Re: OT: Anthroponymics

Quoting Carsten Becker <naranoieati@...>:

> OBConlang: Are there special naming patterns in your
> conlangs? My Ayeri people go by happily with [family name]
> [first name(s)].
Personal names are pretty boring in my concultures, I'm afraid.


The Tairezans go by [first name] [family name] much like modern Westerners. It's
one of those things that were settled very early in the development of the
coniverse, and is way too late to change now. By law, married couples must have
the same family name; the contrahents usually chose either his or hers, but if
they can't agree on either, they'll invent a new one! Kids automatically
inherit the family name of their mother (which, of course, is the same as the
father's if the parents are married), but are free to change it as adults,
which is fairly common to do. It's considered poor taste to give a child the
same first name as a living or recently deceased relative - there's no
tradition of first names being inherited in families.

Famous people tend to get alot of descendants with their family name, since the
spouses of descendants of either sex are likely to want to switch to it.


Yargish names are of the form [first name] ([family name]) [clan] name -
somewhat like the Roman [praenomen] [nomen] ([cognomen]).

The first name is the typically the one used in everyday situations. It's
usually two-part, and the same elements tend to occur in different combinations
in the names of relatives - much like old Germanic names.

A family name is a mark of distinguished patrilineal ancestry, and usually goes
back to a nick-name or honorific "title" given to a distinguished ancestor. For
instance, Khurjid, considered to be the founder/ancestor of the Fanyyaran clan,
had the nickname _u-Fany_ [M'faJ] "the Flame", and so anyone who can trace
direct patrilineal descent from him will pride himself of having _Ufany_ as
family name.

Clan names are, quite simply, the name of the clan you're a member of. So the
aforementioned descendant of Khurjid might be called in full Yarguz Ufany
Fanyyaran. Clan names, even more than family names, are used chiefly in formal
settings.


The Meghean-speakers only have a single name. When several persons with the same
name needs to be distinguished between, they'll mention also the individuals
occupation, his father, where he lives, or some other distinguishing
characteristic.


                                                   Andreas

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