Why do Koreans call themselves ''Han''?

This is a lot of detail, but what I was trying to demonstrate that the Koreans do indeed consider themselves “Han,” but this has no relationship at all to the Han Chinese people, even though it is tempting to make this assumption. read more

Han in the sense of Korea probably refers to 한 (Hanja/Hanzi: 韓) for 한국 (Hanja/Hanzi: 韓國), which is how (South) Koreans call their country and themselves today. The concept 韓 was originally from the Samhan (Three 韓s) period, where the three 韓 nations were Mahan (Hanja/Hanzi: 馬韓), Jinhan (Hanja/Hanzi: 辰韓), and Byeonhan (Hanja/Hanzi: 弁韓). read more

In the end, the word Korea is used in English, and other European languages, merely for historical reasons. Their names in their native language, and the other languages of the Sinosphere, is more consistent with how Koreans identify themselves, unlike in English. read more