Personal Names

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CatDoom
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Personal Names

Post by CatDoom »

I've been a little surprised by how little discussion I've seen of conlang personal names, considering that many people got started in conlanging with naming languages. I figured it would be fun and inspirational to share the naming conventions of our concultures.

To begin with, my Akana-based language ʔuulhemoo is similar to Germanic (and, to a letter extent, Sinitic) languages in that names are typically dithematic compounds. These come in a few different flavors, perhaps the simplest being the combination of an adjective followed by a noun, as in the masculine name Hnaamokh [n̥aːmokʰ], literally meaning "big herd," or the feminine name Rsịục'eop [ɚsɪʊ̯ts'eo̯p], meaning "beautiful star." A similar construction is found in names which simply combine an ordinal numeral with the word "son" or "daughter," as in Tọọtịŋ [tɔːtɪŋ] "first son" or Siutev [siu̯teʋ] "second daughter."

Another common type of compound used in names is semantically possessive, consisting of a possessor in the Oblique case followed by the possessed noun in the Direct case. Examples would be the masculine name Mlọlan' [mlɔlaˀn] "bear's back" (the back being a body part associated wit overall strength) or the feminine name Ŋ'sụnịm [ʔŋ̩sʊnɪm] "fox's face."

Finally, some names are formed from compounds of two nouns in the Direct case, a formation expressing that the referent of the compound has traits of both compounded nouns. In names, the second element of these compounds is commonly the word for "son" or "daughter," as in ʔụụtịŋ [ʔʊːtɪŋ] "wolf-son" or Lọntev [lɔnteʋ] "flower-daughter."

As evidenced by these examples, while there is no grammatical of phonetic distinction between masculine and feminine names, naming in ʔuulhemoo does tend to reflect the expectations placed on each gender in ʔuuleo society. Masculine names tend to be related to power, strength, or wealth, or draw upon comparisons to aggressive or predatory animals. Feminine names, on the other hand, mostly revolve around beauty and/or comparison to stereotypically beautiful or cheerful animals or objects. The body of frequently used names for women is generally smaller than those used for men, and innovative or unusual names are likewise more commonly given to men than to women.

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kusuri
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Re: Personal Names

Post by kusuri »

For naming, an expectant mother in Ngyws visits the local mystic. She receives a bundle of sticks, and makes incisions on them similar to the basic line forms of Ngyws logographs, or she is given a bunch of pre-inscribed tiles or such to hold for a week. After that, the mystic blesses the objects. The mother shakes them onto blankets or papers with diagrams and the like, and the mystic records auspicious positions. Whatever comes up is their first name, and usually of three parts. Some choice names include Khwungguisew Bent Whiten Dog, Ghayhwowhaom Begin Running Over-There, Tieyhodhyu Ten-Thousand Lump Maybe, and Dhiiphiummeo That Original Bowl.
When the child is old enough to realize their name is bad and that they actually really hate it, whether ten or fifteen or twenty, they meet with the mystic to rework a second single-character name from the strokes of the original three (and often a response or repudiation of those three), and attach some word for a qualities that they possess to pad them out; e.g. Phyewhï Jet-Black First-Child, Twnwhï Lying-On-The-Floor First-Child, Gamshëö Flat-Surface Tallest-Person-In-Town, and Shwekïm Imitate I-Have-Hunted-A-Tiger.
Upon first adulthood at around twenty-five, they can form a latter name of whatever characters they prefer, often of the same Whatever Concept + Significant Quality format. A person may have several latter names throughout their life.
Upon second adulthood at about 60, or upon their deathbed, one earns a final name, which is some nonsense combination of strokes and sounds which means whatever one wants.

Travis B.
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Re: Personal Names

Post by Travis B. »

Speakers of Tshyak varieties typically have names that are either a noun combined with a stative verb, a noun combined with another noun, or a noun combined with another noun combined with a stative verb. Members of the nobility have similar names, except they typically have (in Old Tshyak) yaer combined with a placename after their name. Their titles are typically placed after the main component of their names and before the yaer. Also, commoners' names are sometimes combined with tsha combined with their father's name for disambiguations' sake. Typically Tshyak names are supposed to be auspicious, and tend to reflect traditional values (with names given to males reflecting traditional masculinity and names given to females reflecting traditional femininity), except for the names given to slaves, which are typically specifically not auspicious (note that slaves are normally given new names when they are manumitted). A common pattern is to give the first root consonant of a Tshyak name, as it would be in Old Tshyak, based upon the day of the week on which an indivdual had been born (with there being different sets of Old Tshyak consonants for each day of the seven-day week*). Tshyak speakers are given a name when they are born, are given another name when they come of age (at about 13), may be given other names or have extra nouns or stative verbs added to their name at important points in their lives, and are given another name when they die.

It should be noted that it has become fashionable for nobility to have longer names, sometimes having up to four, five, or even six components to their name in addition to a title, yaer, and a placename. In more recent times, in imitation of the tendency of the nobility to have longer names, some more upwardly mobile commoners have adopted this fashion, even though many mock them for it. However, in actual everyday speech, these longer names tend to be reduced to two syllables, and for nobles may be completely omitted, being referred to by a title, yaer, and a placename or just a title alone when disambiguation is not necessary. Also, titles may be used in the place of pronouns when referring to nobles.

* The Tshyak speakers do use a seven-day week, with they derive from there being four weeks in a Tshyak month, which is one lunation. As such, though, the last week of a Tshyak month is truncated or padded with intercalary days when a new moon would come earlier or later than its end.
Last edited by Travis B. on Sun Apr 03, 2016 12:31 am, edited 4 times in total.
Dibotahamdn duthma jallni agaynni ra hgitn lakrhmi.
Amuhawr jalla vowa vta hlakrhi hdm duthmi xaja.
Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro.

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mèþru
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Re: Personal Names

Post by mèþru »

Among the various nations practicing itsansohren or vedmanan, personal names (which come first) are assigned a lot like how they are assigned in modern day western countries - mainly on whether the parents like the sound of it. First names are the most formal type of name. In faqeg, an adult will only be called by his first name during special events or in government or business documents. A person goes through various nicknames throughout childhood and are referred to by their nicknames. In the varikèvi plain, adults have a second personal name that is used in regular conversation with non-intimates (unless it is a patron-client situation, in which case the formal name is used for the client and the family name for the patron). The second formal name is usually a shorter form of the personal name (distinct from the usual diminutive). Family names are used to disambiguate between people or to refer to superiors (in modern day Faqeg, Haqgek and Tinakra, there are very few people who are distinctly considered superiors to any others, so the later usage is uncommon among newer generations). Changing a formal name is legal, but rarely done because
  1. It is a great insult to the parents.
  2. An adult goes by a second personal name of their own choosing anyway.
In ourinaso, the origin of vedmanan, nobles have a third name after the last name, which indicates their estate.
In the varikèvi plain, most last names are derived from placenames in combination with another element (occupation, distant male ancestor's personal name, personal patron god, etc.) In ourinaso, rå and mesagono, the most common sources of last names are patronymics and occupations.
ìtsanso, God In The Mountain, may our names inspire the deepest feelings of fear in urkos and all his ilk, for we have saved another man from his lies! I welcome back to the feast hall kal, who will never gamble again! May the eleven gods bless him!
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Re: Personal Names

Post by Pedant »

Among the Hūam, names are divided into three parts: the clan name, the maternal name, and the first name. Hūam clans are matrilineal, so the clan is always that of the mother (even after marriage). The child, of course, will receive their mother's name, prefixed to the clan name.
First names are determined by which of the four original tribes one comes from. Among the Yù, men are named for human-made objects, and women for mindsets. In the Gá tribe, men are named for actions, and women for words relating to light (including fire, mirrors, crystals, and rain). Hūo men are named for plants, Hūo women are named for animals. Finally, Jēu men are named for the sky or objects in it, and women for objects relating to water or the earth. There is overlap to some degree, but normally by combining the three sets of names one can in theory localize the ancestry of any Hūam. One can also, as all the clan names have particular meanings and distributions, locate which phratry they originally came from, and thus get a good idea of what they or their family does.

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Pogostick Man
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Re: Personal Names

Post by Pogostick Man »

Proper names for the Tim Ar are generally nominalized sentences, such as É3enghuúühé "he rides the wind", followed by the particle (loosely translated as "child of") and then often the name of the same-sex parent (although an exception is made for children of the regent). Since these names are rather unwieldy, they often address one another using a key word from the name—É3enghuúühé might be called khuú "wind".
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mèþru
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Re: Personal Names

Post by mèþru »

From this blog post:
I wrote:In most languages of the Southern Èŋtras sprachbund, names are written like this:
(Clan name) (Personal name) (Family name) (Other information)
Among the Litur, ma-X, which means “son of X”, would come at the end of a name.
For example, Tsixe Hardlɨ Kunra ma-Tsiet is Hardlɨ of the Kunra family within Clan Tsixe. His father was Tsiet, and he was a very famous ethnic Litur monk.
ìtsanso, God In The Mountain, may our names inspire the deepest feelings of fear in urkos and all his ilk, for we have saved another man from his lies! I welcome back to the feast hall kal, who will never gamble again! May the eleven gods bless him!
kårroť

Carolina Conlanger
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Re: Personal Names

Post by Carolina Conlanger »

In Orisiyan, many people forgot the meanings of their own names, especially during the late period of the empire. The general custom was to name children after honorable men or women, especially national heroes. It was considered extremely sacrilegious to name a child after a god or goddess. The most common name for boys was Orisho, the founder of the first Orisiyan Empire. The most common girl's name was Aeyah, a minor chieftess and mother of Orisho. Orisho basically means "forlorn hope" and Aeyah means "life," but both of those words were already falling out of use by the time the first empire was founded and the common Orisiyan would not understand them within a few centuries. Other names such as Aronas "wise one" were popular for a time but then a King named Aronas proved himself to be a national embarrassment and the name almost completely fell out of use. As the Orisiyan Empire expanded over a vast area, different dialects emerged and spelling and pronunciation of names among the lower classes varied greatly depending on the region. Family names were only used for the nobility until everyone was given a family name after Orisiy was conquered.

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