Seoul, South Korea: Jong-un has always been a common Korean name for both men and women. But now, in North Korea, there is only one person who can use it: the country's supreme leader, Kim Jong-un.

South Korean government officials said on Wednesday that North Korea had banned parents from giving their newborns the same name as the top leader. People who already have the name have been ordered to register with new ones.

The one and only: North Korean leader Kim Jong-un - other people with that name must change it. Credit:Reuters

South Korean officials have long suspected that such a policy was in force in North Korea after Mr Kim was officially introduced as heir to his father, Kim Jong-il, in 2010. In the North, state propagandists treat Kim Jong-un; his father; and his grandfather, Kim Il-sung, the North's founder, as godlike figures. During the rule of the father and of the grandfather, the government decreed that no other North Korean should have the name Jong-il or Il-sung.

The South Korean national broadcaster KBS reported on Tuesday on what it called an internal North Korean government document, dated January 5, 2011, in which officials of the governing Workers' Party and of internal security agencies were instructed to see that North Koreans named Jong-un adopted new names.