Thoughts on Xbr'aal Naming Convention

[royaltymilky]

Hello!! This is my first time posting, so I hope I'm doing this correctly. I wanted to share my thoughts on the topic and to see what everyone else thought!! I did some digging and hopefully this makes sense!!

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The Xbr'aal naming conventions seem to be based on a traditional Mayan way of naming.
This method involves consulting the [Tzolkʼin Calendar] and in FFXIV, for the Xbr'aal, it's much more simplified into:

"First Name": Number of the month (?) Unsure as the Mayan calendar has 18 months. The word Wuk, however is noted in this article under [Mayan Head Glyphs]

"Last Name": Day of the "week". Similarly to our days of the week having names like monday, ect. The Tzolkʼin Calendar has 20 named days of the month, and these are the ones used for the 2nd name.

This can be seen in Wuk Lamat's name as Wuk = 7 and Lamat = the 8th day of the 20 days named in the Tzolkʼin Calander.

Their names also don't seem to denote any familial linkage, as Wuk Lamat and Wuk Evu for example, share the same part of their name, but no mention is given to any kind of relation based on that.

But then there comes the issue of how a lot of the Xbr'aal names don't line up with most, if any of the other words in Mayan numerology nor the Tzolkʼin Calendar. This can be explained as potentially changing the words so it's not a one to one with things IRL.

I haven't checked in the Japanese version, but a potential example can be seen with Wuk Evu's name. Evu, most likely came from Eb, the 12th day of the Tzolkʼin Calendar.
This can be explained as Eb, when read in Japanese, could be Ebu or Evu.

Though not exactly the same, the "first name" Bol could have come from the Mayan number Bolon (9), and Br'uk from Buluk (11).

Thusly, while I think it highly likely that the Xbr'aal naming convention is based on the time they are born, as it historically holds cultural significance with the people their names seem to be based on.

Unfortunately as the words used aren't one to one, there are little lore accurate names that can be made without borrowing from already existing NPCs and mixing and matching them.

Thank you for reading my thoughts o/ and I hope these make sense!! I'd really like to hear everyone else's thoughts too!!

[VilaSirocco]

Omg thank you for this!!!

[Iscah]

I have gone through the list of names and out of 38 character names there seem to be 7 options used for the first part of the name and 23/24 for the second part (with a possible typo).

NPC names (not tracking gender):

Bol Duxun
Bol Ilyik
Bol Inen
Bol Lyis
Bol Majun
Bol Noq'
Bol Ogaw
Bol Wuruq
Br'uk Akoh
Br'uk Evu
Br'uk Inen
Br'uk Noq'
Br'uk Ogaw
Br'uk Ts'on
Br'uk Ty'ev
Br'uk Vaw
Hunmu Hoh
Hunmu Q'at
Hunmu Rruk
Rral Br'aax
Rral Majun
Rral Soj
Rral Ty'ukuk
Rral Vaw
Rral Wuruq
Ty'at Br'aax
Ty'at Evu
Ty'at Ilyik
Ty'at Qat
Ty'at Roh
Ty'at Soj
Ty'at Tst'ei
Wuk Duxun
Xax Akoh
Xax Ilyik
Xax Ogaw
Xax Rruk
Xax Tei

First part of name:

Bol
Br'uk
Hunmu
Rral
Ty'at
Wuk
Xax


Second part of name:

Akoh
Br'aax
Duxun
Evu
Hoh
Ilyik
Inen
Lamat
Lyis
Majun
Noq'
Ogaw
Qat / Q'at --- uncertain if this is a typo or two separate names
Roh
Rruk
Soj
Tei
Ts'on
Tst'ei
Ty'ev
Ty'ukuk
Vaw
Wuruq


At a quick look there doesn't seem to be a lot of resemblance to the list of calendar days provided in the link, but maybe they have undergone a lot of transformation. Also, if they are indeed drawing on an eighteen-month calendar for the first names then it seems odd that we've only ended up with seven apparently-months used.

Bouncing through a few links off the Tzolk'in calendar page, from the one on the Maya Hero Twins, there seem to be a lot of characters with names in the format [Number][Noun] so perhaps that is common. I'd love to hear more from someone who actually knows the language rather than poking at it from scratch.

There's also mention that jaguars are prominent in Mesoamerican cultures, which makes it an appropriate choice to make the big-cat-people one of the key races of the region.

[Iscah]

It has further occurred to me that since there are more than twenty second-half names, it can't just be based directly on the calendar.

[NonBinaryNyan]

Thank you! This at least gives me a direction on WHICH Mayan language to try and draw from, if they're largely relying on one of them. (Which they may not be. But if I'm going to borrow for a character name, I figure it makes the most sense to borrow from the same one.)

Edit: Though.. I'm not sure more of the names on the NPC list do either... hm.

[Remarus]

It has further occurred to me that since there are more than twenty second-half names, it can't just be based directly on the calendar.

So, the calendar in XIV is broken up into six "moons", each Astral and Umbral, for 12 months total. I wonder if the names are one for each month, and then a seventh for those with an unknown birthdate. Or maybe the Turali calendar is broken up differently?