[Image:Distribution of South Korean family names.svg|thumb|Percentage of family names in South Korea ]] Park is a notable Korean surname, traditionally founded by King Hyeokgeose Park  and theoretically inclusive of all his descendants. In Chinese characters (Hanja), it is written as , which is the simplified version of 樸(pu). The name "Park" is usually assumed to come from the Korean noun 박 bak, which means "bottle gourd," or the Korean adjective stem 밝 balk-, which means "bright." In Chinese, it is read as follows: piáo, pǔ, pò, pō. In Korean(박), it is read as 'bak'.