naming people

At 14:53 21/02/99 -0300, you wrote:
>From: "FFlores" <fflores@...>
>
>Hi. I'm still Pablo Flores but, as you see,
>I've changed my mail account name. The first
>"F" is supposed to mean "family". My brother is
>going to subscribe to another list and we guessed
>this was the best to avoid confussion.
>
>Speaking of which, it would be interesting to
>know about naming tendencies in concultures.
>For example, are there first and last names
>(surnames)? Which order do they come in? etc.
        Look at my homepage, I always have a chapter about naming in my conlangs.

        In Moten, the name (sigoj) is made of 4 parts, and only 4. The first part
is the samsigoj (roughly the first name). It comes from a closed list of
only 10 words that are neuter (can be used both by men and women). Those
words are never used to call somebody. They are:

Simaj /simaj/, |Lepo /ljepo/, Zudik /zudik/, Mujin /mujin/, Bo|n /Bonj/,
Agad /agad/, Fomnu /fomnu/, |Sela /tsela/, Vlen /vlen/, |Zute /dzute/.

The second part is the nu|zigoj (the family name) which can be the name of
the father or the mother, depending on the choice of the person (s/he can
change to one another when s/he wants). Generally, the name chosen is the
mother's one. It can have a meaning or not, there is no general rule.

The third part is the pa|nasigoj (name of birth), a surname chosen by the
parents at the birth of their child. It must have a meaning in Moten and it
is the name used by the family to call the person. For instance: Atlinan
(firebird).

The fourth and last (but not least) part is the va|lesigoj (image name), a
surname chosen by the person itself before or at his/her majority, and
which is used by the friends to call the person. It is the only part of the
name that can be in another language than Moten.

So a full name can be for instance: |Sela Jemufan Atlinan C.G. (mine!)

        In Azak, the basis of the name is the first name, chosen by the child's
mother, always used with the article -oj (except when the person is called):

Jon-oj /j'onoj/: John   Jon, Jon-es: John!

In oral, it's generally the only name that is used. In more formal speech,
you must add other terms:

- the first name of the mother (or the name of the child itself if it is an
orphan) at the originel case, preceeded by emip.vom (son) or emip.nez at
the complementative case. For instance:

Jon-oj emip.vom-on Marij-oj-osh: John son of Mary
Jon-oj emip.vom-on Jon-oj-osh: John Orphan.

- the name of the 'clan' of the person (not far from the 'clubs' of
I-don't-remember-who) with the article -oj, generally pluralized (when it
has tar: person, in its name) and at the collective case:

Tar.buf-oj-ar-ad: among the Fire People.

So a full name would be:

Jon-oj emip.vom-on Marij-oj-osh Tar.buf-oj-ar-ad: John, son of Mary, of the
'clan' of the Fire People.

        Finally, in Reman, the name can be made like in any Roman country, with
one or more first names, and one or more last names. But the name must be
preceeded by the article i` (the) and the last name(s) must be at the
genitive case. For instance:

i` Marha Celvena /i marj'a Selv'ena/: Mary Shelvin.

I still don't know how to name people in Tj'a-ts'a~n, but as soon as I
know, I will tell you.


                                                        Christophe Grandsire
                                                |Sela Jemufan Atlinan C.G.

"Reality is just another point of view."

homepage : http://www.bde.espci.fr/homepage/Christophe.Grandsire/index.html