Re: OT: Anthroponymics

Hi!

Carsten Becker wrote:
> OBConlang: Are there special naming patterns in your
> conlangs? My Ayeri people go by happily with [family name]
> [first name(s)].
Up to now, I don't have any conculture at all, but I should at least
think about the order of names in my languages, I think.

Anyway, if I were to invent a system, I'd be using something like in
Latin, namely ordinals, plus a metronym system for women and a
patronym system for men plus a free choice of name at the age of, say,
18 (or 21 in some countries. :-P).

E.g. for the first child of a man called 'Marcus', if that child is a
boy:

    Primus Marci

(I simply adopted Latin case endings here to show the point.  This'd
have to be translated into the corresponding conlang.  Maybe in Mandarin:

    Markus de di4 yi1

or Japanese:
    Markus no ichiban

or Western Palatinian:
    Markus sei Erschder
)

Then come 'Secundus Marci', 'Tertius Marci', etc.

The family internal name would simply be
'Primus'/'Di4yi1'/'Ichiban'/'Erschder'...

And for the first child of a woman called 'Diana', if that child is
a girl:

    Prima Dianae

You could be arbitrarily specific:

    Prima Dianae tertiae Ernae secundae Blahblae...

:-)

Then, at an appropriate age, there would be a large party on the
climax of which Primus Marci will declare that from now on, he'd be
called 'Bob'.  Then he'd just be called 'Bob' instead of 'Primus
Marci' and his male children'd be called

   Primus Bobis   (primi Marci ...)
   Secundis Bobis (primi Marci ...)
   ...

No?

If couples like to, they could add another reference to their spouse:

   Sum Bob primae Dianae primi Marci.

However, for gay couples or in languages where male and female names
are indistinguishable (this'd be my option for a conlang anyway, as it
also takes away one problem of adopted children's names of gay couples
or singles), this system would become ambiguous as the spouse could be
taken to be the father (or mother).  Hmm.

One solution would be that the spouse may only be mentioned if a
single name was already chosen.  But this'd exclude
mariage/coupling/spousing under 18 (or 21), or at least, mentioning
the spouse for those people.  Anyway, let's assume 'Prima Dianae'
choose 'Linda' as her personal name, then:

   Sum Bob Lindae (primae Dianae ...) (primi Marci ...).

And Linda'd say:

   Sum Lindae Bobis (primi Marci ...) (primae Dianae ...).

For languages that don't distinguish male and female names and for
adopted children of gay couples, this'd still be ambiguous and some
solution needs to be found.  Maybe a simple one:

   Sum Bob Lindae ((filiae) primae Dianae ...) (filius primi Marci ...).
And
   Sum Lindae Bobis ((filii) primi Marci ...) (filia primae Dianae ...).

Comments? :-)

I love numbers, BTW, but I also like individualism, so everyone should
choose their own name.  This also frees parents from the burden of
coming up with names for their children.

**Henrik

PS: We could have a discussion about whether to count girls and boys
    separately or to count children.  In some languages, this'd
    probably change the names:

        Markus sei Erschder
        Markus sei Erschdes

    (The second name could also refer to 'second girl' in Western
    Palatinian, however, but not to 'second boy').

    I'd vote for counting children, since then it's easier if both
    partners are called the same and the language does not distinguish
    gender on ordinals.

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