Thursday, April 2, 2009

History and Lore: Rokan Naming Conventions

Here's a little bonus post I decided to write because I wanted a different naming scheme for more depth in characters. Unfortunately, with this, I just made thinking of names 33% more difficult! So please if anyone has suggestions, please please please give them. I've also decided to possibly post a part of The Siren's Daughter one per day, instead of every other like I originally planned to, just so you can all read it faster (since it's already finished now).

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Rokan's Naming Conventions:

Traditionally, Rokan follows a naming convention for their middle and surname, designed to easily distinguish which families a person had descended from. The convention for naming are as follows:

First Name -
Decided by one's parents, or legally changed only through a tedious renaming process through the government.

Last Name -
Upon marriage, the person who comes from the least prestigious or wealthy family (at the time of marriage) undertakes the last name of their more prestigious spouse. The person's, who's last name has changed, original last name then becomes their middle name, and their previous middle name is truncated to it's first letter.

Upon birth, the child inherits the last name of their most prestigious parent.

Middle Name -
Upon birth, the child receives the original last name of their less prestigious parent as their middle name.

Upon marriage, the least prestigious spouse truncates their original middle name to it's first letter, replacing it with their original last name.

Divorce -
All names are reverted back to their original names prior to the marriage.

Marriage after loss of spouse -
In the case of multiple marriages, in which the previous spouses lives had passed, if the person re-marrying had inherited their last name from their previous spouse and their new spouse is of higher prestige, the last name of the re-marrying spouse is then replaced, with no change to their middle name.

Note: All truncation is only used in documentation. They do not discard the name. When asked for one's full name, all four names must be provided.
Format is as follows: FirstName Par2LastName Par1LastName SpouseLastName (if they are more prestigious)

Example:
Razelin Viselle Atraea marries Lydia Mitalis Rokan --> Razelin V. Atraea Rokan, Lydia Mitalis Rokan
Razelin and Lydia have a child (don't ask how) --> Garret Atraea Rokan
Garret marries Sara Frei Styles --> Garret Atraea Rokan, Sara F. Styles Rokan
Garret and Sara have a child --> Derek Styles Rokan
Garret dies --> Sara F. Styles Rokan
Razelin and Lydia divorce --> Razelin Viselle Atraea, Lydia Mitalis Rokan
Razelin marries Sara --> Razelin Viselle Atraea, Sara F. Styles Atraea, Derek Styles Rokan (unchanged)

2 comments:

mis said...

What kind of creepy mother would marry their dead son's widow ;-;

More seriously, how does this make thinking of names more difficult? It just gives established rules for children and marriage, no?

Kismet said...

The main reason it's more difficult is because I need to think of middle names for the characters too, when before I didn't have to. For example, I never planned to have the middle names for Lucas and Sara, but I needed them for Dephi, Raze, and Lydia already.

Also, I have to think of "maiden names" now for important married couples, rather than just using the same last name for both spouses like it would've been in most cultures we're familiar with.