#i googled ffxiv naming conventions before I started

[elegant-etienne]

01. What does your character’s name mean?

Get to know my character!

Etienne Clairemont: I chose the name solely because of this early Tori Amos song (it’s one of my favorites, it’s so 80s-tastic), even though Etienne didn’t wind up at all resembling the character of Etienne in the song at all! Etienne is a French variant of Stephen (as is Estienne, which is probably where Estinien came from, btw), and means garland or crown.

The name Clairemont came from Clare, the name of an OC that I had from a scrapped project I made with a friend ages ago - Clare was an agender guardian angel character who was forced to team up with the demon who stole and ate their charge’s soul. Of course Clare fell in love with the demon. And now Etienne has a soft for bad boys.

I’ve always liked the name Claire (meaning clarity, clear) as a name that can be male or female. It’s unfortunate that it was one of the early names claimed by the ever-narrowing scope of what’s acceptable within North American masculine naming conventions!

I joke around a lot about Etienne essentially just meaning Steve because I think it’s ironic that because of how FFXIV elezen naming conventions are, aside from folks already familiar with the name, everyone interpreted it as a feminine name even when Etienne was playing with he/him pronouns. (And Etienne being like “I don’t caaare it’s fine whateeeever” to people’s apologies over misgendering over their name and appearance was one of those things that made me say ‘hmm’ for a long time). Sometimes Etienne likes their name because it exists in that androgynous space, sometimes they wish their name was more feminine or explicitly androgynous.

Clairemont means “clear mountains” and honestly… how are there not canonically a family of Clairemonts in Ishgard? That seems like a perfectly sensible name for a family from Ishgard or Coerthas! I’m equally shocked I’ve only seen 1-2 other characters using this surname since it’s actually sort of relatively common in North America, but that works for Etienne’s lore.

Adi Lamoureaux: Honestly, Adi was just a name I found googling for names many years ago, and I liked it, and it’s one of those names (like Kadin) that I just liked to use for protagonist names. It can mean first, or ornament. In some respects, because Adi is the first purely pacifistic person from his family, and his father has always viewed him as an ornament. In-character, Adi is actually a nickname his mother gave him. His full name is Telesphoriade, which doesn’t mean anything at all, it’s a name built off of his father, Telesphore’s name. Telesphore is Greek, and I took it from meanings that have to do with blossoming and blooming, but apparently, it can also mean bringer of death.

Lamoureaux is just a name I knew off the top of my head, it means lover, and it’s French, and again, I was just surprised not to see it used more around. Ironically, if Etienne had been Etienne Lamoureaux, that would make a lot more sense for the character and their personality.

I had to shove Adi and Houmei onto Balmung early in the morning back before world visit was a thing. I did not spend very much time on their names, TBH, and Adi’s name was originally one I’d conceived of for a different character and retroactively fit into his story.

Houmei Isazaki: Houmei is literally just named after Houmei from Saiyuki Ibun, who becomes one of my favorite characters, Koumyou Sanzo, without much thought about how everyone in the Saiyuki series technically a Chinese name with Japanese pronunciation and… that can really muddy how we ought to be translating and interpreting the kanji in the names. *rubs temples* Anyway, by FFXIV’s treatment of language in English, it should be written Homei or Hо̄mei, and also I 100% meant Isozaki, 礒崎, as in beach, shore, but mistyped it because it was very early/late, and I have yet to spend money to fix it. HOWEVER, the thing about the name Houmei uses right now is that it is not his name. It’s literally someone else’s name that he adopted because he had no records or memory of who he was. So, if presented with some paperwork where he had to write his name, he could easily have written it wrong.

I do have a name picked for Houmei should he fully reveal/ recall his identity. I’ve decided I’ll probably hold onto the $$$ of a namechange until/if he ever starts going by that name. It is also ocean-themed.

Thank you for the ask, @ren-roelanberry!