The name Moo Duk Kwan means "School of Martial Virtue"

• Moo – military, chivalry, martial; within the ideograph the inner part of the symbol is the word for "stop" and the outer part means "weapon"
• Duk – benevolence, virtue, goodness, commanding respect; within the ideograph on the left it means "little steps" or "to happen", and on the right the character means "moral"; thus moral steps or perhaps virtuous conduct
• Kwan – large building, palace, library; again within the ideograph the left part looks like a roofed building and technically means "to eat" (under a roof).

Hwang Kee combined what he knew of the Chinese and Korean martial arts he'd studied into an art he called Hwa Soo Do, referring to the Hwa Rang warriors of ancient Korea. Translated literally the name means "the Way of the Flowering Hand" and opened his first Hwa Soo Do Moo Duk Kwan Dojang (Studio/Training Hall) on November 9, 1945. Due to the public's unfamiliarity with the term Hwa Soo Do, he had difficulty in building interest. Because of this, Grandmaster Hwang Kee made the decision to rename his art Hwa Soo (Tang Soo) Do. The public was much more familiar with the term Tang Soo Do and this simple change was instrumental in conveying that he was teaching a martial art. Eventually the art would come to be known as Tang Soo Do Moo Duk Kwan, an amalgamation of the school's name of Moo Duk Kwan combined with the martial art of Tang Soo Do.