upper class. So how did commoners get a last name like Kim? There were three ways that Koreans got their last names. Gifted. The first but a very uncommon way is that kings would grant common people surnames as a mark of favor by the king. Sometimes the king would award someone a surname. In traditional times, only the elite had surnames. Commoners gradually acquired surnames and slaves didn't get surnames till right toward the end of the Chosun period. Kings giving surnames, it happened more in the Koryo period. Koryo King Wangon and his successors gave the name Wang to people that they were close to. In the Chosun period, we've got a few cases of surnames being awarded. Yeah, sometimes the king would award someone a name. Genealogy books. This method would have been extremely, extremely rare. But it happened. The Korean word for genealogy here, genealogy book is chokpo. There's a popular misconception out there in Korea that Koreans would buy their way into chokpo. And that did happen occasionally, but not that often, really. There are many who say that chokpo is an unreliable source because so many people have bought their way in. And that's largely untrue because you can verify from different editions of the chokpo prior to the 20th century what the lines were and you can see if someone has added in. And the idea that you had to buy your way into a chokpo to get a name is completely false. You got the stuff? Yeah, I got the stuff. Hey, what's your problem then? I don't want this. Well, what do you want? I want the census. However, the third way was the easiest and by far the most common method, which was registering during the census, which took place every three years. You can get a name by just registering with the census each time the census was taken. And we see in the census records that a person without a surname will show up with a surname. And so it was no big deal to acquire a surname. It didn't require a purchase. It didn't require getting into a chokpo. It was just a matter of registering with the government on the triennial every three year census registration. Over the 500 years of the Joseon dynasty, commoners gradually took on last names. And in the last 100 years of the dynasty, even some slaves took on surnames. But commoners and slaves did not make new names. They adopted many of the common names that we see today, like Kim, Yi, Pak. It had grown so large, commoners could take on these prestigious names in order to hide their lower class upbringing. It all became so widespread that pretty much nobody with the last name Kim was related by blood. The class based system, similar to the caste system in India or the social class system in medieval Europe ended in 1894. This meant that last names were available to everyone, not just the royalty or the rich. So of all the last names to choose from, why did they pick Kim? Well, Kim in Korea means gold. It was a name that inspired, a name that brought prestige, power and honor. It was the last name of Kings. If you had the last name Kim, Yi, Pak, you were an important person. People look to you respect. In the beginning, the name Kim became much like a status symbol for early Koreans, much like how commoners in Europe, although rare could be knighted or owning a sword in Fido Japan, or owning a car in the early 1900s. These would all be important status symbols. It would be the modern day equivalent of owning a pair of AirPods or toilet paper. And later in the early 1900s, during the Japanese occupation, pretty much everyone had to pick up a last name. 55% of the people ended up with the last names Kim, Yi, Pak, Chae and Chung. And seven more popular last names, Jeo, Kang, Yoon, Im, Chang, Shin and Yu, brings a total to 70% of the population. 12 surnames that are all very common. This is unlike any other country in the world. The fact that there are so many Kims, so many Yi's, so many Pak in Korea, I've been arguing lately, this is one of the signs of Korean historic stability and peace. The idea is that in Korea, you have this great concentration of names, and Koreans don't realize this is unusual. They're used to it. They think, well, lots of Kims, lots of Yi's, lots of Pak's, that's the way it is. But that's not the way it is in other countries. And I think it's because when the Kaya dynasty fell, the Sheila dynasty fell, they were never destroyed. That aristocracy continued on from Kaya into Sheila, from Sheila into Koryo, and from Koryo into the present day. That's why Kim, Yi and Pak are the most common names, because they're the royal names of the earlier dynasties. So I think it's a symbol of the peaceful history and the stable history of Korea. And also special, special thanks to Dr. Mark Peterson. Remember to check his channel out as well.