Male Viera names?

[Kakurady]

I've been thinking of creating a male Viera character in the future, so I've been wondering what are their naming conventions. Apparently it's "whatever": Viera adventurers often take up new names, including using naming conventions from other races. But some do keep the names they use when living in the forest, and if you create a new Viera character, the name generator would create these "forest names".

I think since "boy and girl vieras don't look very different until adolescence", perhaps their forest name conventions would be the same between genders. But the generated names seem more feminine sounding. I wonder if that will stay true for male Vieras (perhaps justified by females being more common), or there would be unique options for male Viera in the name generator? If you're making a Viera character, what do you choose for your name, and why?

[Bright-Flower]

I don't think there's any lore on that, or even so far as I know any named viera males in FFXIV at least.

Come 6.0 at least we should be able to get some information by looking at the random name generator for male viera at the very least.

[WhiteArchmage]

Not any Lore YET; though I've speculated in the past that perhaps Viera Forest Names aren't really gendered, with the whole "indistinguishable until puberty" thing.

Of course, that may be a "TO OUTSIDERS, they're indistinguishable until puberty"; or "indistinguishable" in the same way that human children are/can be until puberty kicks in but the entire town already knows which are males and which are females.

At the end, we'll know for sure closer to release date.

[Roda]

My guess is it's gonna be a modified female name (like miqo'te moonkeepers), an "lmao just w/e you want" explanation of them adopting new names once they get kicked out of the village, or something arcane like "their names mimic sounds from nature from bird calls to babbling brooks to help them stay unnoticed in the wood while still being able to communicate" I just hope that it's packaged with female hrothgar names too. (and those extra threads are deleted and merged with the main official race thread, 'cause why did they even create two new threads?)

But didn't we get our viera/hrothgar naming conventions like almost a month after ShB launched? I think we might have to wait a good while unfortunately.

[Cilia]

Considering the females use Icelandic names for their "Forest" / birth names, I imagine the males would do so as well.

Just the same it's a relatively safe wager the female Hrothgar will use Slavic names just like the males. Given the males use variations on their "queen's" forename for their surname, that bit is the hard part to discern.

[JeanneOrnitier]

Icelandic names just like the women makes the most sense, and as you brought up in your OP, since Viera are androgynous until puberty most of their names are probably gender-neutral despite sounding feminine to us.

[WhiteArchmage]

Some extra info from Matsuno's twitter came up in the male Viera thread. It DOES confirm that male and females can't be told apart until puberty, and that includes their... primary sexual characteristics, it seems.

Of note:

Q: What about their gender identity? Do they not have that on their mind while growing up?
A: They do not think about it until puberty starts
Q: So are they just accepting it after puberty? It sounds scary to me that onces they are old enough, they are suddenly being told "You're Male, you have to leave the village now"
A: For us a big influence while growing up is our environment, "As a girl/boy this is what you have to do and how you have to behave". In that sense, Viera aren't raised like that. Their approach to education and raising keeps this in mind. The surrounding enviroment is different to our present age.

It fuels the "share naming conventions between the genders" theory; although males that get taken by a mentor could still get another name for their training and to further differentiate them.

[YianKutku]

Some extra info from Matsuno's twitter came up in the male Viera thread. It DOES confirm that male and females can't be told apart until puberty, and that includes their... primary sexual characteristics, it seems.

Of note:



It fuels the "share naming conventions between the genders" theory; although males that get taken by a mentor could still get another name for their training and to further differentiate them.

I've read the answer to the second question four times and I still don't know what it's trying to say.

Taking it at face value, it seems like Matsuno is saying "they have a different set of norms". Which is both very obvious and completely facile to observe. Two families living as neighbours can have different norms when it comes to gender environments. What is more interesting is what happens when someone doesn't fit into the rigid box, and Matsuno has apparently deliberately decided not to answer that part of the question, hiding behind cultural essentialism.

[Iscah]

I've read the answer to the second question four times and I still don't know what it's trying to say.

Taking it at face value, it seems like Matsuno is saying "they have a different set of norms". Which is both very obvious and completely facile to observe. Two families living as neighbours can have different norms when it comes to gender environments. What is more interesting is what happens when someone doesn't fit into the rigid box, and Matsuno has apparently deliberately decided not to answer that part of the question, hiding behind cultural essentialism.

I'm not sure where the confusion is, but I think he's mostly addressing the "so they just accept it?" bit and taking the second sentence as a remark rather than a question to be answered.

And yeah, they'd just be raised to accept (or at least know) that at some point some of them will turn out to be male and will need to take up their duty as Wood-Warders.

In any case it's not "you have to leave the village now", it's "you'll be apprenticed to the next Warder who visits the village".

[YianKutku]

I'm not sure where the confusion is, but I think he's mostly addressing the "so they just accept it?" bit and taking the second sentence as a remark rather than a question to be answered.

And yeah, they'd just be raised to accept (or at least know) that at some point some of them will turn out to be male and will need to take up their duty as Wood-Warders.

In any case it's not "you have to leave the village now", it's "you'll be apprenticed to the next Warder who visits the village".

The second sentence seems rather clearly an elaboration of the first, by bringing up a possible example reaction to the Viera rituals surrounding puberty. And Matsuno's answer seems rather dismissive with "well, their culture is different".

What would have made it clear is if Matsuno explained what those who disagree with the culture will feel and likely do. He could presumably do so within the character limit by removing the first sentence of his answer, which is "our environment contains arbitrary gender essentialism divides that affect how we think". And the next sentence states the Viera also have an arbitrary gender essentialism divide, but "different" somehow, and "[not] like that".

EDIT: To make it clearer, Matsuno could have said "in our world now, we try to allow boys and girls to be what they want. But Viera aren't raised like that, and they believe that boys and girls must have strictly different roles." That would make the statements clearer to me.