Yeong-ja

Yeong-ja is a Korean female given name. As a compound name, it is composed of two Sino-Korean elements: yeong (英), which can mean "flower, petal, brave, hero," and ja (子), meaning "child." The combination can be written with various hanja characters and thus often carries multiple potential meanings according to family convention. The element -ja (子) is the Korean reading of the Chinese character for “child,” and its use as a feminine given name suffix mirrors the Japanese -ko suffix, which enjoyed widespread popularity during Japan’s colonial period. This stylistic borrowing made -ja names like Yeong-ja very fashionable in Korea during the Japanese occupation (1910–1945). After Korea’s liberation in 1945, names of this pattern underwent a sharp decline in use as sentiment shifted away from colonial cultural influence.