Re: Naming customs

Thomas Wier wrote:
>Quoting Dan Jones <dan@...>:
>
> > Also, what's the story behind people's names on the list? Are you
> > named after family members, or otherwise??
[snip]

My full name is Håkan Andreas Johansson. "Håkan" is simply my father's first
name (his full name is Håkan Olof Johansson), while "Andreas" simply is/was
the most beautiful (male) name my parents could think of. Johansson is from
my paternal great great grandfather, Johan Ernst, who didn't want his
children to bear a soldier's name (which "Ernst" is as a Swedish surname),
so he used the patronymic instead. By chance, the change the transition form
true patronymics to proper surnames occured about the same time (mid-late
19th century), so the name stuck.

When my parents married, my mother both kept her unmarried surname and
adopted my father's, so her full name is now Anna Elisabet
Norberg-Johansson, of which Elisabet is the main given name. She frequently
receives mail addressed to "Anna Norberg" or "Anna Johansson", which she
finds highly annoying.

>ObConlang: Phaleran names always come in a fixed order:
>[clan] [tribe] [numerical] [official] [personal].  Normally,
>the citation name given for someone is [Clan, Personal], unless
>he or she is a noble, in which case usually it is [Tribe, Numerical,
>Personal].  In the case of inveterate nobles, who can prove their
>ancestry all the way back to Earth, they will always take the
>tribal name _Asseli_ (i.e., "of Earth"). People who achieve
>high office may also take special numerical or official names
>after taking office.  The government of Twolyeo is tricameral:
>the _Pyoltigeni Sniluo_ (House of Magnates), the Phrâstyumen
>(the Council of Twenty) and the Hretlaimessa (Confederate
>Tribal Assembly).  The Pyoltigeni Sniluo is divided into two
>groups: inveterate and novitiate gentry. Of these, the life-term
>timarchy always goes to a member of the inveterate gentry, while
>the decade-long timarchy always goes to a member of the novitiate
>gentry (these two offices have veto power over the other).  The
>Official name for the first office is _Ahra_ ("Governor",
>theoretically the descendent of the last extrasolar governmental
>authority), while the second is _Eltri_ ("Superior").  When
>individuals acquire office holders, they also add on the an
>another Numerical name *after* their personal name.  This means
>that you can get full names like:
>
>   Orunsai T'elti Tyul Ahra Cuwannes Nul.
>   "Cuwannes, of Orunsai clan, of T'elti tribe, Fourth of that
>    line, Governor, the Second of that name. "
>   or, alternatively, "T'elti IV Cuwannes II"
>
>(It's important to get the Numerical names right, since the
>number of families that as a matter of fact ever hold these
>offices is vanishingly small.)
The Tairezazh and Steianzh have name system similar to ours, but normally
only on given name.

Given names can be placed into three broad categories: _zgenten telk_ "short
names" that consist of an adjective plus a feminine or or masculine ending
(archetypical example: _Telko_ "Shorty (masc)"), _zgenten draz_ "old names"
that have no apparent meaning and usually derives from other languages (eg
_Atáz_), and _zgenten kolen_ "classical names" or compound names whose
meaning is usually more or less apparent (eg _Skiftelk_, meaning
"blueshort"). The name "classical" names is due to this being the completely
dominating name-type during the "classical" period (when Tairezazh and
Steianzh's ancestor Classical Xaláishu was spoken).

Surnames are very variable, partly as a result of the tradition that when
people marry, they should either adopt one of the contrahent's surname as
both's, or invent a new one. This've lead to lots of surnames based on
occupation or locality, and a few old names that've become so popular that
almost everyone who marries a bearer of one of them adopts it, which in turn
sometimes led to a surname becoming ridiculously common in a particular
city.

                                              Andreas

PS An interesting example of a _zgent kolen_ is _Fkaz_. Despite being
monosyllabic, it manages to be an (intransparent) compound meaning "mountain
breeze".

                                             Andreas

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