What’s in a name?
“What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”―William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
Yes… and no. Sometimes names can have deeper implications, which can add a lot of depth to your world. Here I wanted to take some time to discuss some of the various naming conventions by the different cultures in Galhadria. Before we dive in, let’s clarify some vocabulary:
Surname: “a hereditary name common to all members of a family, as distinct from a given name”. Sometimes also referred to as a last name or family name.
Given name: “is the part of a personal name that identifies a person, potentially with a middle name as well, and differentiates that person from the other members of a group”. Also referred to as a first name.
Aruthien - The country of Aruthien follows a patronymic naming convention. This means there is no surname, and the equivalent of character’s last name contains their father’s name. We’ll use Dustin’s character Cas an example: Cas bel-Taren, which means, roughly, Cas, son of Taren. Cas’s father’s name is would be Taren bel-Kel, or Taren, son of Kel. (With Kel being Cas’s paternal grandfather.) Cas is his given name, and bel-Taren is the equivalent of his surname. Fun fact! Icelandic culture follows a tradition of patronymic naming still to this day.
Drialadon - To quote Dustin “There are very few common names in Drialadon; and people tend to name their children after parents or grandparents, so there are large numbers of people with exactly the same names. This has led to a system of nicknames attached to names, and because it’s Drialadon, they’re unusual and quirky.” Examples include “I’m Cord the hook, this is Hal the bread, and Elyssa the liar.”
Gazea-Gozon - Gazea-Gozen follows a fairly hierarchical social structure, with families being connected to extended families who all owe allegiance to clans who in turn owe allegiance to tribes, who in turn owe allegiance to the autocracy. Since knowing who you owe allegiance to is rather important in these countries, names follow a tribe, clan, family, individual convention. An example: Monbad Ubbzul Sulmonzul where Monbad is the tribe, Ubbzul is the clan, and Sulmonzul his given name. As this can be extremely confusing for foreigners, he might introduce himself to an outsider as such “I am Sulmonzul of the Ubbzul and Monbad.”
Tigraen - The country of Tigraen completely did away with surnames. Through its bloody history, loyalty to the country became more important than loyalty to the family, and it was eventually decreed that people give up their surname in order to further encourage loyalty to the country. People are instead identified by their home city or region. So my character Jaren does not have a surname and would go by Jaren of Mulk, with Mulk being the town he was born in.
Pileus - A direct contrast to Tigraen, in the Pileusian Empire, the best interest of the family should always come before the individual. Therefore, when introducing yourself, a family name is always given first. With a surname carrying so much weight in Pileus, over time people worked to ‘adopt’ themselves into a noble family by purchasing use of the family surname. True genealogy therefore is very important for tracing someone’s true lineage.
So they next time you’re thinking about a name for your next RPG character, consider what other information you might be able to convey simply through their name. Till next time my lovely readers!
