Chun-ja (name)

Chun-ja is a Korean feminine given name.

Chun-ja
Hangul	춘자
Hanja	春子
Revised Romanization	Chun-ja
McCune–Reischauer	Ch'un-ja

Hanja and meaning

The name Chun-ja is generally written with hanja meaning "spring child" (春子; 봄 춘; bom chun; 아들 자; adeul ja), though there are three other characters with the reading "chun" on the South Korean government's list of hanja which may be registered for use in given names.^[1] Those same characters may also be read as the Japanese feminine given name Haruko.^[2]

Chun-ja is one of a number of Japanese-style names ending in "ja", like Young-ja and Jeong-ja, that were popular when Korea was under Japanese rule, but declined in popularity afterwards. According to South Korean government data, Chun-ja was the fourth-most popular name for newborn girls in 1945, with nine out of the top ten names for girls that year ending in "ja".^[3] However, by 1950 there were no names ending in "ja" in the top ten.^[4]

People

People with this name include:

• Ryom Chun-ja (born 1942), North Korean volleyball player
• Ryoo Choon-za (born 1943), North Korean speed skater
• Yu Chun-ja (born 1945), South Korean volleyball player
• Chunja (singer), (born Hong Su-yeon, 1979), South Korean singer
• Lee Chae-won (born Lee Chun-ja, 1981), South Korean cross country skier

See also

• List of Korean given names
• Chunja's Happy Events, 2008 South Korean television series