Madelineblackbart: Created page with "Every person in the Known World carries a given name and, if they have a household behind them, a '''Famrae''' name. The given name is what people use. The Famrae name appears on paper, at a hearing, at a sale, and anywhere a household rather than a person is being named. == Naming a child == A child is named when it arrives, usually within the day. Medicine being what it is, a birth is an occasion rather than a risk, and no city waits to see whether the child will liv..."

2026-10-12T02:28:50Z

Created page with "Every person in the Known World carries a given name and, if they have a household behind them, a '''Famrae''' name. The given name is what people use. The Famrae name appears on paper, at a hearing, at a sale, and anywhere a household rather than a person is being named. == Naming a child == A child is named when it arrives, usually within the day. Medicine being what it is, a birth is an occasion rather than a risk, and no city waits to see whether the child will liv..."

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Every person in the Known World carries a given name and, if they have a household
behind them, a '''Famrae''' name. The given name is what people use. The Famrae name
appears on paper, at a hearing, at a sale, and anywhere a household rather than a person
is being named.

== Naming a child ==

A child is named when it arrives, usually within the day. Medicine being what it is,
a birth is an occasion rather than a risk, and no city waits to see whether the child
will live before giving it something to be called.

Both parents choose, in most of the world. [[Eldershore]] is the exception, where the
child enters the mother's line and the lineage hall will have opinions. A grandmother's
opinion in particular is not easily set aside.

== Where given names come from ==

Four sources, and most households mix them.

'''Qualities''', taken straight from the philosophy. ''[[Lexicon:Modern/Djaerv|Djaerv]]''
for bold, ''[[Lexicon:Modern/Saety|Saety]]'' for truth,
''[[Lexicon:Modern/Kavira|Kavira]]'' for capability. The commonest kind by a wide margin.
Parents choosing one are naming an intention rather than describing a baby.

'''The natural world.''' ''Noet'' a star, ''Mwyska'' fog, ''Ravna'' the carrion bird,
''Vessa'' a flower. More common in [[Stormharbor]] and [[Eldershore]] than anywhere else.

'''The dead.''' A grandparent, or somebody the family wants kept in the room. Universal
in Eldershore, where the lineage halls address the dead directly and a name is one of the
ways a line keeps hold of its own. Common everywhere else.

'''The calendar.''' A child born on a festival day is frequently named for it. A
''[[Lexicon:Modern/Soyl|Soyl]]'' or a ''[[Lexicon:Modern/Graedd|Graedd]]'' in a room is a
person whose birthday everybody already knows.

== Gender in names ==

Names are neutral in principle and lean in practice, which is the arrangement the
language itself has. Nothing in a name's form marks it. Gender, where it matters, is
marked the way it is marked everywhere: ''broe-'' and ''sei-'' casually, ''da-'' and
''ma-'' formally. See [[Address and Titles]].

In practice most names lean one way or the other by custom, everybody knows which, and a
woman with a name that leans male is unremarkable and occasionally remarked upon.

== City styles ==

One language is spoken everywhere, so these are accents of naming rather than separate
name-stocks. Every name below is pronounceable in every city. What a name tells you is
where its owner was born.

{| class="wikitable"
! City !! Character !! Examples !! Leans male !! Leans female
|-
| [[Stormharbor]] || Hard consonants, front clusters, endings in -r, -dh, -th, -a || Haldr, Brynae, Gunvaer, Sigra, Thorwy, Aslae, Ketra, Halvr, Staen, Rwyna, Esk, Vigdh, Olvir, Sverra, Daglif || Haldr, Thorwy, Halvr, Staen, Olvir || Brynae, Sigra, Aslae, Rwyna, Sverra
|-
| [[Clearhold]] || Open syllables, almost no clusters, endings in -a, -i, -o, -en || Chiyoe, Mwyna, Soera, Rinae, Haroe, Ywyn, Kaedh, Tenzwyn, Dolma, Soenam, Yuki, Narae, Pema, Jina, Taero || Tenzwyn, Soenam, Taero, Ywyn || Mwyna, Rinae, Dolma, Narae, Pema
|-
| [[Eldershore]] || Vowel-initial common, nasal clusters in the middle, strong rhythm, endings in -a and -o || Amaera, Adwae, Zwyri, Koefi, Thandwy, Olwa, Nwya, Aeyo, Kamae, Ifeya, Sanda, Obaen, Nyandae, Chaela, Mbeki || Koefi, Kamae, Obaen, Mbeki || Amaera, Zwyri, Thandwy, Nwya, Ifeya
|-
| [[Forgegate]] || Flowing, often three syllables, endings in -a, -ir, -an, -ein || Razwya, Jahaen, Mwyrza, Naesir, Faerida, Zaen, Anwaer, Shirein, Baeshir, Noura, Imraen, Saelima, Taehir, Gulnae, Yasmein || Jahaen, Naesir, Zaen, Imraen, Taehir || Razwya, Faerida, Noura, Saelima, Yasmein
|-
| [[Shining Reach]] || Northern and colonial, with a courtly gloss at the top || Elwyn, Maerien, Toebias, Caerolin, Aegustein, Roesalin, Clemaen, Joesefein, Havel, Bryce, Adelae, Marchand, Severein, Linnet, Corwyn || Toebias, Aegustein, Clemaen, Havel, Corwyn || Maerien, Caerolin, Roesalin, Adelae, Linnet
|-
| [[The Iron Coves]] || Everything at once, badly mixed; use-names do the real work || Vosk, Taela, Brann, Kib, Sura, Jahn, Mira, Dreg || colspan="2" | See [[The Iron Coves#Names]]
|}

== Famrae names ==

Four kinds: a trade, a place, a descent, or a founder. Nine centuries have worn most of
them past recognition, so a family called for a trade frequently has nobody in it who
practises the trade and no idea the name was ever a trade at all.

Eldershore is the exception that keeps its clear. The lineage halls hold the records, the
founder's name is on them, and a hall can tell a child exactly who they are descended
from and in what order.

A spouse joins the other's Famrae and takes the name with it. Which of the two joins
which is settled between the families; see [[Marriage and Partners]].

== Slaves ==

A new owner renames, and does it every time she is sold. The name goes the way the
clothing and the ''[[Lexicon:Modern/Oethboend|Oethboend]]'' go, and a woman who has been
sold three times has been called three things.

Not renaming is the unusual choice, and it is a statement. A man who keeps the name her
last owner gave her is telling the street something, and the street will decide for
itself what.

About half of slave names come from the pool free people use. The other half are words
rather than names, chosen for something about her: ''Vessa'' for a flower, ''Nyona'' for
honey, ''Spirra'' for the hedgerow songbird, ''Noet'' for a star, ''Grael'' for the first
green of spring, ''Sygra'' for the vine that gets into everything, ''Iskra'' for one who
cuts, ''Twytwys'' for one who is quick, and ''Lobaeter'' for a woman who was ill when he
bought her and never shook the name off.

A name chosen that way tells you a great deal about the owner and very little about her,
which is understood by everybody and said by nobody.

== Freed people and arrivals ==

A freed woman has a given name and no Famrae name, because she has no Famrae. She takes
one when she has built something worth naming, which is usually her trade, and the day
she first writes it down is a day she remembers. See [[Manumission]].

An [[Aesloes|arrival]] keeps whatever they came with. It sounds wrong in every city and
will for the rest of their life, which is one more thing marking them out alongside the
accent and the gaps in what they know. Their old family name is a word with nothing
attached to it, and it means exactly as much here as any sound would.

An arrival who is enslaved is renamed like anybody else, and the name they came with
becomes a word only they know the meaning of.

== See also ==
* [[Birth]] · [[Growing Up and School]] · [[The Household]] · [[Marriage and Partners]]
* [[Address and Titles]] · [[Becoming a Slave]] · [[Manumission]] · [[Aesloes]]

Names and Naming - Revision history