Etymology of 'nameday'

[Iscah]

While this could have been a different day from your actual birth date at one point in history, the way in which the term is used today appears to be synonymous with one's actual birthday.

I disagree that it makes them synonymous. It makes them equivalent - Eorzeans celebrate a person's nameday, and view it as the significant "anniversary" of a person, in the way that we would a birthday.

That does not mean that the Eorzean meaning has shifted to refer to celebrating a person's birthday, unless a different cultural shift has meant that people are named immediately upon their birth instead of waiting for whatever hypothetical naming ceremony they practice.

[Kalise]

So then, why would it be called nameday in Eorzea to this day, if it functions the same as a birthday? It seems like we're missing something that caused the term nameday to be used rather than birthday at one point if this is the case. How did the word come to be used, and how did its meaning change to what it is today?

It's likely due to dialect and not really having a reason to change to the word "Birthday".

Much like how they use "Anon" instead of "Soon"

Eorzea likes to mix together a lot of archaic English terms with their own fantasy terms (I.e. Ilms, Yalms, Malms)

It's use, likely started in a similar way to how it was used in our own timeline, dating back to before healthcare was to a standard where infants were likely to survive until teens/adulthood. With it naturally progressing to being the same as a birthday when names were given at birth because of more modernized medicine (Or, more likely in Eorzea, widespread practice of one of a number of healing magics)

[Sounsyy]

The assumption is that people are named immediately upon their birth or very shortly thereafter. Otherwise the IRL-inspired phrases "naked as your nameday" or "nameday suit" make absolutely no sense. That's why I pulled those quotes specifically.

Other quotes can be viewed in either light. Nameday celebration can easily just mean the anniversary of the day you were named. Nameday gifts, nameday cake, etc - while meant to evoke thoughts of birthday festivities - can all probably just as easily mean the anniversary of the day a baby is named. The aforementioned phrases don't fit that bill, however. They imply the way babies exit the womb, naked.

So again, while nameday and birthday may have once been separate occasions at some unspecified point in history, the way the term "nameday" is used in game suggests the term means the day someone was born.

[ScootPatoot]

Right, the two terms seem to be interchangeable in meaning in game to the present day in the in-game universe. I'm simply curious as to how and when the word's meaning evolved over time, if it did.

The idea of healing magic having something to do with it is an interesting one! After all, Hydaelyn is a fairly hostile place!

[WhiteArchmage]

And because of the religious aspects of baptism (that person isn't known by a deity until they're officially given the rites) it's easy to see how a nameday gained more prominience than the actual birth, because socially at least, that person did not exist in the eyes of God (or gods, for non Juedo-Christian cultures which practiced similar religious rites) until they were baptised into the church and given a baptised name, literally, their 'naming day', and thus, did not exist socially either.

Funny thing about that, at least until (I believe) John Paul II declared Limbo non-existent, it was believed that the souls of unbaptised children would go to Limbo for all eternity upon death, because they were not accepted into Christianity. Hence the practice to baptise babies as soon as possible (given that being baptised puts you in church records and means you're an official member of the church, some people don't like the practice BECAUSE of it, thinking it forces their children into something they may not agree with, especially with mixed-faith marriages).

What Iscah mentioned about namedays is known (at least in Mexico, not sure if in Spanish-speaking countries at large) as the "Dia de tu Santo" ("your Saint's day"), basically, yes, a day where a Saint is celebrated and the happy coincidence if you share the same name (normally because people were named AFTER said Saints), but...it's not really celebrated anymore because...well, it's a pain...

[Erendis]

I noticed that in many areas, people use the term nameday instead of birthday.

In my country we have separate days for birthday and nameday. Birthday is when you are born, and nameday is a specific day in the year which (in most cases) is marked in calendars. So I kind of never assumed it was the same thing.