Cross-post: Naming systems, family structure, politeness in address

--- In conculture@egroups.com, "Matt McLauchlin" <matt_mcl@h...>
wrote:
How do your naming systems relate to your family structure?

A Shrislia's most important name is one's personal name (rather like
in Iceland). You also receive a patronymic with the name of the
parent of the same sex (if there is one; see below).

When you marry, you take an "uxoronymic" (is that a word?) being the
name of your spouse. This replaces the patronymic, although the
latter remains part of your name (compare a woman who uses her maiden
name like a middle name).

So, for example, Trele, daughter of Iliane, calls herself "Trele
te'Ilianes" (the latter name is short for "teje Ilianes", daughter of
Iliane). When she marries Sento, she becomes Trele ze'Sentos (short
for "izade Sentos"), and he becomes Sento zo'Treles. That's her
ordinary full name, although her complete name, Trele te'Ilianes
ze'Dorbanas, is used for very formal events (such as on official
documents).

Same-sex marriage is commonplace, and the same naming system is used.
The name of any children of such a marriage works as follows. If the
child is the biological child of one of the two spouses, it takes
that spouse's name, whether or not they are the same sex. If the
child is adopted, it follows the rules for all adopted children,
namely, that they use the names of both parents (e.g. Toriso
no'Tenjos Arinesuj - Toriso, son of Tenjo and Arine).

What's also common is group marriage, and in that case they choose a
name, and the all become zo' or ze' that name. (The current queen's
full name is Enike te'Straptus ze'Urilas, since she is a member of a
group marriage by the name of Uril.) This name would also be adopted
by the children.

In noble families, it is slightly different; the child takes only the
name of the highest-ranking parent, regardless of all of the
preceding. So if Enike ze'Urilas had been a commoner, her son would
have been Dorban no'Urilas; but since she is the queen, he is Dorban
no'Enikes.

Except among the nobility, the family structure is quite free and
loose; marriages and divorces are common, and the latter are not
regarded as tragedies. Thus, the individual's name has the highest
prominence, since it never changes although the other name used might
change frequently.

---

As for titles and politeness formulae, here are the rules for
commoners.

The basic form of address (used among the young, and among friends
and colleagues) is the personal name alone: Trele.

The polite form of direct and second-reference address is the suffix -
sec; Trelesec = Ms. Trele. (It's pronounced "sesh").

To introduce someone, you use their first name (with no honorific)
and their spouse's name, or their patronymic if unmarried: Trele
te'Iliane, or Trele ze'Sentos.

In official documents and whatnot, where the complete name is
required, it is given as above.


For the nobility, the name is used with the title R'moctard
("honoured") preceding the name, and the title following it.
R'moctard Turi ze'Nalyas, Ctricpe Lokrinas = Her Grace Turi Nalya's-
daughter, Duchess of Lokrina. On second reference or to her face, she
would be R'moctard Turisec.

With the sovereign, second reference would be R'moctard Bédio or
Múnie ('king' or 'queen').

Finally, when worshipping in the grove, all of the above are laid
aside and forgotten about, much like one's clothing, and everyone
just has their personal name followed by "shris" (of the shri),
whether sovereign or commoner.
--- End forwarded message ---