Kim (Korean surname)

Kim (Korean: 김; Hanja: 金) is the most common surname in Korea. As of the 2015 South Korean census, there were 10,689,959 people by this name in South Korea or 21.5% of the population. Although the surname is always pronounced the same, dozens of different family clans (bon-gwan) use it. The clan system in Korea is unique from the surname systems of other countries. Kim is written as 김 (gim) in both North and South Korea. The hanja for Kim, 金, can also be transliterated as 금 (geum) which means 'gold, metal, iron'. While romanized as Kim by 99.3% of the population, other rare variant romanizations such as Gim, Ghim, and Kin make up the remaining 0.7%.