Tae (Korean surname)

For the rare Korean surname (대) romanized as Tae in McCune–Reischauer, see Dae (Korean surname).

Tae
Hangul	태
Hanja	太: "great"
Revised Romanization	Tae
McCune–Reischauer	T'ae

Tae, also spelled Tai or Thae, is a rare Korean family name. It is written with a hanja character meaning "great".

Clans

As a rare Korean family name, Tae is written with only one hanja, meaning "great" (太).^[1] They are a noble clan directly descended from the royal family of the Balhae dynasty. The clan ancestor is Dae Jung-sang, the father of the founder of Balhae, Dae Jo-young. The 2000 South Korean Census found 8,165 people with the family name Tae.^[2] In a study by the National Institute of the Korean Language based on 2007 application data for South Korean passports, it was found that 28.5% of people with that surname spelled it in Latin letters as Tai in their passports, vs. 57.1% as Tae.^[3] People with this surname trace their origins to several bon-gwan, including Namwon and Yeongsun in what is now South Korea and Hyopgye in what is now North Korea.^[1]

Notable people

People with this family name include:

• T'ae Kŭm-ch'wi (fl. 1253–1260), Goryeo military commander, founder of the Yeongsun Tae clan
• Tae Wan-son (born 1915 -1988), South Korean politician and businessman who served as minister of Construction Department.
• Thae Byong-ryol (1916 - 1986), North Korean general
• Thae Jong-su (born 1936), North Korean politician
• Tae Hyun-sil (born 1941), South Korean actress
• Thae Hyong-chol (born 1953), North Korean politician
• Thae Yong-ho (born 1962), North Korean diplomat who defected to South Korea in 2016
• Tae Hang-ho (born 1983), South Korean actor
• Tae Yoon (born 1992), South Korean football player in India

See also

• List of Korean family names
• Dae (surname)

References

1. "한국성씨일람" [List of Korean family names]. Kyungpook National University. 2003-12-11. Retrieved 2013-10-30.
2. "성씨인구분포데이터" [Family name population and distribution data]. South Korea: National Statistics Office. Archived from the original on 2013-11-01. Retrieved 2013-05-28.
3. 성씨 로마자 표기 방안: 마련을 위한 토론회 [Plan for romanisation of surnames: a preparatory discussion]. National Institute of the Korean Language. 25 June 2009. p. 61. Retrieved 22 October 2015.