James William Sejun Lippert
Mrs. Robyn, wife of Ambassador Mark Lippert of the United States in Seoul, gave birth to a wonderful babyboy at the Severance Hospital in Seoul at 7 p.m. January 19, 2015. The baby was in wonderful health and weighed 3.52 kilograms, a much-envied weight for a new-born baby in Korea.
Ambassador and Mrs. Lippert, according to the Ambassador’s Facebook, gave their baby an American-Korean name, James William Sejun Lippert. James comes from the name of the Ambassador’s father and William from the name of Mrs. Lippert’s grandfather.
The Korean name, Sejun, is a very good one given after consultation with a Korean name author, a Saju master, who normally makes names based on the principle of Yeokgyeong (Iching).
Publisher Lee Kyung-sik of The Korea Post asked them for the Chinese characters of the Korean name if they had them, and they kindly sent the following:
Some ambassadors a long time ago also had their baby born in Korea. They were so excited and called the baby “Our ‘Made in Korea!’”
It is not clear if the Lipperts would want to call Sejun “made in Korea” like the other ambassadors, but considering his exceptional interest in Korea, they might.
In terms of nationality, the US is known to use a territorial principle meaning that the baby is given the nationality where it is born. However, in the case of diplomats, personal nationality principle is known to be applied.
Considering the close relations between Korea and the US, it is expected that the baby, James William Sejun Lippert, could easily get a Korean additionally if the parents would want it.
When Ambassador Lippert came to Seoul last October with his wife as a new US ambassador to Korea, the Korean media quoted him as saying, “We expect a new member in my family and I expect that the bilateral relations will have grown much bigger like my family with the new member by the time I fulfil my tour of duty in Korea.”