Naming conventions of the first (research/speculations)

[Phel]

I love the new expansion, I love the MSQ, I love the new jobs, but you know what I love even more ? Naming Conventions. And on the first, we have eight nice races with completely mysterious naming conventions. Did I say that I love finding patterns and staring too long at words too ? So I stopped questing and started lists of every named npc on the first, in order to try to understand how their names work. And I'm finding some interesting pieces of information, so I'm sharing it here if someone is interested (or has speculations/bits of information to share too).


Some notes:
- I didn't get very far in the MSQ for now (just started Il Mheg), so I don't have access to every settlement. However, the first few areas have many npc (thanks to the 2 cities), so I have decent lists of names. But any information about the lore you gain later, I don't have yet. I'll try to update this with anything I find later (it would be better to finish MSQ first, but staring at names is fun !)
- Because my main source of informations is npc names, I have no information about potential surnames since they aren't displayed on npc.
- No spoilers here, the sections are hidden only for clarity, because they are quite long


I've started with Mystels/Miqo'tes, and Drahns/Au Ras+Galdjent/Roegadyn. I don't have much information about other races for now.


Humes (Hyurs)

No information yet, but I think it's mostly slighty modified Hyur names.


Elves (Elezens)

No information yet !


Dwarves (Lalafells)

VERY preliminarily because I have real-life work to do (oh god, now it is I who feels the bite of deadlines): dwarves appear to work a bit like Eorzean lalafells, in that most of their names are constructed using the same sounds lalafells do (e.g., the real-world conceit is that Lalafell names are actually built in Japanese kana with JP phonetics), but instead of a repeating element at the end of the name, they instead use what appears to be a double-consonant clan signifier, like the double t in the case of Lamitt and the other dwarves of Tomra. I haven't worked out precisely what the difference between male and female are yet (if anything), but I think, at least, that women have a two-syllable name followed by clan marker. I would surmise they also lack "surnames", as such, with the clan marker being the equivalent.

Sadly, of the 4 confirmed females, and the 3 confirmed males, that I know of all 7 have two-syllable names followed by their clan marker.

Mystels (Miqo'tes)

They are very interesting. I have found how the names themselves work (I need to thank the Chais for giving the first key I needed very early in the MSQ), but I still need information about their social structures to expand this information.

But before talking about names, we need to know what letters exist in their names :
Vowels: a-e-i-o-u (y doesn't seem to exist). You can't double a vowel, except the 'e' (and it has a strange comportement and generates exceptions)
Consonants: There are no 'g', 'p', 'v', and 'x' (for now anyway). 'c' only exist before a 'h' ('ch') and count as 1 letter. 's' can exist alone or before an 'h'. 'sh' is most of the time 1 letter, but has a strange comportement and generates exceptions.


Composition of the names:

Names are made of two words with a dash separating them. For example, we have Chai-Nuzz and Dulia-Chai. What's interesting is that we know they are a married couple, and are called "the Chais". So it's not too far-fetched to imagine that the first word for the men, and the second word for the women, is the surname. I listed every Mystel npc I could find, and here is what I found.

The 2 parts are indeed interverted for male and female. Let's call them part A and part B. Feminine name are in the form A-B, and masculine names in the form B-A.

Some examples (all from ingame npcs):
Masculine names: Fae-Hann (part A=Hann, part B=Fae), Sai-Qesh (part A=Qesh, part B=Sai)
Feminine names: Hanji-Fae(part A=Hanji, part B=Fae), Qeshi-Sai (part A=Qeshi, part B=Sai)


Part B:

Part B is always 3 letters ("but Chai is 4 letters..." don't forget that 'ch' and 'sh' count as 1 letter).

These 3 letters are always 1 consonnant and 2 vowels. Except for 'Kee', it's always 2 different letters.
Examples (all from ingame npcs) : Tao, Chai, Sue, Rua, Fae, Lee.

I didn't find any confirmed family (or tribe) relationship other than the Chais, so they are the only argument for the surname speculation. I need more information to know if their common name is merely a coincidence or not.


Part A:

Part A is 4 or 5 letters . The first 2 letters are a consonant then a vowel. The 3rd letter is, in all names but one ('Reeq'), a consonnant.

The last 1 or 2 letters depend of gender :
- for women, the name always finishes with a vowel. So it's either 1 vowel (Chora), a consonant and a vowel (Bosta), or 2 vowels (Dulia)
- for men, the name always finishes with a consonant. Most of the time -but not all the time-, it's the 3rd letter doubled (Satt, Zumm, Hann, Ladd), or, if the 3rd letter is a 's', a double t (Tistt, Bostt).

Most of the part A names have a feminine and a masculine version : Hann/Hannji, Bostt/Bosta (the F version of 'tt' is always 'ta'), Chorr/Chora, Lewq/Lewto, Zumm/Zumie.

Part A is most likely the first name.



List of known name parts:

List of known 'part A' names -or first names- (M version/F version):
Bostt/Bosta, Chorr/Chora, -/Dulia, Hann/Hanji, Ladd/-, Lewq/Lewto, Mosch/Mosha or Moshei, Nuzz/Nunsi, Qesh/Qeshi, Reeq/Riqi , -/Renda, Satt/Sasha, Tatch/Tatcha, Tistt/Tista, Zumm/Zumie

List of known 'part B' names -maybe surnames-:
Bea, Bie, Chai, Chei, Chue, Fae, Kai, Kee, Lea, Loe, Lue, Mao, Mei, Moa, Sai, Shai, Shue, Sua, Sue, Rae, Roi, Rua, Tao, Tio, Zao, Zia, Zoi


Notes:

- Syntax is actually far less important than I make it sound like. The important part is how the names are pronounced, because they are almost certainly a phonetic transcription of Mystel language -which certainly has another alphabet, or no alphabet at all. I even think that "s","sh" et "ch" are actually the same sound differently transcribed, and Shai, Sai and Chai are one unique name (same for Shue/Sue/Chue). And the 'strange' letters that don't seem to follow the same rules are actually letters that can't be directly transcribed from one alphabet to the other. That's why I put Reeq with Riki, Nuzz with Nunsi and Satt with Sasha.

- I've found both (masculine and feminine) versions of the exact same full name too often to think it is merely a coincidence. Out of 21 npc who share the part B of their name with at least one other npc, 10 have their exact counterpart somewhere. So the two parts may be more linked than I thought previously, or there may be some naming conventions causing an higher probability of this (it is the case for the Keeper : since the sons take their mother name, there is an higher probability to have 2 miqo'tes with the same surname and almost the same first name)

-There is no difference between Seekers and Keepers.


Information needed:

- Lore about the Mystels. Miqo'tes names are heavily connected to their culture, and you can't understand their naming conventions without understanding how the tribes work. It could be the same for the Mystels

- Named Mystel families and children. If I can have the names of another married couple, or a parent and their child, or siblings, I can see if their names are linked or not, and make or refute hypotesis based on that.

- More examples of names, of course.

Galdjents (Roegadyns) and Drahns (Au Ra)

They seem to share the same naming conventions:

The shared naming conventions are likely a relic of Voeburt. One of the sidequests in Il Mheg offered the opportunity to go through books in Urianger's study, and one of them was about the nation's founding and governance- its ruler was a Drahn king, and below him was a senate of five members, three of which were required to be representatives of Galdjent noble houses. It was part of a compromise between the two groups following a long history of war between them.

The names are composed of a stem and a suffix :
- The stem is a short (1 syllab) word, and is often an english name of any gender. The radicals can be used for both gender, independantly of the gender of the original name (so Chad and Beth can both be used for both men and women).
- The suffix, on the other hand, is dependant of gender. There are very few suffixes : I've found only 4 of them for each gender, and I think it's all of them or almost all them.


Some examples (all from existing npc):

Male names
Bethden (Beth+den)
Billfort (Bill+fort)
Lloyden (Llyod+den)
Seanard (Sean+ard)
Seanric(Sean+ric)

Female names :
Chadine (Chad+ine)
Billdia(Bill+dia)
Cassana (Cass+ana)
Casswren (Cass+wren)


List of known parts:

List of known stems:
An, Beth, Bill, Cass, Chad, Col, Dad, Darl, Dod, Fath, Fern, Fran, Grac, Gwen, Hal, Jas, Jess, Joan, Joyce, Jud, Llyod, Lyn, Min, Niel, Paul, Phil, Quin, Red, Roald, Sean, Tod, Von, Will, Wren, Yal

List of masculine suffixes:-ard, -den, -fort, -ric

List of feminine suffixes:-ana, -dia, -ine, -wren

Notes:

- I have now a long enough list of names to be almost 100% sure that all the stems are independant of race and gender.

- However, I'm sure the suffixes are gender dependants and shared between the 2 races, since there are only 8 of them and I have a long list of npc who all follow the same pattern (the only suffix I didn't find on both races is -wren, and it's only because I could find only 4 FemGaldjents in total).

- I have now many Xaela and some Hellguards. Like every other race, there doesn't seem to be any separation of the clans.


Information needed:

If I'm right, there is almost nothing left to discover (except if they have surnames), but more stems to add to list are welcome.

Viis (Vieras)

Viis in the first have a name finishing in "-met", "-na" or "-ille". In Fanow, half of them are -met, while the other half has about the same number of -ille and -na. I don't have a complete enough list of Viis outside Fanow to know if they have the same proportion of names, but there could be more "-na" outside.

The suffix could have a signification, but we don't have enough information to be sure.
It could be :
- role in the clan : "-met" would be hunters/guards, "-ille" and "-na" would have other roles. I need to check on Fanow Viis, but I don't have anything contradicting it for now. However, I didn't find strong arguments for it either.
- village of origin : as I said, only half of the Fanow Viis are "-met", so it seems unlikely. However, it's not impossible : there were other villages before the flood, and there are Viis stilll alive today who lived it. So half of the village could be Viis coming from the villages lost in the flood. But I didn't find any strong arguments for this one either.
(thanks Arzalis for the hypothesis)


I found only one exception to the "-na", "-met" or "-ille" : Mjrh.
For those who don't know (very minor spoiler about the lore) :

Mjrh was a Viis who left a long time ago, and a legend says that her tears formed a river.

What's interesting here is that "Mjrh" is very similar to the names of the Source. (spoilers about what are the Source and the First. Normally it's not a spoiler for anyone here since you know this before entering the first, but I'd rather be safe than sorry)

Maybe a long time ago, not too long after the separation, cultures and names were very similar between the Source and the Shards, and they drifted away later.

List of some of the known Viis names:


In Fanow: (complete or almost complete)

Almet, Cymet, Haimet, Loymet, Nymet, Olmet, Qilmet, Salmet, Tilmet, Uimet
Ciuille, Korille, Lanille, Nacille
Ciuna, Iylna, Phyna, Shoina, Taina


Outside of Fanow:(very far from complete for now)

Crystarium and Lakelands:
Uilmet
Lyna, Bethana

Eulmore:
Rulimet
Carna, Casna, Liuina

Ronsos (Hrothgars)

It seems that Hrothgars have Slavic names while Ronsos instead have Scandinavians names.

List of some of the known Ronsos names:
Asgeir, Björn, Bragi, Davith, Frithrik, Ingvar, Runar

[Daralii]

Galdjents (Roegadyns) and Drahns (Au Ra)

They seem to share the same naming conventions.

The names are composed of a stem and a suffix :
- The stem is a short (1 syllab) word, and is often an english name of any gender. The radicals can be used for both gender, independantly of the gender of the original name (so Chad and Beth can both be used for both men and women).
- The suffix, on the other hand, is dependant of gender. There are very few suffixes : I've found only 4 of them for each gender, and I think it's all of them or almost all them.


Some examples (all from existing npc):

Male names
Bethden (Beth+den)
Billfort (Bill+fort)
Lloyden (Llyod+den)
Seanard (Sean+ard)
Seanric(Sean+ric)

Female names :
Chadine (Chad+ine)
Billdia(Bill+dia)
Cassana (Cass+ana)
Caswren (Cass+wren)


List of known parts:

List of known stems:
An, Beth, Bill, Cass, Chad, Col, Dad, Darl, Dod, Fath, Fern, Fran, Grac, Gwen, Hal, Jas, Joan, Joyce, Jud, Llyod, Lyn, Paul, Min, Roald, Phil, Sean, Tod, Will, Yal

List of masculine suffixes:-ard, -den, -fort, -ric

List of feminine suffixes:-ana, -dia, -ine, -wren

Notes:

- I can't be 100% sure that all the radicals are independant of race and gender since there are many radicals and not enough npcs. Every npc added to the list will help confirming or refuting this theory. For now, it's the most likely answer.

- However, I'm sure the suffixes are gender dependants and shared between the 2 races, since there are only 8 of them and I have a long list of npc who all follow the same pattern (the only suffix I didn't find on both races is -wren, and it's only because I could find only 4 FemGaldjents in total).

- I have many Raen and Seawolves, but only 1 Xaela and 2 Hellguards. They seem to share the naming convention, but finding more of them would be great for confirmation.


Information needed:

If I'm right, there is almost nothing left to discover (except if they have surnames), but more proofs and radicals to add to list are welcome :
- new stems and suffixes
- any information contradicting what I said
- stemsI already have on a character of the other race/gender
- Hellguards, Xaelas, and FemGaldjents

The shared naming conventions are likely a relic of Voeburt. One of the sidequests in Il Mheg offered the opportunity to go through books in Urianger's study, and one of them was about the nation's founding and governance- its ruler was a Drahn king, and below him was a senate of five members, three of which were required to be representatives of Galdjent noble houses. It was part of a compromise between the two groups following a long history of war between them.

Ten characters.

[Phel]

Thanks ! Can I quote it and add it to the original post ?

[Daralii]

Thanks ! Can I quote it and add it to the original post ?

Yeah. Here's the actual text:

[StarDrake]

VERY preliminarily because I have real-life work to do (oh god, now it is I who feels the bite of deadlines): dwarves appear to work a bit like Eorzean lalafells, in that most of their names are constructed using the same sounds lalafells do (e.g., the real-world conceit is that Lalafell names are actually built in Japanese kana with JP phonetics), but instead of a repeating element at the end of the name, they instead use what appears to be a double-consonant clan signifier, like the double t in the case of Lamitt and the other dwarves of Tomra. I haven't worked out precisely what the difference between male and female are yet (if anything), but I think, at least, that women have a two-syllable name followed by clan marker. I would surmise they also lack "surnames", as such, with the clan marker being the equivalent.

[GrumbleBeard]

I assumed with the Chai's that she takes on his first name as her last during marriage as humans would do with last names

[Eloah]

haven't worked out precisely what the difference between male and female are yet (if anything), but I think, at least, that women have a two-syllable name followed by clan marker. I would surmise they also lack "surnames", as such, with the clan marker being the equivalent.

Sadly, of the 4 confirmed females, and the 3 confirmed males, that I know of all 7 have two-syllable names followed by their clan marker.

[Arzalis]

On the note of Viis

It's worth noting there are a couple Rak'Tika Viis who seem to defy the -et endings, some of which reside in Fanow itself. The three involved the ritual for the aether current quest come to mind; I can't remember their names offhand though. Maybe the ending of their names has to do with occupation? Ex: names with -et are hunters and the others are related to rituals? Could just be a tribe ending too though.

There's also a few who seem to have totally different conventions all-together: Carna in Eulmore and Bethana in the Crystarium. Lyna too, of course. The names are greek/latin, which stick out a bit. Though maybe the -a suffix are just Viis who left their tribes.

[Iscah]

The one oddity with assuming "Chai" is a family name is that people address Chai-Nuzz as "Master Chai" and that phrasing usually uses the person's given name... but then again we've never dealt with any races that don't put their given name first.

Also I don't think clan separation is considered for the First. There just seems to be one naming pattern per race.

[Arzalis]

Yeah, I think you're right. There is at least two "-na" Viis in Fannow too, so it's not really a different convention.

It seems like Viis names are basically 2-3 syllables with the last syllable being the tribe/clan/group ending (ille, et, na, etc.)

That said, there seems to be an usually high number of "-na" Viis outside of Rak'Tika compared to the others. Seems like the "-na" tribe might've left en masse for some reason, with a few electing to stay behind. Could be as simple as a big group of them opting to stick together when they left.

Maybe Lyna can give us more details on that later on. If there's even a major reason for it.