South Korea

Etymology

EtymologySee also: The name Korea is derived from , also known as Koryŏ, one of the

The name Korea derives from the name Goryeo (also spelled Koryŏ). The name Goryeo itself was first used by the ancient kingdom of (Koguryŏ) in the 5th century as a shortened form of its name. The 10th-century kingdom of succeeded Goguryeo, and thus inherited its name, which was pronounced by visiting Persian merchants as "Korea". The modern spelling of Korea first appeared in the late 17th century in the travel writings of the 's . Despite the coexistence of the spellings Corea and Korea in 19th century publications, some Koreans believe that , around the time of the Japanese occupation, intentionally standardised the spelling on Korea, making appear first alphabetically.

After Goryeo was replaced by Joseon in 1392, Joseon became the official name for the entire territory, though it was not universally accepted. The new official name has its origin in the ancient country of (Old Joseon). In 1897, the changed the official name of the country from Joseon to Daehan Jeguk (). The name Daehan, which means "great Han" literally, derives from (Three Hans). However, the name Joseon was still widely used by Koreans to refer to their country, though it was no longer the official name. Under , the two names Han and Joseon coexisted. There were several groups who , the most notable being the (대한민국 임시정부/大韓民國臨時政府).

Following the , in 1945, the Republic of Korea (대한민국/大韓民國) was adopted as the legal name for the new country. Since the government only controlled the southern part of the , the informal term South Korea was coined, becoming increasingly common in the . While South Koreans use Han (or Hanguk) to refer to the entire country, North Koreans and Koreans in China use the term Joseon as the name of the country.