My fascination with Korea continues into this new year of 2025. Pictured above is the South Korean rugby team OK Man, or OK Man Financial Group. Rugby is a specialty sport imported from England that has gained an increasing following in South Korea, where teams are sponsored by companies, colleges, even the military forces. (In the US, it morphed into American football, that most crushing and brutal of sports.) OK Man was one of the participants in the reality show Rugged Rugby on Netflix. They were considered the underdogs, but actually made it to the final match, where they gave the favorite team, Kepko, a grueling contest for the trophy. I’m not a sports fan in general but it’s a show well worth watching for the camerawork, which takes you close up and personal to all the players. By the end of it, I learned a little of the sport myself.
It also illustrates how familiar, and unfamiliar, sports leagues are in a different country. Look at the logo for instance. An anime character dressed up like a giant carrot?
It also got me thinking about Korean names and the iconography of those names.
You may have heard that most people of Korean descent share a limited number of surnames, of which Kim is the most common. But they also have distinct clans that share the same paternal ancestor. These names are passed down patrilineally and don’t change with marriage or adoption. There are more clans than surnames, 36,744 vs. 1,507, because clans are named for ancestor plus their town/area of origin. So ancestor Kim can be Kim from Gimhae (Gimhae Kim) or Andong (Andong Kim), both of them different people.
And like Japanese clan names, each one has a seal!
So, mixing up the various language phonemes, and the existing seals, with the magic of randomgen and Midjourney, it was enjoyable to generate a bunch of faux clans and faux seals, which look like Korean, but aren’t. I did choose to make them one word instead of two words. This is all in the spirit of fun and no insult is meant to Korea or Korean people.
 Anghwa |
 Bongwoong |
 Byeonguk |
 Chaeong |
 Encheun |
 Gamwoon |
 Gwangban |
 Hwaend |
 Inhwon |
 Kyang-il |
 Michon |
 Nogai |
 Ohwoo |
 Pumwang |
 Pyoi |
