The Supreme Court on June 24 said a child born to one Korean and one foreign parent can have registered a given name (excluding the surname) that exceeds five letters. (Yonhap News)

By Lee Dasom

The given name of a child born to one Korean and one foreign parent can be registered with no limit on Hangeul characters.

The Supreme Court on June 24 said that under a ruling made on June 20, such a couple can legally register a given name (excluding surname) for their child at birth exceeding five characters.

Before, the limit was five characters. This rule was not applied, however, to a child with a foreign name born to a foreign father and a Korean mother listed in the father's national identity register, as long as the name matched the one listed in the register of the father's home country.

The court's revision, however, allows the registration of a given name at birth with no character limit to ensure the right to choose.

Thus the given name of a child born to a Korean father and a foreign mother no longer has a character limit when reporting the name in the register of the mother's home country. This means that the number of characters is no longer limited regardless of which parent's surname is used by the child.

The ruling said that in the case of the registration of a shortened or modified given name, a correction can be made through a supplementary report to reflect the full name in the register of the foreign parent's country.

dlektha0319@korea.kr