indicate the level to which a name has been verified.
Gender Feminine
Usage Korean
Scripts 정자(Korean Hangul) 貞子(Korean Hanja)
Other Forms FormsJeongja, Chŏngja/Chŏngcha (McCune–Reischauer Romanization), Cēngca/Cengca (Yale Romanization)
Meaning & History
From Korean hangul 정, hanja 貞 (jeong) "chastity, virtue" or "chaste, virtuous" and 자, hanja 子 (ja) "child, offspring", making it a cognate of - or even a direct borrowing from - the popular Japanese name Sadako.
This combination also coincides with the Korean vocabulary word 정자, hanja 精子 (jeongja) "spermatozoön, sperm cell" - which may have influenced the name's decline in popularity, in addition to the patriotic reason given below.This was the 6th most popular name for Korean girls born in 1940. It was one of a number of Japanese-style names ending in -ja that were popular when Korea was under Japanese occupation, but it sharply declined in popularity afterward. By 1950 there were no names ending in -ja in the top 10.
This combination also coincides with the Korean vocabulary word 정자, hanja 精子 (jeongja) "spermatozoön, sperm cell" - which may have influenced the name's decline in popularity, in addition to the patriotic reason given below.This was the 6th most popular name for Korean girls born in 1940. It was one of a number of Japanese-style names ending in -ja that were popular when Korea was under Japanese occupation, but it sharply declined in popularity afterward. By 1950 there were no names ending in -ja in the top 10.