Hunh. I now have enough names in this setting that I need a consistent naming scheme. Halp!
Rin is Arinya. Her grandfather’s grandmother was Andorathne. They’re both of the royal family.
Girey of Tugia comes from another country, so we can expect their names to be a bit different.
People better at linguistics than me should chime in.
Yeah, I’m pretty much waiting on Clare & Trix.
(P.S. World needs a name) @inventrix: Ahh, yes. I have been puzzling over the name thing. Arinya is very Russian/Slavic but the other was more Greek. @LynThorneAlder: Well, Grandma can change more quickly than Arinya (which is a holdover from the wingie cat people) @Inventrix: In which case I say go for a Slavic/Middle-Eastern feel for their naming convention. Girey, hmm.. ~~ And then we got distracted talking about cat-girl diction. So. Slavic/Middle Eastern fits the look I was picturing for Arinya. Great-great-grandmother Andorathne should change before I use her in more than two stories. And Girey is from a different but nearby culture with some cultural cross-pollution. The Bitrani. I keep picturing them Italian despite the fact that they’re more northern in complexion. Probably that terminal I. There’s an Ancher in the first story. He’s a farmer, peasant, more likely cross-contamination of cultures near the ever-shifting border, but his name doesn’t fit either Italian-seeming or Slavic-seeming, does it? (This is what I get for making stuff up as I go.) From the first story: “Girey is a common enough name for Bitrani boys your age – when the Royal Lady finally had a son, every woman who swelled within a year of her named their son after the new prince. I’ve even met a couple Bitrani women named Girelle.” French? Really, Ancher can change. Only Rin & Girey really should stay the same.
Aha! French/Germanic! Ancher sounds vaguely Germanic, too.
Yes! French/Germanic works! Frenchy aristocracy and Germany peasantry Which leads to the royals/peasants question over on the Callanthe side of the border, too.
I was actually thinking, in my musings that never got verbalized, that from the extremely limited sample, it looks like royal names all start with A. So maybe it could, instead of being an ethnic flavor difference, be something like ‘royals start with vowels, peasants start with consonants’? Which additionally gives Rin an excellent reason for using that particular nickname when out in the world.
That’s kind of neat. I like that. 🙂 It also explains why he wouldn’t peg her as aristocracy right off the bat, when she’s never used her given name around him.
Slavic! Facepalm! Like Katya – Arinya would be a diminutive! Or like Sonja?
Slavic names sites: http://www.20000-names.com/female_slavic_names.htm Great-Grandmother Empress Alaszia. (Al-la-szhee(?)-uh) Grandfather Emperor Alessely.
Well, quite a few grand children can simply use the grand parents name? Or vice versa, if it’s in retrospect.
*nods* But building a world, I need a consistent format for naming the characters.