Young-ja

Young-ja, also spelled Yeong-ja, is a Korean given name. According to South Korean government data, it was the most popular name for baby girls born in 1940.^[1]

The syllable "ja" is generally written using a hanja meaning "child" (子). In Japan, where this character is read ko, it was originally used as suffix for the names of girls in the aristocracy. The practice of adding -ko to girls' names spread to the lower classes following the 1868 Meiji Restoration.^[2] Names containing this character, such as Soon-ja and Jeong-ja, became popular when Korea was under Japanese rule from 1910 to 1945, but declined in popularity afterwards.^[3] By 1950 there were no names ending in "ja" in the top ten.^[4]