Azurite names

[meto30]

Hello, I'm a native Korean, and perhaps I can provide insight, or perhaps a particularily Korean take, to O-Chul.

If I'm to assume Chul is pronounced Cheol (as in furniTURE) and not Chool (as in drool) then it becomes an archaic but rather awesome Korean single-syllable personal name (there are very few single-syllable names in modern Korea). Oh (pronounced as in Oh my God) is a common Korean surname, and in East Asian conventions the surname is supposed to come before the personal name. Combining these two, we end up with Oh Chul, which is (perhaps surprisingly to some non-East-Asian readers) a very natural Korean name. I'd bet there were at least one Oh Chul in Korean history; Chul was a common name in medieval Korea.

Oh-Chul together can also form a two-syllable Korean personal name. It's not as cool as Chul alone, but since every other Azurite have their surnames at the last portion of their names, this will fit better.

"O-" prefix in Japanese does not come before people's names, at least not in the context NZninja mentioned. It is more of a formality convention that is added upon common nouns (not unique nouns) to denote that one is trying to be subservient and respectful towards whoever one's talking to; in modern Japan, the convention is observed in nearly all cases, as the modern Japanese language is derived from the medieval merchant class Japanese, whom were at all times subservient to the warrior class.

If Chul is pronounced Chool however, then it is definantly not a Korean name, at least not a sensible one. The most common Chinese ideogram Koreans associate with 'Chool' is 'exit', and naming a boy 'exit' is bad taste.