Male Viera Naming Conventions

[Averax]

If i had to shoot a shot in the dark, the "wesfv" at the end of veena male names probably denotes them as being male

The names are analogous to Icelandic names, but not quite the same.

For example "Arnfreyr Ebbason" from a random icelandic name generator. Here the surname denotes the parentage of the person. This is "Arnfreyr, Ebba's Son." Viera don't have family units in the same way, though. Parentage is probably not a big deal for them. Their surnames are the names of their villages of birth. So if that remains true, then the males must follow the same convention, with the addition at the end to denote them either as male, or just as someone who defends the woods as the men do. Couldn't begin to guess what the Rava ones are about though. I'm certain they don't have nunh and tia roles like the miqo'te do in Rava culture. Could denote the maturity of the male. Like one means young male, perhaps a learner, and the other means older male, one who teaches.

However a lot of this is irrelevant, as both Rava and Veena who venture outside of their forests tend to discard their forest names and surnames to adopt a new one. Like Fran.

Viera have the gift of being able to adopt anybody's naming conventions. Because they choose it after they leave.

[Doopliss]

I do think 'wesfv' denoting veena as male is a good guess, but, as someone else said, I feel like there is a significance to there only being 12 possible surnames for both male clans, which would make it difficult for the surname to include villages. They don't match with any of the ~20 something villages listed for either female clan. Here's the old spreadsheet from Shadowbringers, for those who want to compare: LINK

A lot of my problems with the whole 'Viera discard their names after they leave the wood' thing is that Square doesn't even follow it. I don't think it's any less valid from a roleplaying perspective; I just think it's hilarious that whoever names npcs still simply pulls from the clan-specific generator.

The only female Viera who does use a city name is Fran. If you look up literally ANY other fViera npc you see (not Viis), they're still using 'forest' generated names. Even Lilja, who is only 19 and grew up in Rabanastre under imperial rule, still has... a forest first AND last name (Sjasaris!), for some reason.

Dumb rambling below with minor EW spoilers and bigger SGE spoilers:

The above problem isn't exactly true for male Viera, obviously, who do get three flavors of forenames in their generator pool: female Viera birth names, masculine city names taken from other races, and masculine-sounding icelandic names. ...The last example in that list is tricky, though, since a lot of those names aren't 'real-life' names. This happens in the female Viera pool too, but the ratio is different.

I'd be completely inclined to believe they don't have a concept of masculine names in their native tongue if it weren't for that last variant, anyway. Particularly since the two seemingly city-born male Viera npcs with names use conventions from two of the most populous races in Sharlayan: Erenville (a rava using midlander conventions) and Charmont (a veena using elezen conventions).

Then there's Loifa, a veena from the SGE quests, who actually was a wood warder and taken from Skatay Range forcibly. It sounds more 'feminine', so I guess he kept his birth name? Maybe? 'Loija' is in both the mViera and fViera generator pool, although it's a letter off...

Loifa was also under a wood warder master before he left, so maybe he had something to do with that? That or whoever names npcs really did just decide to change a letter for funsies.

And of course I still can't even begin to guess what's going on with the surnames, though I think the eorzean calendar comparison with rava surnames is really interesting.

Either way, even if you can use whatever name you want, there's still a lot of potential cultural related questions these list of names give. Especially if you're more interested in the whole exiled-from-the-wood type, rather than already being integrated into the city.

[Vallavia]

Either way, even if you can use whatever name you want, there's still a lot of potential cultural related questions these list of names give. Especially if you're more interested in the whole exiled-from-the-wood type, rather than already being integrated into the city.

This is mostly the reason I'm anxious for them as a Viera-enjoyer, as it seems pretty likely that whatever reasoning there is behind them will offer at least some insight into Viera society which even to this day is pretty obscure. To address some spoiler-y things...

I'm wondering if you keep your birth name until you officially pass your training, since if I'm remembering correctly Loifa's was interrupted prematurely by his sickness and then being whisked away to Sharlayan. It would make some amount of sense to me if either they or their mentors get to rename them before sending them off on their own.

Maybe city names aren't as fashionable among young Viera wanderers or something. The only other example I can think of is Sophie from the gunbreaker quests, and all the Viis use the same naming conventions regardless of their origins (not that that matters much for our purposes). I don't mind, really, since I like forest names, though even in 12 I seem to recall that Viera travelers all had forest names except for Fran as well so it does stick out as somewhat peculiar.

[Doopliss]

I'm wondering if you keep your birth name until you officially pass your training, since if I'm remembering correctly Loifa's was interrupted prematurely by his sickness and then being whisked away to Sharlayan. It would make some amount of sense to me if either they or their mentors get to rename them before sending them off on their own.

Maybe city names aren't as fashionable among young Viera wanderers or something. The only other example I can think of is Sophie from the gunbreaker quests, and all the Viis use the same naming conventions regardless of their origins (not that that matters much for our purposes). I don't mind, really, since I like forest names, though even in 12 I seem to recall that Viera travelers all had forest names except for Fran as well so it does stick out as somewhat peculiar.

SGE spoilers again:

I was actually wondering the same thing! I think it would give some insight into the more masculine icelandic-esque names in their generator pool, as well as the relationship between mentor & student, if that were the case. Plus the idea of them choosing between a 'wood warder name' or their birth name after training just seemed kind of cool to me in general.

It is a shame that Loifa's situation is so unique to him, though. You are right in that he was interrupted. He also just straight up thought he was going to die from his disease, anyway... so I doubt his life was even typical as a wood warder in the first place. Dude couldn't catch a break, and we can't even use him as a basis for other traditional viera men, lol.

When it comes to the city names, I think it at least makes sense that veena don't abandon their names as frequently, since they're supposedly less strict with exile. And Sharlayan seems to be diverse enough that every race commonly keeps their naming cultures intact...

As for uh, everything else, I sort of just headcanon that it's mostly older Viera, like Fran, who have sworn loyalties to another region that feel inclined to change their names. That and male Viera who want to conform to their gender? Of course this is just pure guesswork for myself so that the in-game inconsistencies bother me less.

[NaohaLanbatal]

Really disappointed that Square Enix has not provided any news on this yet…

[Ultaniku]

While I’m keeping my personal name and Highlander last name, due to my headcanon of my boy embracing their culture and living in their villages for a time, I do want to very much know their naming conventions. I NEED to know the lore behind them.

[deeto]

I'm so curious too! Let's keep bumping this thread so someone from SE will see how interested we are!

[Doopliss]

I really don't think it's unreasonable to be impatient anymore... It's about to be a full month since EW's launch of just radio silence. There's no precedent for naming conventions being treated this way.

Did they forget? Are we actually going to get these explained? Again, any official acknowledgement would be great so it feels less like we're talking into a void.

I'll gladly keep bumping, but this has been really disappointing.

[NaohaLanbatal]

I didn't see anything in the Japanese Lore forum, so I went ahead and made a thread there. Maybe they already said something in Japan and I missed it...

[Vallavia]

Failing that, we may need to resort to hand written letters at this point!