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Old 11-21-2020, 07:02 AM   #11
sgtcallistan
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Chatham, Kent, England
Default Re: How do you name things?

Tend to use the assumption that in the PC's own culture, things are described with their own (or older forms of) language so; Newport, King's Road, Stoneybridge, Farleigh, Brynach's Wood.
Sometimes a legendary / mythical / historical event will intrude: Four Fox Landing, Wolf Island, Deadhorse bridge, Aillel's Ford.

When they travel, we tend to use the foreign language versions of the same names.
It's been fun to discover that others know us as some variant of 'many-coloured madmen of the North'.

Oh, that's places: things, things...
Depends on the source; a magical sword might be called 'swiftness of a thousand blades of grass', a spear 'light of the moon piercing shadows'.
More mundane things have names like 'that cloak from Bronze Hill', or 'my reindeer-herder's-gift belt'.

Works quite well in reminding players that this is a non-literate society.

Last edited by sgtcallistan; 11-21-2020 at 07:13 AM. Reason: Correction
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Old 11-21-2020, 11:51 PM   #12
AlexanderHowl
 
Join Date: Feb 2016
Default Re: How do you name things?

I like using Native American words. They are familiar enough to not sound too alien, at lesst if you live on the East Coast of the USA, but different enough to be obviously non-European.
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Old 11-24-2020, 09:20 AM   #13
jason taylor
 
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Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Portland, Oregon
Default Re: How do you name things?

I use names that are from Earth history as I am positing a planet settled mainly by Terrans. Names that just strike me as "cool" are used. Insofar as there is preference, I often though not universally, use Anglo-Hebraic for personal names. Nicknames come from a variety of sources. Political institutions are have several names depending on what is meant to be implied in a given context but Italian is favored (in the most formal usage, Capo Albergo is used instead of chief).

There is a minority of Vilani names as well.

Males generally have patronyms, females have matronyms, before being wed. Afterwords the second name is the spouses for both partners ("XSworn").

One curious trick was to translate Sikh usage into Ganglic (John Lionfolk, etc).

Clan names often use the first starship the clan ever used. Historical heroes are also common. Curiously ships often have a matronym and are accounted dynasties.

Ships pets (especially cats) are given family names as if they were humans.

Tools and weapons are named according to the choice of the owner with various customs. One notable usage is a reference to the first use: if a hare is caught in the rear by first using a weapon in a hunting park, Tailbiter might be used.

There are often large lists of nicknames, so that they can be adapted to context. Someone might for instance have a nom de guerre regularly used at a club or society for various reasons (much as the SCA has fanciful names in pre-Starflight Terra).
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Old 12-01-2020, 08:43 AM   #14
jason taylor
 
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Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Portland, Oregon
Default Re: How do you name things?

Adoptees use Xgiven or Ygiven as Patronyms/Matronyms at times when the adoptive status is to be emphasized.

That could be for several reasons. The most distinguished is when someone is named fictive heir to a chief or other clan position. Then the original parent's name is recorded in geneology. But the "Giftparent's" name is used in clan ceremony and political councils.

By contrast illegitimates emphasize the Giftparent unless there is an expedient marriage between the guilty parties. While the primary stigma falls on the parents being a "child of foolishness" is not the best compliment. And if the father fails to confess no one wants to be a "son of a coward". In the event of rape, especially an unavenged one being a "Child of violence" is not much fun either (in the later case the blood-father is simply not counted in geneology;he is an unperson).

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Different guilds and societies have title structures of their own:

The head council of a guild are the Archon's. The Archon Basilus is an honorary post, and often held by someone untrained in a craft (Doges and the Archducca have all have several basilus titles).

Honors below that are handed out for notable achievement.

For a purely bureaucratic post which does not require experience in a given craft I use "Reeve".
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