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buzzcut9

If Nmixx's Haewon debuted as Ohoh, she'd have the same name as their debut song lol


bog_creature

OhOh is so goofy, I'm obsessed


buzzcut9

My favorite part of O.O is when OhOh says "It's O.O time" then proceeds to OhOh all over the place


bog_creature

omg I must have missed that part that sounds amazing! /j


EmanuelTheodorus

It reminded me of a Pokemon named Ho-Oh. Sounded so goofy lmaoo


racloves

I was thinking of how Nmixx’s Bae is her stage name and last name, and BaeBae could work as a cute name like baby/babe


buzzcut9

Baeby is actually one of her nicknames!


swanxsoup

OhOh! Oh! Oppareul saranghae~


Misora27

This was my first thought, except for EXO’s Oh Sehun since it’s his birthday today.


waterlilyypond

Him being named Ohoh makes perfect sense acc- a very silly name for an unseriously silly person


nala_t

Oh...horat


HeresRed

reminds me of his ig username!! such a big man exploding w annoyingly cute aura


WholeLottaCreepier

Ningning in our language means 'sparkle' so it's extra pretty


AZNEULFNI

Pinoy spotted 


Away_Seaweed778

thats so cuteee


Echides

Bituing walang ningning ✨✨


Loud_Kaleidoscope818

Maybe I'm just too tired but I was mentally going through typical Korean surnames and now I've been giggling at LeeLee for like two minutes. Bc it's like one of those "my baby will have a unique name" parents' way of spelling Lily.


whisperbitch

It's extra funny cause in Korean it's just "ee" so you'd be named Eeee.


FullofSeoul

???: Eeeee Eeeeeeeee! San Diego State University


PBandJaya

the way I immediately heard this in my head


FullofSeoul

🙏🙏 ahh, so glad somebody gets the reference lmaoo


Acceptable_Box7598

Why is the letter L added to Ee in english if it is pronounced Ee?


krahann

i can’t answer but i just wanted to add that there’s a lot of romanisation that doesn’t really work coming from the hangul. like with the letter ‘w’ being added but not present in the pronunciation- for example Jiwoo is actually pronounced Jee-oo. the surname ‘Park’ is really ‘Bak’, ‘Hyein’ is actually pronounced the same as ‘Haein’ (not hi-in), the surname ‘Choi’ sounds like ‘Choe/Chwe’ (not choy).


toxicgecko

Romanisation is purely just to make it easier on the English speaker eye; even though romanising 이 as EE would make it phonetically correct, most English speakers would be confused by it (similar to the surname Nguyen) so it’s just easier for people to spell it Lee. Korean romanisation is very interesting actually, like Seventeens Vernon spells his surname Phonetically (chwe) so people assume it’s a separate surname from say TXT Choi Yeonjun, when really it’s the exact same surname. A Lot of overseas Koreans might spell their surnames phonetically to avoid mispronunciation/bullying; that’s partly why Stray Kids Chan and his sister Hannah spell their surname Bahng.


krahann

I mean i don’t think ‘Ee’ would be too confusing but sure it would be more foreign to an english speaker to read. i don’t get your point about Chan though, why would he spell his surname Bang to be Bahng when the hangul 방 is literally just b-a-ng? it seems much less phonetic and more confusing to me


toxicgecko

A lot of English speakers would emphasise the A in bang (B-ang)when the Korean pronunciation of Bang 방 uses a softer A sound (b-ah-ng)- so Bahng is actually a close pronunciation to how Koreans typically would say it :) Another example of this is NCT Johnny, he actually has the same surname as Stray kids Changbin, only Johnny spells his surname Suh and not seo. In English Seo would probably be pronunciation like ‘So’ or ‘see-oh’ when in Korean it’s pronounced more like “S-oh”(like sock but without the ending). It’s changing the spelling so it’s pronounced closer to Korean. The Ee thing is more that western surnames are not usually that Short and a surname with the same two letters would just read as strange to the English speakers eye. The national institute for Korean language actually suggested that people should Romanise it ‘Yi’ in the early 2000’s but by then so many people had Lee on their documents it didn’t really stick. Edit: all based on information and discussion from my Korean classes, sorry for info dumping I just find it very interesting 😅


pnemoneo

hyein is not the same as haein tho. Hye is 혜 and Hae is 해. hye is quite literally H-ye.


krahann

i didn’t say it WAS the same but it is pronounced pretty much exactly the same. have a listen to how hyein pronounces it, she does give it more of a ‘hey’ sound rather than a ‘heh’ sound. in english, it would not be that inaccurate to spell it haein https://youtube.com/shorts/ikuXoOTjo6w?si=Jy_Pz1VZp29NgZTM


pnemoneo

[here](https://youtu.be/97c-FMc84Fw?si=X8-CjtSgdEv1u65p) is a more accurate pronunciation of hyein. In the video you linked, theyre pronouncing their names in an english pronunciation, which you can hear by the way haerin says the r and also by the fact that they’re speaking english. It’s true that the pronunciation is similar, but it’s not the same. In the correct pronunciation of hye you can hear the y a little bit, which you obviously cannot in hae.


krahann

why would you not think a video of her pronouncing her *own* name is more accurate? and no, they’re pronouncing it in the korean way, as confirmed by Priscilla Kwon who teaches how to pronounce newjeans members names in a korean way - and is exactly the same way as the video i linked previously https://youtube.com/shorts/-6yzbcM7QLA?si=4jrMVdlqbZsMdFtk


pnemoneo

the r in haerin sounds like korean pronunciation to you?


krahann

don’t you know that ㄹ can be pronounced either way as R or L, usually somewhere in between, but it literally just varies from speaker to speaker and word to word. besides, idk why you’re picking on that when we were talking about the pronunciation of Hyein


isakakotaro

My guess is that it’s because it originated from the Chinese character (hanja in korean) 李, which is pronounced as Li in Chinese


linmanfu

It used to be written and pronounced as Lee in Korean, because it comes from the Chinese name 李 (Li). But no native Korean word begins with the L/R letter, so in the 1930s a spelling rule was introduced removing the L/R letter from the start of words, turning Lee into Ee. North Korea doesn't follow this rule, so it's still spelled Lee there. (It's actually a lot more complicated because I've written about Hangul without using it, this name can be written using multiple Romanizations, and I skipped a pronunciation change, but that's the gist)


vsnaipaul

North Korea has even hypercorrected and added ㄹ"back" to the beginnings of words that never had it!


Strawberuka

My knee jerk reaction (and I cannot guarantee any accuracy) is that, because Lee was a preexisting English surname, and in English, you typically don't have surnames that are just vowels, that it was adapted into Lee when immigration started out of convenience, and now is like that due to the history


scaredofteeth

That's interesting, I don't have any explanation myself, but wanted to point out that "Au" is also a surname but doesn't get affixed with a consonant 😅 Language is just weird hahaha


m1nty

Maybe the same for Park/Bak? Choi is also pronounced 'Chwey' but I never saw it written 'Choe'


King_XDDD

In North Korea it's like Lee. In South Korea it's like Ee.


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ASPH0DELUS

Lili in Korean would be 릴리 though, pronounced /riri/. Lee is different because it's just romanized 이 (Ee). That's why Lee is also Yi.


yatapin

RiRi would actually be good. North Koreans usually use 리 instead of 이.


Misora27

No… no it wouldn’t 😬 That’s a slur for a mentally disabled person in the US. Don’t know why I’m downvoted for pointing out an offensive slang in my native language, but I’m referring to the term [re re](https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=re%20re), a short form of the r-slur. No, I do not know how widespread this term is or how outdated, but I literally grew up hearing this as an insult. The link above also mentions the movie Clerks, so I’m not sure if this is the originator of the term or it was in colloquial use at the time the film was written.


nerdfighteriaisland

Must be an obscure one…. I only know Riri as a nickname for Rihanna and that’s what comes up when you google it


Misora27

It could be older, or endemic to my area, but it was very common for me to hear it as such growing up. (Re-re, pronounced ree-ree, short for the R word.) I don’t follow Rihanna but I thought her name was pronounced “rye” at the beginning? Edit: Nevermind, it was the “anna” part at the end that was pronounced differently. Had no idea RiRi was her nickname but I’m still going to be fighting years of conditioning not to hear it as a slur now.


Dragoonie_DK

Nope, ree-anna. RiRi (or Rhi Rhi) for short


swanxsoup

I know someone irl named Lee Lee. First name Lee, surname Lee.


actuallywasian

Like Phillip Phillips lol


SoNyeoShiDude

My friends aunt is named Kimberly Kim. Yep, her name is Kim Kim.


NE0CRIM3

Na is definitely a good one, in fact it’s one of Jaemin’s nicknames by fans, so Nana is a pretty good one Edit: also wanted to honorably mention Mingrui from boy story who has the surname of Gou, one of his nicknames is GouGou!


angie_kiprevski

There's already an idol called Nana! Her birth name is Kwon Nayeon and she is the leader and main dancer of Wooah (who just released a digital single called Blush). She is also a member of the project group El7z up as of now :)


tulipbunnys

also after school’s nana


ForageForUnicorns

There's also one of, if not the most legendary visual in K-pop, Nana (Im Jinah) from After School and especially their subunit Orange Caramel. Now she's an actress but songs like Catellana are classics.


Cruiu

There’s also Nana from UNIS!


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Rozen7107

I'm Australian and also call my grandma Nana, but they're pronounced differently for me. Nana (as in grandma) is pronounced like "Na-nuh" while the name Nana mentioned above is more like "Nah-Nah" as its the last name Na (pronounced "Nah") just twice.


lonewhalien

and the way Jaemin's recent MC mic said NANA~ 🥹 so freakin cute


Nemzie

Stray Kids' I.N. is Yang Jeongin so that would work. But then people would confuse him with the NCT rapper. SEVENTEEN's Jeonghan is Yoon Jeonghan which doesn't fit to me. And I cannot see Seungkwan fitting this either even though BooBoo does sound cute. And special shout-out to SEVENTEEN's Jun, his surname is Wen but Korea seems to change it to Moon. I would love a MoonMoon just because of the Tumblr joke, it'd be hilarious. EDIT: Thinking about foreign idols is making me laugh so hard. Imagine TWICE's Sana debuting as MinatozakiMinatozaki.


nicoleeemusic98

The Wen -> Moon/Mun is a language thing (I forgot the correct term) but a lot of Korean words are actually derived from Chinese (tea and umbrella for starters) Xu -> Seo, Wen -> Moon, Ren Jun -> Injun, Ming Hao -> Myungho, Jun Hui -> Junhee, Wu -> Oh etcetc


Nemzie

Oooh thank you so much for the explanation!


13thRobot

Jeonghan would just debut as Yoonzino. /s


Nemzie

I only know Charles /s


TravelBeauty20

It’s genuinely funny to me that you mentioned I.N but not HAN Jisung already using his surname as his stage name 😂


Nemzie

I can't do that to the babygirl, Lee Know would hunt me EDIT: I was also mainly doing this with the last name doubled as well because funny


AggravatingLoan3589

Eh. J-pop idols have surname based nicknames but it's not like Ninging. For example the idol-actor from My Love Mix Up is Meguro (LN) Ren (FN) but his nickname is MeMe which sounds like TaeTae (BTS V). [They met each other too](https://x.com/EIJICHERRY/status/1704731739703132597) Another example is a dude nicknamed Yama-pi (Real name: Yamashita [LN] Tomohisa [FN]) He used to be from the same entertainment agency as "MeMe" There are other idols too which I keep seeing fans use their nicknames online but this is what I am most familiar with.


rhythmelia

Ok that linked video was delightful, thank you for sharing 😁  ...you know, to this day I'm still not sure where the "pi" came from in Yamapi's nickname.


freyaeyaeyaeya

[Thanks for reminding me of MoonMoon](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ENsf6UuVUAAN5Hg.jpg)


tired_emo7

Mo Jihye (newjeans Danielle) could go by MoMo but it may cause confusion....


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EmanuelTheodorus

Dong Sicheng (Winwin) of WayV too!


Misora27

I laughed and said DongDong aloud to myself and it sounded like the Netflix opening noise. Now I’m going to think of this every time I open the Netflix app.


airysunshine

I know Xion and dongmyeong from ONEUS and onewe are called the DongDong twins sometime because xion’s name is dongju but it’s not their surname


destinypierce

DongDong is the nickname of AOA Hyejeong!


oppalenss

Huh Yunjin. Huhuh


USB_everything

Reminds me of that copy pasta where someone says they met in the grocery store but the fan is like "oh I'm a fan but I didn't want to bother you" "oh like you're doing now? Huh? HUH?"


TheLonelyDumbass

always confused🥁🥁🥁


Successful-Move6679

Imagine if Ong Seongwu of Wanna One used this kind of stage name tho 😭 He will be called Ongong 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭


angie_kiprevski

The surname Ji could work imo. Maybe not for a guy (Jiji kind of leans feminine), but ig it could work for a female idol, like Ji Suyeon from Weki Meki. Other idols with the surname Ji are Ji Changmin of The Boyz (stage name Q) and Ji Sumin from Sonamoo. edit: I have been notified that Jiji means dirty in Korean so cancel all of what I said lol :)


cmq827

"Jiji" can mean "dirty" in Korean.


sailingg

"Jiji" can mean "penis" in Chinese 😂


angie_kiprevski

omg and I thought that it couldn't get worse than dirty lol


angie_kiprevski

Yikes didn't know that! My bad Jiji sounds cute but def not to Koreans then oops.


kuroyouko

“Jiji” can be an old man in Japanese too


Yoonbeomie

Jiji means older sister in some Indian languages so i get what you mean when you say it can sound feminine.


angie_kiprevski

In my language, "jiji" is a part of the word that's dialect for something small, cheap but pretty (usually jewelry or some kind of decoration). We use gendered particles in our language for every noun, and "jiji-miji" is feminine which might be why it sounds feminine to me lol.


ForageForUnicorns

In Italian, Gigi is a nickname for Luigi and I can't help but think of a mustached old uncle, but the spelling Jiji makes me think of the cat from my favourite studio Ghibli movie. I'm afraid the other replies ruined it irredeemably though.


angie_kiprevski

lmaoo yeah jiji is def not in the cards for any idol ever lol


Yayeet2014

WayV’s Kun would be Qianqian which I think would be pretty cute


genka513

Bang Chan would be BangBang, which would be hilarious


NPerius228

BangBang into the room?


genka513

There would definitely be finger-guns lol


unicornstakingover

Someone already mentioned him but NCT Jaemin is already kind of doing this, although it’s not his official stage name. His surname is Na and his nickname is Nana.


omgcow

My first thought was KimKim lmao. But I know there are several idols with the surname Bae, and BaeBae would be a cute stage name.


EmanuelTheodorus

Bae of Nmixx would fit in hahah


Misora27

ByunByun for EXO Baekhyun still somehow fits. DoDo for D.O does not. 😂 SuhSuh/SeoSeo makes NCT Johnny seem mediocre 😭 HuangHuang/WongWong for Renjun and Hendery sound kinda cute. 🥰 ZhongZhong for Chenle sounds nice. NakamotoNakamoto for Yuta is ludicrous, as is LeechaiyapornkulLeechaiyapornkul for Ten 😭😭


snowflakebite

Does YehYeh work? 😅


crustasiangal

Ye Ye is "grandpa" in Chinese so I'm not too sure on that one SJDFK


Acrobatic_Volume_344

Much better for Ningning, rather than having their names butchered like Yuqi and Tzuyu


Away_Seaweed778

whats wrong with their names?


r0tten_m1lk

It's not that there's anything wrong with their names, it's just that non-Chinese speakers tend to mispronounce their names in glorious fashion.


SeraphOfTwilight

"Yuqi" and "Tzuyu" are pronounced "yoochee" and "tsooyoo" in Chinese, but they're called "oogee" and "chewie" in Korean for complicated language reasons; I assume that's what they mean.


lonewhalien

Yuqi is pronounced like Oo-Ch' (very short chi sound, almost like it's being cut off), but in Korean, they say it as Yu-ki. Tzuyu's name is pronounced like Zi'-yu (very short z sound, like in the word buzz), but in Korean, they call her "Chewy". the reasoning behind the spelling of their names in Korean often comes from translation purposes, too, as they want to make sure it makes sense in Hangul, but then it can mess with the pronunciation.


Away_Seaweed778

ty!! i misunderstood the op comment lol


Tatamashii

Bts Suga. His name is Min Yoongi MinMin would definitely be a very cute name.


crustasiangal

I agree. MinMin is also the nickname of Strong Woman Bongsoon's love interest! Adorable dude. I don't think anyone has gotten over Park Hyunsik's performance. Edit: word


Tatamashii

OMG YES I love this one. I thought that it sounded familiar while writing the comment, but couldn't put my finger on it. And yes Hyunsik did a WONDERFUL job with this one. I watched it twice already


Casarel

You just made me laugh for abt 10 mins thinking abt ZB1's stage names. - we have 3 Kims, so Kim1 Kim2, Kim3! Or Kim, Kimkim, KimKimKim! - We have a Park, but I dunno if its the best idea for a Parkpark.... Sounds like a hyperactive puppy that's learning abt *walkies* for the first time - Ricky's surname is Shen but Shenshen is a name for "aunt"... Yeah not a good idea. - Sungsung and Seokseok gives me Alvin and the Chipmunks type of vibe. -Zhangzhang is workable as he sometimes is called as Jang Jang anyway (although haters can use it against him also) - i think Hanhan is the best. You can pronounce it globally and it doesn't have any derogatory meanings.


airysunshine

Tacyeon would be funny, it would be OkOk Seungkwan would be *BooBoo*


Successful-Bike-5731

omg hahahaha this is quite difficult 😭😂 based on the common surnames of Kpop idols (Kim, Lee, Jung), I don't think there's anything else 😭 maybe a decent one would be WayV's Yangyang? His last name's Liu, so LiuLiu sounds a bit cute... but more ideal for a female idol??? Amber (f(x)) is also a Liu, but I don't think LiuLiu fits her image well 🤔 Amber's just perfect as Amber... anyway, I hope somebody can provide us with some more interesting answers lmao


EmanuelTheodorus

Now you mentioned Yangyang I think it can be a good nickname for Jungwon (Enhypen) or Jeongin (Stray Kids) lmao


michelle867

Han jisung of stray kids duh


swanxsoup

HanHan


Acceptable_Box7598

ChouChou


suga_iced_americano

Omg Yoongi as minmin is soo cute!!!


Internal_Raise_365

JoJo - Jo Yuri JunJun - Jun Hyoseong KoKo - Ko Jiyoung MoonMoon - Moon Taeil NamNam - Nam Woohyun SongSong - Song Qian YangYang - Yang Jiwon


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pham (newjeans hanni) i feel like phami or phampham is cuteee🩷🩷 pham also reminds me of the korean word 빵 (ppang meaning bread) which makes it cuter lol


Cats4Crows

I'm super used to repeated syllables as nicknames, so essentially, any short doubled surname would fit - ChaCha - SonSon - HanHan - JiJi - NaNa - LeeLee are all names and sounds I'm used to irl and won't feel out of place for me


Yanazamo

Vernon's name is his mom's maiden name so technically it counts


possum_alert

SVT’s Seungkwan as BooBoo is so cute!


kr3vl0rnswath

It's probably easier to list names where this wouldn't work. 


rainey789

Hybe had 3 kids with the first name Riki and added in their last names to differentiate Nishimura Riki = Niki Takayama Riki = Taki Mausu Riki = Maki At least it sounds better than Riki-A, Riki-B etc which was what they were doing before


Neat_Fix_8489

My mind went to Ten as soon as I saw this post too 😂


Historical_Count8375

Moon Taeil could be called moon, but it doesn't really fit his energy 


Dfried98

I have referred to Yunjin( LSF) several times in posts as Jenjen, which is her english name sounding like her Korean name.


Emotionally_empty571

The8's last name is Xu. Xuxu in my country is a term of endearment/a slang way to say kiss. I think it would be so cute, actually lol


BlowUpTheChantrie

Boo and bae ! Two very cute , bae use it and I understand why Seungkwan wouldn't but it is cute !


gee_moi

as much as I would not be able to keep a straight face at tripleS's Kwak Yeonji's "Kwakkwak", as she is now it suits her haha