Race Naming Conventions for Viera and Hrothgar

[Kytrin]

At this point, I'd like to jump on the "Give us a date" wagon as well.

I've been waiting to rename my Viera for a while now, and my partner and I want to make sure it's something in keeping with the established conventions. While the datamined names are well and good, the Viera we meet in the Story are from the first, not the source, and we both would like to understand how we're getting to those names instead of picking something at random or "Just figuring it out ourselves."

I'm with you there. I'm either going to convert an alt into a viera or make a new character entirely (probably the former since I have zero faith in Aether being anything but a congested mess until the end of time), and it'd be nice to at least have a clearer ballpark guesstimate on when we can look forward to the conventions coming out.

[DSCH]

I'm confused by viera names, but wondering if they might be intentionally diverse. Looking at the in-game name generator, some even look west-African and Iberian.

[nariya]

Looking at the in-game name generator, some even look west-African and Iberian.

That’s really interesting! Some are definitely unaccented Icelandic names while others are heavily inspired by Icelandic names. I live in Iceland so this made me really happy, and I decided to name my character one of the names on the list: Fjola (which is the name for the Viola flower in Icelandic, since my character always has purples eyes.) Some more Icelandic/inspired by Icelandic names are:

Arna
Asdjs (Ásdís - means goddess)
Fjola (Fjóla - means viola flower)
Lilja (This means the lily flower)
Ljot (Ljót - means ugly... sometimes it happens in Iceland that children actually get this kind of unfortunate name)
Osk (Ósk - means wish)
Yrys (Íris - means the iris flower)
Ney (Nei - means no)

There might be some others but these were the most obvious. Maybe this will help some of you in deciding on a name, though I am sure we are all still waiting impatiently for the official conventions. /sigh

[DSCH]

France, Spain, and Portugal are countries on the Iberian peninsula, and some of the surnames, particularly tormelados, cahuac, boscos and guguerro look spanish/portuguese.inspired to me. I also speak french and have several friends from Cote d'ivoire, Togo, Congo, etc., and I kinda get those vibes from cebe, and muruc, while tswarra actually reminds me of kinyarwanda/swahili(actually spoken in the East mostly).

[Dezarc]

France, Spain, and Portugal are countries on the Iberian peninsula, and some of the surnames, particularly tormelados, cahuac, boscos and gurrueros look spanish/portuguese.inspired to me. I also speak french and have several friends from Cote d'ivoire, Togo, Congo, etc., and I kinda get those vibes from cebe, and muruc, while tswarra actually reminds me of kinyarwanda(actually spoken in the East mostly).

a lot of the viera surnames are just locations from ivalice: tormelados, isle of the megalith, muruc cahuac skysea, bosco pampa, cebe, isle of treasures, and tswarra, isle of the lost are what the names you listed are probably taken from

not to say those weren't spanish/portuguese inspired originally, but their use in viera surnames just seems to be linked to them being places from a previous FF game

[Teiren]

I'm not usually one to ignorantly complain about a development process that I don't know the whole story about, but what particularly bugs me about this problem is that it makes me feel like Viera and Hrothgar were nearly last-minute decisions somehow. I know that can't be completely true because main characters and many others in Shadowbringers are Viera & Hrothgar (the First's versions anyway), although many characters can technically be any race for story purposes with some editing. Yet even so, this now-sad delay still makes it feel like there might not have been so much care put into them like Au Ra. I love Au Ra and all, obviously from being one for years, but I mean, for example, the entire Azim Steppe zone couldn't really have worked with any race but Xaela Au Ra. I suppose Miqo'te could have roughly worked, but I still doubt it'd have been as effective.

I still really admire and love Viera, and I am strongly and surprisingly coming around to Hrothgar. I know it's not laziness, and I am completely confident that the writers & localizers definitely wish they had all the time in the world to not have to assign things like this such a clearly low priority, but...man, just...man. I really wanted to try playing Viera for Shadowbringers, but I can't do it without feeling like a full and proper character, which is what a name gives me as the finishing touch. I actually waited a few days after early access on starting just in case because I'm that silly about things. I don't even roleplay ever, but I just value certain parts of immersion. I'm just glad I'm really loving the new look I made for myself as Au Ra, possibly more than ever, even though it's just the hair!

That said, I also don't want this to be rushed. I want the naming conventions post to be as fun/funny and interesting and thorough to read as Au Ra's and the others or otherwise just the way that Fernehalwes, Oda, and the others want it to be written. For me, because that clearly ended up meaning I'll have to wait until after I finish Shadowbringers 5.0 MSQ to change to Viera, now I'm okay with waiting. It's just a shame and surprise it went this way. Anyway, we all know x.0 MSQ is really roughly half or a bit more of an entire expansion's story (counting all raid and trial stories after MSQ), so I'll still be happy experiencing the rest as Viera even if I didn't get to do so in the first half.

Also, it's cool to see a bunch of Icelandic influence. I assumed the names would be Icelandic and/or Old Norse, so I did a bunch of research on those types of names, and I see it didn't go totally to waste! It was fun enough regardless.

[Dualblade]

At this point, they Better do a mega post with not just Tue Viera and Hrothgar naming convientions we've been waiting ages for, but all the new conventions for all the races of the First. Because that's really the only reason besides laziness that I can think of for this delay. :/

They aren't lazy I can tell you that much, but once they said they wouldn't be putting up the Viera and Hrothgar names until some point after release it seemed obvious that it wouldn't just be their names coming up but also the conventions for all the First counterpart naming conventions as well. If not at that point than once the xpac came out and it was really obvious (especially for Mi'qote) that the naming conventions were different there.

[Solenne]

That’s really interesting! Some are definitely unaccented Icelandic names while others are heavily inspired by Icelandic names. I live in Iceland so this made me really happy, and I decided to name my character one of the names on the list: Fjola (which is the name for the Viola flower in Icelandic, since my character always has purples eyes.) Some more Icelandic/inspired by Icelandic names are:

Arna
Asdjs (Ásdís - means goddess)
Fjola (Fjóla - means viola flower)
Lilja (This means the lily flower)
Ljot (Ljót - means ugly... sometimes it happens in Iceland that children actually get this kind of unfortunate name)
Osk (Ósk - means wish)
Yrys (Íris - means the iris flower)
Ney (Nei - means no)

There might be some others but these were the most obvious. Maybe this will help some of you in deciding on a name, though I am sure we are all still waiting impatiently for the official conventions. /sigh

Oh, would you mind if I pick your brain for a moment about an Icelandic word? I'm thinking of naming my male Viera Kjartan Tyndur. Tyndur (I know the real word is accented but unfortunately I can't reproduce it in game) would be a surname he chose for himself because he has felt lost ever since leaving his village (he really, really, really didn't want to go off and do the solitary male thing). From your perspective, would "Kjartan Tyndur" sound nonsensical as a name?

[nariya]

Oh, would you mind if I pick your brain for a moment about an Icelandic word? I'm thinking of naming my male Viera Kjartan Tyndur. Tyndur (I know the real word is accented but unfortunately I can't reproduce it in game) would be a surname he chose for himself because he has felt lost ever since leaving his village (he really, really, really didn't want to go off and do the solitary male thing). From your perspective, would "Kjartan Tyndur" sound nonsensical as a name?

I think it’s fine, and I really quite like it for a male Viera! I also wish we could use accents because, as I said, I went with the name Fjola but it should technically be Fjóla. Anyway, Týndur still makes sense as Tyndur so I wouldn’t worry about it at all!

[Moxiesan]

Please release a statement about Viera/Hrothgar naming conventions. At the very least, give us a date! I've been waiting to rename my Viera to something lore friendly...