I named my daughter Hydaelyn, who came up with the name?

I named my daughter Hydaelyn because I love the name — I was wondering who on the development team came up with that name and what inspired it?

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Well, Hydaelyn's name use in the game dates back to the original 1.0 development (back then it was just the name of FFXIV's world, and the character did not exist), of which a number of the lore/writing members are still on staff but many have left or been promoted (as I understand it, much of 1.0's lore was written by a staff member who no longer works for SE).

The original concept for 1.0's story had more of a basis on the ancient Greek citystates though so there was possibly a Greek influence, as it definetely sounds Greek in style. (This sort of thing is the kind of thing they like to answer at the lore panels at the Fanfest).

Possibly former world content creator and head of localization Michael Christopher Koji Fox (aka Fernewahles on this forum) probably had a hand in it, as a lot of his ideas made it into the game such as names (the Black Shroud being an example of that), so I would not be surprised if Hydaelyn's name was also his idea too.

Congratulations too on your little one! (I assume your daughter is a new arrival? I'm so sorry if she is not!) I think that's so cute you named her after Hydaelyn! (for those who are quick to pass judgement, people name their children after fictional characters all the time. Hydaelyn is a name that practically sings so I think it's a wonderful choice!).

D'aw, I love this.

Even making wild guesses based on all the information we had I always struggled with this one.

I also suspected Greek influence - possibly the same roots as water (see: hydro-) and aether ... they did always enjoy an excuse to use the "æ "sound, lol.

This would at least fit with the center of the world being Mor Dhona, legendary source of all water and magic.

It's nice that you love the name and feel that close to FFXIV, but I'll be honest in that it might not be the best idea? You're effectively condemning her to a lifetime of mispronunciations, misspellings, endless phone calls entailing "sorry, could you repeat that?" and "sorry, how do you spell that?" and her potentially feeling a bit "othered" next to other children. Any search regarding her name will only ever lead back to FFXIV and she may get mocked for it, and while I don't agree with the practice of giving children unusual fictional name in general, at least in other instances they're usually part of a zeitgeist moment where there's some awareness about it and other children also share the name. I'd go with it as a middle name at the most, if you really love it.

Anyway, just some advice. Congratulations on your baby (if it's a recent choice.)

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Originally Posted by Lunaxia

I'd go with it as a middle name at the most, if you really love it.

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Heidi Lynn Lastname :D

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Originally Posted by Jandor

Heidi Lynn Lastname :D

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Yeah, coming across this thread all I could think is "this person just condemned their kid to being called Heidi their entire life"

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Originally Posted by NegativeS

Yeah, coming across this thread all I could think is "this person just condemned their kid to being called Heidi their entire life"

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Which frankly puts it above a lot of more unorthodox names I've heard. Heidi's a wonderful name! And I think the least you could do if picking an unusual name for your child is to ensure there's a 'normal' name somewhere in there to use for simplicity's sake.

My daughter’s name is Iris, but I call her by the name Ayame since that is Iris in Japanese. My ex who lived in Japan wanted to marry me and name a daughter Iris, but she took her life due to depression so after I got married to someone else, my wife was fine with naming a daughter Iris in memory of my ex.

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Originally Posted by Lunaxia

It's nice that you love the name and feel that close to FFXIV, but I'll be honest in that it might not be the best idea? You're effectively condemning her to a lifetime of mispronunciations, misspellings, endless phone calls entailing "sorry, could you repeat that?" and "sorry, how do you spell that?" and her potentially feeling a bit "othered" next to other children. Any search regarding her name will only ever lead back to FFXIV and she may get mocked for it, and while I don't agree with the practice of giving children unusual fictional name in general, at least in other instances they're usually part of a zeitgeist moment where there's some awareness about it and other children also share the name. I'd go with it as a middle name at the most, if you really love it.

Anyway, just some advice. Congratulations on your baby (if it's a recent choice.)

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Had some friends who went this route. They wanted to name their son Howl after Howl's Moving Castle, but opted for the middle name and a perfectly normal official first name. They call him by Howl at home, unless he's in trouble, then he gets the full first name middle name last name treatment we all get.

Wanted to say you chose a great name for your daughter! Congratulations :)