Young-ja

There are 34 hanja with the reading "young" on the South Korean government's list of hanja which may be used in given names.[2][3] The syllable "ja" is generally written using a hanja literally meaning "child" (子; 아들 자; adeul ja). 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.[4] Names containing this character, such as Soon-ja and Jeong-ja, became popular when Korea was under Japanese rule from 1910 to 1945, but declined in popularity afterwards.[5] By 1950 there were no names ending in "ja" in the top ten.[6] Some ways of writing the name Young-ja in hanja include:

• 英子, first hanja meaning "flower petals" (꽃부리 영; kkotburi yeong). The same characters are also used to write the Japanese feminine given names Eiko and Hideko, among others.[7]
• 榮子, first hanja meaning "flourishing" (영화 영; yeonghwa yeong). The same characters are also used to write the Japanese feminine given names Eiko and Saeko, among others.[7]

People with this name include:

• Young-ja Lee (born 1936), South Korean music educator and composer
• Jung Hye-sun (born Jung Young-ja, 1942), South Korean actress
• Kim Young-ja (born 1949), South Korean volleyball player
• Young-ja Cho (born 1951), South Korean sculptor
• Lee Young-ja (handballer) (born 1964), South Korean team handball player and Olympic medalist
• Yang Young-ja (born 1964), South Korean table tennis player
• Lee Young-ja (comedian) (born 1968), South Korean comedian
• Park Yeong-ja (born 1975), South Korean rower
• Chang Yeong-ja, South Korean financier, one of the principals in the 1982 Lee–Chang scandal

Fictional characters with this name include:

• Yeong-ja, the titular character of the 1975 South Korean film Yeong-ja's Heydays[8]

• List of Korean given names