Garlean naming conventions?

[Endemerrin]

Yo, Fernehalwes!

We have naming conventions for Eorzeans and the five races, but curiosity has me wondering what Garlemald follows in regards to names. It seems like sort of a melting pot of cultural names (which I'd assume is due to them having annexed so much land into their empire?), but some things seem to be common.

We've seen plenty of Garleans flee the empire (such as members of the Garlond Ironworks, and obviously Cid Garlond himself), so I imagine it wouldn't necessarily be a rare occurrence for Garleans to pop up in Eorzea while seeking refuge from the empire. Suffice it to say, I could see some players wanting to have a character with "Garlean" lineage.

As far as names go, I've taken note that a lot seem to have romanic roots. Gaius, for example, is roman in origin if I'm not mistaken. Solus, the given name of the emperor, is latin for "alone". The empire's military is constructed much like the roman legions, so this isn't really all that surprising.

However, there seems to be other influences on their names. For example, Gaius van Baelsar and Nael van Darnus. "Van" is a common prefix to surnames for the dutch. Does this mean they have both dutch and roman influence? Or was this simply an aesthetic touch to Garlean culture, and their actual names don't have dutch influence?

But what about Nael van Darnus himself? I think it's safe to assume he is Elezen (given his motions in-game, and the fact that he's all lanky. Would be weird to have a Hyur who's limbs are that elongated.), and seems to be further reinforced by the fact that Nael is french in origin. French being what Elezen names are based off.

This thought brings into question whether racial naming conventions that are common in Eorzea are also common in Garlemald. Why would Nael, a member of house Darnus (which is presumably a very powerful family in Garlean society), have an Elezen name and not something more fitting of Garlean naming conventions?

[Lucke]

I'm not the Lord of the Lore, so take this with a grain of salt.

Since the Empire's military use Roman titles like Centurion, Legionaire, etc one would believe that they have Latin/Roman names as well. You yourself gave the names of the Emperor and Gaius as examples. I'm not 100% sure, but I believe I read that Darnus was not born in the Empire. He joined from the outside and therefore didn't have a Roman/Latin name. Everyone born within the empire use those Latin names, since Darnus wasn't born in the empire, he does not share that trait.

I heard this way back when Darnus made an appearance, I'm prolly wrong about his history though. Thought I'd share. =D

[Anonymoose]

Ohohoho. I've been waiting for an excuse to blow the top off of some of this. Bee arr bee. If there have been new posts to this thread, I'll make a new post, if not, I'll edit this one.

In the meantime - Nael van Darnus was, indeed, an Elezen, and his name told us quite a bit about him.

[Bowen]

Ohohoho. I've been waiting for an excuse to blow the top off of some of this. Bee arr bee. If there have been new posts to this thread, I'll make a new post, if not, I'll edit this one.

In the meantime - Nael van Darnus was, indeed, an Elezen, and his name told us quite a bit about him.

Why do you tease me so?

[Anonymoose]

A lot of what you're saying is dead on. It's a big handful of Latin and pre-Latin Proto-Indo-European where there's not a true Latin source.


Solus zos Galvus
A loose Latin translation for Solus is alone, as in solitary or sole.

Galvus is not a Latin word, but it is likely a Latinized version of the word Latvian word galva which can mean top, head, or spike. You put that together and you basically arrive at "sole leader."

I'm not sure what zos means, but it's probably something to do with Garlean leadership naming conventions, possibly (though, this is a stretch) a neutered form of the widely known Jewish word Zohar which means "radiance," so perhaps his full name means, "The Only, the radiant, Leader." Latin leaders had a similar term for radiant used to mean godly: divi, meaningly divine. It was used in many Imperial leadership names.

If Gaius were to supplant him, we might see something like "Gaius, the radiant, Baelsar" ... which brings us to what all the parts of his name mean.


Gaius van Baelsar
Gaius is one of the most established Latin names in so much that the etymology often just ends at, "a popular Latin first name for males." If you care beyond that, it comes from the word gaudere, which means to rejoice. So, you're overjoyed to have a son - and why wouldn't you be?

The van in Garlean names is probably not from Latin influence, but of the Proto-Indo-European root that shows up as Dutch "van" and German "von" that simply means, "of" or "from." We're likely meant to take this as "from the noble house of." Latin didn't exactly have "houses" so much as "lines" (that I know of, I'm not expert on Rome). They didn't say "from the house of," they just said filius, as in"son of." For example, Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus had the Imperial name "Imperator Caesar Divi Augustus filius Augustus" (Emperor of the Empire, the Divine Augustus, son of Augustus). We don't see that with Garlean nobility, we seem to see houses.

I'm not sure if his last name is from an actual Latin inspiration, any Proto-Indo-European at all, or if it's just a play on Caesar. His Japanese name is バエサル baesaru, pretty close, yeah? We might be seeing some foreshadowing. If anyone else knows something for Baelsar, lemme know. I never found anything, but I might not have used the right search cues.

So, for now, I'm calling him "Exalted, of House Baelsar"


Nael van Darnus
Not only was he an Elezen, he was descended from the Allagan Empire's honorable House Darnus, which was responsible for keeping some of its more arcane wisdom. Some of this power, apparently, still existed in his blood.

I've seen some rumor that Nael is actually made from ظفر, an Arabic word for nail that is a synonym for victory or triumph. The other connections I can find also lead right back to nail, regardless of what connotations you want on it.

Darnus I've always had a really hard time with. My #1 best guess is that it's actually a Latinized form of darn, Proto-Indo-European for "to hide," such as to hide the knowledge of the Allag. House Darnus would be "House of Secrets."

Here's the thing... the Hyur are said to have arrived about 1,000 years ago ("Some one thousand years and three great migratory waves later, they are now the most populous of all the civilized races"), shredding the Elezen belief that, because they were the only residents of Eorzea, the region was given to them by the Twelve ("Unfortunately, this belief made the eventual appearance of the Hyur in their multitudes akin to an invasion"). When did Allag rule Eorzea? The height of their power was over 5,000 years ago. They were probably all Elezen. Hell, it's possible that the Elezen rode out 5, maybe even 6, umbral eras alone.

So why does neither "Nael" nor "Darnus" sound French? Ferne's already told us that Elezen naming conventions haven't changed since they first arrived in Eorzea. The only thing I've got is that he changed it on purpose to fit in more with the Garleans. "Nail, of the Noble House of Secrets" sounds pretty intimidating, doesn't it.

And then he changed it to Nael Deus Darnus (Nael, the God, Darnus) when he started losing a fight that time. Guy was probably just a good showman - gotta give the people what they want.

Still, maybe he was born Naelmont. You don't know.

Fun Fact: Swedish word dårhus means "lunatic," as in crazy due to the moon. HAH.


Cid nan Garlond
This one's harder. Nan can either mean "the" or "father" depending on where you go. It might not mean either, though. I don't know. Wild conjecture? Until I hear otherwise, my assumption is that "nan Garlond" means "the honorable." Garlands are those wreaths of flowers you wear on your head, which to me recalls, again, the caesar's Civic Crown as well as the corona laurea and olive wreath as well.

Cid is just a throwback to all the other Cids in Final Fantasy, likely coming from the legendary Spanish knight, "El Cid" (The Lord).


Signed,
Innominatus van Alces (Nameless of House Moose)

[Endemerrin]

A lot of what you're saying

First off, incredible post. Definitely elaborated on everything I was thinking. Thanks a ton for this!

Figure I'd continue to add to the speculation, in the form of Cid's father.

It's mentioned in the Immortal Flames questline that Cid's father is named Midas nan Garlond. Yet another latin name. Midas being the king of Phrygia, who was given the power to turn everything he touched into gold by Dionysus. Perhaps that is hinting at Midas' incredible skill with creating very powerful Magitek, and eventual downfall due to that very gift. (Or so it was inferred.)

[Anonymoose]

Perhaps that is hinting at Midas' incredible skill with creating very powerful Magitek, and eventual downfall due to that very gift.

This is what I've been assuming as well; an allusion to another "master metal worker," so to speak. Glad I could contribute; thanks for giving me an excuse to let these ramblings loose. I've had them in a rudimentary form for a while, but had no excuse to be like, "HEY ERRYBODEH, do you think his name might mean, 'Nail of God, descended from the House of Secrets!?'" without sounding like a dårhus out of context :P

That said, I was a huge Jeuno nut in FFXI. I would have traded away my alliegance to The Dutchy in an instant, and my Sandy Pride was off the charts - so I would bet my bottom gil that there are a lot of people out there who would be all the hell over Garlean naming conventions to create a character backstory as a spy or defector (I would).

[Obsy]

Gaius van Baelsar
[...]
I'm not sure if his last name is from an actual Latin inspiration, any Proto-Indo-European at all, or if it's just a play on Caesar. His Japanese name is バエサル baesaru, pretty close, yeah? We might be seeing some foreshadowing. If anyone else knows something for Baelsar, lemme know. I never found anything, but I might not have used the right search cues.

One thing I'd like to point out related to Gaius and his full name, is that the first time I learned of him, my mind went directly to Battlestar Galactica, where a prominent character in both the original version (Count Baltar: antagonist) and the reboot (Gaius Baltar: self-servingly ambiguous in his alignment) played a key role in the story's over-arching conflict.

LINK

While this may very well be entirely coincidental, you never know.

[Anonymoose]

Gaius Baltar

Does that mean we can look forward to a sexy, ambiguously imaginary XIVth Legion second-in-command wearing tight, red armor? Sextus van Capricus? Jokes aside, I do hope at least a couple Legati are female... the design possibilities, I say!

You might be onto something with the name, though...

That said, imagining some of Gaius' scenes with van Baelsar's Judge Vader voice is hysterical, especially the ones where someone walks in on him about to get to know the air around him a little more carnally.

[Obsy]

Does that mean we can look forward to a sexy, ambiguously imaginary XIVth Legion second-in-command wearing tight, red armor? Sextus van Capricus? Jokes aside, I do hope at least a couple Legati are female... the design possibilities, I say!

Sweet Nophica, do I hope so!

That said, imagining some of Gaius' scenes with van Baelsar's Judge Vader voice is hysterical, especially the ones where someone walks in on him about to get to know the air around him a little more carnally.

"The cloying stench of shadow lingers still..."