Lee (Korean surname)

Lee, I, or Yi (이) is the second-most-common surname in Korea, behind Kim (김). As of the South Korean census of 2015, there were 7,306,828 people by this name in South Korea or 14.7% of the population.

For the Chinese surname from which this name is derived, see Li (surname 李). For the English surname, see Lee (English surname). For the list of people with this surname, see List of people with the Korean family name Lee.
Lee
Pronunciation[iː] or [ɾiː]
Language(s)Korean
Origin
Language(s)Korean
Word/nameKorean
Meaning
  • 이 or 리
    • 李: plum
  • 이 only
    • 異: different
    • 伊: that
Region of originKorean peninsula
Other names
Variant form(s)Ee, I, Yi, Ri, Rhee, Rhie, Reeh
See alsoLi, Lý
Lee
Hangul
이 (리)
Hanja
Revised RomanizationI (Ri)
McCune–ReischauerI (Ri)

Historically, 李 was officially written as Ni (니) in Korea. The spelling officially changed to I (이) in 1933 when the initial sound rule (두음 법칙) was established. In North Korea, it is romanized as Ri (리) because there is no distinction between the alveolar liquids /l/ and /r/ in modern Korean.

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