I am always fascinated by the origin of family names, including that of my own. DPRK Studies has an entry about Korean surnames and inspired me to dust out some Na clan lore I found on the Net a while back.

Behold the power of the Internet!

First, the Na entry in ancestry.com shows that there were possibly dozen or so Na folks in the U.S. in the 1920’s. I find this highly unlikely, but government records say so, so it must be true. The same site has this info on the Na name:

Korean: there is only one Chinese character for the Na surname. Some sources indicate that there are 46 different Na clans, but only two of them can be documented, and it is believed that these two sprang from a common founding ancestor. The Na clan’s founding ancestor, Na Pu, migrated from China sometime during the mid-seventh century and settled in the Naju area.

So my family origin is Chinese, eh? Not quite. Here is some info about a mosque (!) in China built by the Na clan:

Najiahu, meaning “neighborhood of the Na family”, is the name of a famous northwest Chinese Muslim mosque in a Hui-inhabited village in Yinchuan’s Yongning County. The Nas are the descendants of a Mongol aristocrat who settled in Yinchuan during the Yuan Dynasty. During the Ming and Qing dynasties the neighborhood of the Na family wa an economic and cultural center for local Muslims… The buildings on the premises are adorned with numerous boards and couplets with calligraphic inscriptions on them, one of which tells of the origin of the Na family and the mosque itself: “My family left Qing (center China) and moved to Western Xia, and built this temple during the Jiajing reign.” After receiving repeated facelifts, the mosque is now opened for cultural and religious exchanges with foreign countries.

So my clan is Muslim! No, not really either. But it is corroborated by many other sources (not just ones on the Net) that the Na clan indeed descends from a Mongol nobleman of the Jenghiz Khan era (note the Yuan Dynasty, 1279-1368 AD, mentioned in the text above was established in China by Kublai Khan, the grandson of Jenghiz).

I am pretty sure my “aristocrat” ancestor was some 13th Century illiterate Mongol thug who rode with the Mongol horde and made it big as the power of the Mongol Empire came to stretch from the Danube to the Bering Sea. Funny how pretty much all aristocratic families actually originate from illiterate bandits, petty chiefs or strongmen — even most European royalty and nobility come from Germanic raiders of the post-Roman Empire variety, their present pomp and sense of (self-) importance notwithstanding.

Then there is this family memorial gate in South Korea:

This gate is a jeongmun, a gate especially designed to pay public tribute to three generations of the Naju Na clan which, beginning with Na Sa-chim, included two cited for loyalty, two cited for filial piety, and four women cited for their womanly virtue.

Yup, that’s us, loyal, pious and virtuous. In any case, there are more pictures of this structure here, which say:

This small shrine was constructed by the Naju Na family in 1722 to commemorate Na Sachim, magistrate of Iseong, and seven other members of the Na family from three generations.

There was another bit of Net info on the family origin I found, but unfortunately the link is no longer active. It was some sort of a scholarly study done about the Central Asian and even West Asian (Middle Eastern!) origins of some Korean families. In it, there was a mention of a Na, reputedly the ancestor of the modern Nas in Korea. He was apparently a Mongol warrior and nobleman who accompanied a Mongol princess who was sent off to marry a Korean (Koryo Dynasty, 918-1392 AD) crown prince (the Mongol Empire defeated Koryo, made it a protectorate and made its crown princes marry Mongol princesses to ensure loyalty).

There are also some Web documents in Korean about the family origin (here and here).

Much of this information is in conflict with the family lore I heard growing up as well as some of the genealogy studies I read. But what is clear is that the family goes back at least to the 13th Century for sure, and possibly to the 7th Century (that makes my family at least 1300 years old!). And now there are and will be American Nas!

Now go look for your own family stuff on the Net!