| Hangul: | 석 |
| Hanja: | Family or given: "stone" "ancient" Given name only: "evening" "regret" "seat" "eminent" "divide" "interpret" |
| Rr: | Seok |
| Mr: | Sŏk |
Seok, also spelled Suk, is a rare Korean family name held by about 56,500 South Koreans, as well as an element in some Korean given names.
The family name Seok can be written with either of two hanja, one meaning "stone", and the other meaning "ancient" . The former version is the more widespread of the two. The 2000 South Korean census found 46,066 people by this name.[1] Of these, the great majority are members of the Gyeongju Seok clan and the Chungju (also called Hongju) Seok clan. The latter had a 2000 South Korean population of 9,544. The Gyeongju Seok clan claims descent from certain of the early rulers of Silla; the first Gyeongju Seok to sit on the throne was the fourth Silla king, Talhae.
In a study by the National Institute of the Korean Language based on 2007 application data for South Korean passports, it was found that 61.3% of people with that surname spelled it in Latin letters as Seok in their passports, vs. 30.6% as Suk. Rarer alternative spellings (the remaining 8.1%) included Seog, Sok, Souk, and Sock.[2]
People with this family name include:
There are 20 hanja with the reading Seok on the South Korean government's official list of hanja which may be used in given names; common ones are shown in the table above.[3]
People with the single-syllable given name Seok include:
Names containing this syllable include: