French names in Korean 프랑스어 이름

Why Thomas is 토마 in French but 토머스 in English

French spellings are taken from French pronunciation (Table 1), and the final s of the French Thomas is not pronounced — so it is 토마. The English Thomas is 토머스 and the German Thomas, where the s is said, is 토마스.

Common French first names

The French first names that appear most often in the records, with the spelling the institute uses.

French surnames

Most surnames appear only once or twice in the records. These are the ones recorded for more than one person, followed by the surnames of some well-known people.

The same name in other languages

A name keeps the sound it has in its own language, so names shared by several languages are spelled differently in Korean. All spellings below are from the official records; other-language spellings are shown when at least two people have them.

How French names are written in Korean

French names are written from their pronunciation with Table 1 (표 1, the International Phonetic Alphabet chart), using the English rules (제1절) where they fit, plus five special rules in Chapter 3, Section 3 (제3장 제3절 프랑스어의 표기). The special rules, with the official examples:

1. p, t, k, b, d, g — At the end of a word these sounds get 으. A voiceless p, t or k between an oral vowel and another voiceless consonant becomes a final consonant (받침). Official examples: soupe 수프, tête 테트, bague 바그, septembre 셉탕브르, octobre 옥토브르, action 악시옹.
2. [ʃ] and [ʒ] (ch, j) — At the end of a word and before a consonant they are 슈 and 주. Before [ə] and [w], [ʃ] joins the next sound as 슈. Before [y], [œ], [ø], [j] and [ɥ], [ʃ] is ㅅ. Official examples: manche 망슈, piège 피에주, chemise 슈미즈, choix 슈아, chute 쉬트, chien 시앵.
3. [ɲ] (gn) — At the end of a word and before a consonant it is 뉴; before a, e, o, u it joins the vowel as 냐, 녜, 뇨, 뉴; before [ə] and [w] it is 뉴; otherwise it is ㄴ. Official examples: campagne 캉파뉴, mignon 미뇽, agneau 아뇨, magnifique 마니피크.
4. [j] (y sound) — At the end of a word it is 유. Between vowels it joins the next vowel (예, 얭, 야, 양, 요, 용, 유, 이…), but before [ø] and [œ] it is 이. Anywhere else it is 이. Official examples: Marseille 마르세유, billet 비예, crayon 크레용, Montesquieu 몽테스키외, champion 샹피옹.
5. [w] — The w sound is written 우. Official examples: toi 투아, quoi 쿠아, douane 두안.

Source: 외래어 표기법 (Rules for writing foreign words in Korean), National Institute of Korean Language — 제3장 제3절 and 표 1. Names and counts: the institute’s 외래어 표기 용례 records of people, as published on korean.go.kr (read October 2026).

French-speaking people in the records

A few of the people whose Korean spelling was decided by the government committee on foreign names (외래어 심의회). Foreign names keep their own order in Korean — given name first, then surname.

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