Re: OT: Anthroponymics

Staving Wesley Parish:
>On Wed, 19 Oct 2005 22:55, Carsten Becker wrote:
> > On Mon, 17 Oct 2005, 20:01 CEST, Tom H. Chappell wrote
> >
> > > Gatewood is a famous example of a person who had no
> > > personal name.
> >
> > When did he live? Reminds me a bit of the Doctor in the
> > Startrek: Voyager series.
> >
Or, of course, the Doctor from Doctor Who, who presumably has a name, but
chooses not to use it. This seems to be quite a common choice amongst
timelords (cf the Master), and it thought to be because their names can be
very long and difficult to pronounce (e.g. Romanadvoratrelundar).



> > OBConlang: Are there special naming patterns in your
> > conlangs? My Ayeri people go by happily with [family name]
> > [first name(s)].
>
>In my matriarchal societies - Lakhabrech, Rakhebuityan, Ineya Khara-Ansha -
>it's custom to call the children so-and-so son/daughter of mother's-name, so
>you would have Pirau li' arui u Tinai'epene - Pirau son of Tinai'epene.  In
>the case of a male being regarded as having greater moral stature than his
>wife, the child might be referred to as son/daughter of father's-name, eg,
>Uan yhe tyeris Praleyo - Uan Praleyo's Daughter, rather than Uan yhe tyeris
>Vheratsho - Uan Vheratsho's Daughter.
>
>In the event of the male in a relationship giving his child a name, it gets
>tacked onto the end of the mother's name for the child, as is seen in
>Pirau-Etyaute; in this case it actually made sense - Pirau is the name of a
>hardwood tree that has very tasty fruit not unlike citrus; Etyaute is the
>word for "firm/upright/strong" and by extension "moral" - though the women
>have another interpretation ... :-)
>
>Ancestor's names - particularly well-respected ones - tend to become family
>names, and after a while and a whole lot of vicissitudes, they become
>tribal/clan names as well.

A wizard would have two names, a yelmoshtðekh (birth name), which accords
to the cultural norms of the society he originally comes from, and a
bukhmen (ritual name), which is in Khangaþyagon, and refers to the "Act of
Destiny" by which he originally realised his magical powers. Note that
different roots for "name" are used in the two compounds - ðekh is a name
considered simply as labelling the person, men is a name that expresses
something of the person's true nature.

In the Empire of Imegan [jimEg&n], the legal naming convention was
<personal name> son/daughter of <father's personal name> and <mother's
personal name>, <rank or occupation> of <birthplace>. The <rank or
occupation> part would only be acquired in adulthood, and then only if the
person's occupation were considered of sufficient importance. Most of the
cultures of the Empire used this style only for formal legal purposes, and
retained their own naming conventions for everyday use.

Pete