#Naming Conventions

[arkadijxpancakes]

naming a character in a historical setting

When you create characters (for example for fanfics or role-playing games) there is a common issue people run into: their new blorbo tends to need a name. And naming characters can be hard.

When naming characters, I usually pick something behind the name or a random website for baby names and call it a day. However, I spend a lot of time lately on researching my family tree. It gave me new insights and inspiration in terms of naming characters. I noticed that this can come in handy, especially when writing in historical settings.

Here are me findings:

1) Parish registers are a great source for names. When your story takes place in a region where the church was/is present, chances are, that they kept records on all christenings, weddings and burials. Those registers tend to go back quite a bit. The regions I researched tend to have registers that go back to around the year 1700. Some regions have registers that are even older.

A birth register will usually contain the full name of a child and the names of their parents and sometimes the names of their godparents. A marriage register will contain the full names of groom and bride and sometimes the names of their parents and their ages. A burial register will include the name of the dead person and usually their age. They might also include information an their spouse and/or kids.

So yeah: These registers can give you a lot of names. (Both given names and surnames.) They can also tell you a lot about how names were structured at the time. And because the local church documented all births, weddings and deaths (not just those of the nobility), those books are great for looking up the names of ordinary people.

[Note: The following pharagraphs will focus on what I found during my research. Because I researched specific villages and cities in what was then Prussia and what is now Northern Germany and Poland, my findings are somewhat specific to those regions. Naming conventions in other parts of Europe (or other parts of Germany, for that matter) can be different. So if you want to have some regional flavor for story, please try to look up how people used names in the region you want to write about.]

2) There were naming trends in families and villages. One of the villages I researched had a lot of Joachims. And I mean loads of them. There was a family that had a Joachim who named his son Joachim. Who also had a first son named Joachim. And while I don't know anything about him and his kids, both his siblings named one of their children Johann Joachim. There was probably another Joachim that predates all of them, but I found only traces. The parish book just doesn't go back far enough. There were other names that ran in the family, too. Names like Hans and Peter for boys and Marie and Dorthee for girls were pretty common.

And yes, it was pretty similar in other families of that village. Loads and loads of Joachims. At the same time, a village, just a couple kilometers further south, had significantly fewer people with that name. This means, that you can sometimes recognize people who weren't born in that village but moved there, by their names.

3) Naming trends also changed with time. Let's go back to Joachim-village for this: At the beginning of the 18th century, it was pretty common to give kids only one name. Sometimes a kid got two. By the middle of the same century, having a first name and a middle name was pretty much the norm. Later, this could go up to three or more names in total. And we're still talking ordinary people here, farmers and day laborers and cowherds. So no one who was particularly fancy or well-off.

4) It was very common to name your kids after other people. As I already mentioned, some kids were named after their parents. This could happen in the form I detailed above, where each Joachim called their firstborn son the same name. The same family had a Anna Maria who named one of her daughters Anna Maria, too.

In another region, there was a family where the parents and all their kids had at least three given names. The father was named Carl Friedrich Wilhelm whose spouse had the given Names Hanna Friederike Wilhelmine. Each of their kids inherited at least one of their given names.

In some regions, it was also pretty common to be named after your godparents. (Of which there tended to be many. In villages I read the parish books of, three to five godparents seemed to be the norm. However, I saw instances, where children at up to nine.) And if you weren't named after your godparent, you could end up with the name of your dead sibling. (And yes, most families had at least a few of those. That's why you are supposed to get your kids - and yourself! - vaccinated. Childhood diseases were fucking scary before the advent of vaccinations and antibiotics. So let's not go back to that!)

5) While most kids got very common names, not all parents played by that book. During my research, I stumbled across some pretty unusual names. (At least unusual for the region.) The most unusual name I saw was Dionysos. I also saw a Levin and an Achaz.

6) Place names as surnames were really common. (At least in that one region where I was looking for ancestors.) I knew that people took place names as surnames, of course, but I was surprised at how common this was. Most place names were pretty regional, too. Almost all of them (except Berlin) came from a radius of about 50 kilometers around the village I was researching. And the vast majority were a lot closer than 50 kilometers.

7) The way names were written depended on the person who was doing the writing. When it comes to female given names, a lot of them can be spelled with either an E or an A at the end. (Like Marie and Maria.) In a lot of cases, those spellings are used pretty much interchangeably. Additionally, there was this one woman, whose surname ended on either -berg, -burg or -borg, depending on which source you were looking at. At the same time, the name of her husband flip-flopped between being written with a P and a B. And those Joachims I was writing about? Yeah, their names could be written as Jochim and Jochen, too. No one really gave a fuck and I rarely saw any corrections.

My takeaways from this:

Most names were not random. People got named after family members or godparents.

At the same time, other parents didn't use those naming traditions and went with names that can look very random to us. However, they probably had a reason for how they named their kids. If you want to use an uncommon name, maybe include this in their backstory.)

It's okay to have multiple characters with the same or very similar given name/s. It can be very historically accurate and says a lot about the family/the culture of their region. It shouldn't be too difficult to differentiate between them, as the people in the past managed this, too. (For example, with nicknames.)

Both, history lessons and stories in a (pseudo-)historical setting tend to make ordinary people invisible. But they were there. And no, they were not dumb or brutish or uncivilized. You just have to look for them.

Oh and just one more tidbit: During the time period and in the region I was looking at, people did not marry as soon as puberty hit. Most grooms and brides were well into their twenties, before they tied the knot. And yes, a lot of them did fuck before they married. It's all in the (parish) books.

[throwingbread]

Fun fact No. 1: People hear Dream speaking their native language.

Extrapolation : If Dream tells someone his name is “Dream” they’ll hear the word “dream” (eg. a Spanish speaker would call him “Sueño”)

Fun Fact No 2: Hob Gadling’s first language is is Middle English. Fun Fact No 3: The Middle English word for dream is “Sweven.”

Ergo: Hob Gadling would cry out “Sweven” during sex.

I hope this knowledge has improved your life.

[bethanydelleman]

Re: the first name discussion

You mentioned that Mrs. Bennet called Mr. Bennet that even in family circles - so I was wondering how exactly did the rules work and how flexible were they? Was it okay to call your husband by his first name in front of family but not in front of people who were not family? I also notice (although this is my own observation) that men are way more likely to call their wives by their first names in public, than the women are. In Emma for example Knightly calls her Emma all the time (though that is understandable since he knew her as a kid), and Mr. Elton also calls Mrs. Elton Augusta in front of everyone. Also I understood that there was a sort of heirarchy to who could call whom by their first name: like Mrs. Elton could call Jane by her first name but Jane could not do the same. Frank says something in his letter like it frustrated him to see her name "bandiyed between them with imagined superiority" (I'm quoting from memory sorry if I get it a little wrong) Do you think there was some sort of gender heirarchy in play as well as men can take their wives first names easily but vice versa not so much ?

Okay, so the Reading Jane Austen podcast has discussed this and I've noticed myself while reading, but it seems like the rules probably changed over the course of Jane Austen's writing career and there seems to be generational differences as well. This is acknowledged in the preface of Northanger Abbey:

But with this, neither the author nor the public have any other concern than as some observation is necessary upon those parts of the work which thirteen years have made comparatively obsolete. The public are entreated to bear in mind that thirteen years have passed since it was finished, many more since it was begun, and that during that period, places, manners, books, and opinions have undergone considerable changes.

For example, we never hear Mr. or Mrs. Bennet's first names because they never use them. Mr. Bennet uses "dear" or "Mrs. Bennet" even when only his children are present, Mrs. Bennet calls him "Mr. Bennet." However, the younger Mary Musgrove in Persuasion calls her husband "Charles" all the time and he calls her "Mary". I think this may be generational, and I once stopped reading a JAFF because Mr. Bennet and Mr. Gardiner were referring to each other by last name only (which isn't confirmed or denied I think in Austen, I don't know a scene where two old men of equal status talk to each other, but it felt wrong to me).

Up until Pride & Prejudice, women refer to men by only their last name after knowing them, "Willoughby" "Wickham" "Bingley," but that stops by Mansfield Park. Emma is appalled that Mrs. Elton calls Mr. Knightley by only his last name, but this may be about familiarity and rank (little and lower). Emma calls Harriet "Harriet" while she always says "Miss Woodhouse," which is clearly about rank. Mrs. Elton does a similar dynamic with Jane Fairfax which is less justified (Mrs. Elton is from trade, Jane is gentry, and their disparity isn't as wide as Emma/Harriet).

Family can use first names (Marianne Dashwood calls Edward Ferrars "Edward" because they are in-laws) and Edmund calls Fanny "Fanny" (she avoids calling him "Edmund" probably because she loves him and wants to create distance, usually calls him "cousin") Female friends use first names, male friends last names.

But yeah, I think that even over the course of Jane Austen's publishing, the rules changed and they aren't super clear, so I can't fully answer your question.

[thecreaturecodex]

Ryujishin-Mushi

"Beetle Dragon" © Pauliina Linjama, accessed at her deviantArt here

[The earthquake beetle, or jishin-mushi, is a Japanese artistic entity that has undergone significant derangement in English sources. For one thing, the name; most English adaptations call it the jinshin-mushi, which means "humanity beetle", not "earthquake beetle". They can be enormous or small, have dragon-like heads or not, and are in general a wide breed, as befits a monster that existed originally more as a bit of iconography than any established narrative. There's even two of them in 90s D&D! This one was called the earthquake beetle in the basic D&D Creature Catalogue, and is colossal and dragon-headed, and the Kara-Tur Monstrous Compendium had a medium-sized, more beetle like jishin-mushi as well. The name I gave this, meaning "dragon earthquake beetle", is a neologism intended to cover if I ever loop around to covering the Kara-Tur version.]

Ryujishin-mushi CR 18 N Magical Beast This titanic monster has the carapace of a beetle, reddish orange above ten black furry legs ending in scything claws. Its neck is long, and ends in a head like that of a horned dragon.

The ryujishin-mushi, or earth dragon beetles, are enormous creatures with features of arthropods and dragons. They are of animal intelligence and are primarily motivated by their appetites. The bulk of their nutritional needs are supported by consuming metal ore and gemstones, but they occasionally come to the surface to gorge themselves on meat before returning to dig in the depths. Only the strongest armies and boldest adventurers have the ability to fight back against these raids—for everyone else, evacuation and rebuilding are their only hope.

A ryujishin-mushi’s body is so dense that its very movement causes the ground to shake. The tremors that come with its burrowing are often the only warning surface dwellers have before the creature is in their midst. Earth dragon beetles focus their attention on the largest and tastiest looking morsels at first, but will fight back if creatures are capable of actually wounding them. They can punch holes in armor and snap weapons in half with their adamant teeth and claws, and often do so. Ryujishin-mushi possess a powerful acidic breath weapon, but they rarely use it unless reduced to below half hit points; melted flesh and oxidized slag is much less appetizing to them.

The reason for the great size and draconic aspect of the ryujishin-mushi is debated by scholars, and none of the proposed explanations are much comfort. One school of thought holds that ryujishin-mushi are dragon-like as a form of Mullerian mimicry; appearing to be a more magically adept creature to intimidate other monstrous hunters of the Darklands. The other hypothesis is that these creatures are descendants of Festering Ulunat, the first of the Spawn of Rovagug. How ryujishin-mushi reproduce is a mystery, and whether they have sex and lay eggs in the deep like normal beasts, or have stranger and more esoteric ways of replication, may shed light on this mystery.

Ryujishin-mushi CR 18 XP 153,600 N Colossal magical beast Init +7; Senses darkvision 60 ft., Perception +30, tremorsense 120 ft. Aura frightful presence (120 ft., Will DC 23)

Defense AC 29, touch 6, flat-footed 25 (-8 size, +3 Dex, +1 dodge, +23 natural) hp 310 (20d10+200); fast healing 10 Fort +22, Ref +15, Will +16 DR 15/magic; Immune acid, fear; SR 29

Offense Speed 60 ft., burrow 40 ft. Melee bite +24 (4d6+12), 4 claws +24 (1d10+12/19-20) Space 30 ft.; Reach 30 ft. Special Attacks adamantine claws, breath weapon (3/day, 120 foot cone, 20d8 acid damage, Ref DC 30), trample (4d10+18, Ref DC 32), tremor step

Statistics Str 34, Dex 17, Con 31, Int 2, Wis 26, Cha 16 Base Atk +20; CMB +40 (+44 sunder); CMD 54 (56 vs. sunder, 70 vs. trip) Feats Combat Reflexes, Critical Focus, Dodge, Greater Sunder, Improved Critical (claw), Improved Initiative, Improved Sunder, Power Attack, Staggering Critical, Stand Still Skills Climb +16, Perception +30

Ecology Environment any land and underground Organization solitary Treasure standard

Special Abilities Adamantine Claws (Ex) The natural weapons of a ryujishin-mushi are treated as adamantine for the purposes of overcoming damage reduction and hardness. Breath Weapon (Su) A ryujishin-mushi can use its breath weapon three times per day, but must wait 1d4 rounds between uses. Tremor Step (Ex) Whenever a ryujin-mushi moves at least half its speed in a turn, all creatures touching the ground in a 100 foot radius treat the area as difficult terrain and must succeed a DC 32 Reflex save or fall prone. The save DC is Strength based.

[theotherwolfinsideyou]

Top 100 American Baby Names of 2025 Sorted by A/B/O Dynamic

Something I've seen under-discussed is the fact that in an Omegaverse setting, names would probably be sorted not just as male/female but as alpha/beta/omega as well. Names would be more dynamic, as names commonly go from masculine/feminine to neutral in our world, but they would stay generally consistent.

Here's what gender I think each of the top 100 American baby names of 2025 would be, sorted by vibes and vibes alone. The names in bold are names that I 100% think would be used only for that dynamic, and would seem weird on any of the others.

Alphas:

Female: Emma, Charlotte, Ava, Harper, Nova, Camila, Gianna, Scarlett, Eleanor, Elena, Elizabeth, Isla, Emilia, Maya, Naomi, Athena, Iris, Victoria, Madison, Valentina, Aaliyah, Addison, Emery, Amara, Ruby, Josie, Skylar, Maria, Leah, Kennedy, Ember, Audrey, Cora Male: Liam, Mateo, Lucas, Asher, Leo, Hudson, Muhammad, Maverick, Theodore, Jack, Benjamin, Sebastian, Samuel, Alexander, William, Josiah, Luke, Julian, Ezekiel, Isaac, Caleb, Jayden, Joseph, Adam, Amir, Atlas, Jaxon, Xavier, Andrew, Zion, Axel, Adriel Gender-Neutral: Avery, Riley, Carter, Hunter, Adriel

Betas:

Female: Olivia, Amelia, Sophia/Sofia, Evelyn, Violet, Hazel, Ivy, Willow, Layla, Chloe, Nora, Delilah, Lainey, Paisley, Lucy, Grace, Ayla, Emily, Kinsley, Sophie, Alice, Autumn, Sadie, Adeline, Eden, Hannah, Serenity, Nevaeh, Natalie, Clara, Savannah, Oakley Male: Noah, Elijah, Levi, James, Henry, Ethan, Michael, Elias, Wyatt, Mason, Owen, David, Aiden, Isaiah, Waylon, John, Matthew, Jacob, Nathan, Anthony, Cooper, Weston, Thomas, Lincoln, Wesley, Jeremiah, Walker, Christopher, Miles/Myles, Ryan, Easton, Everett, Parker, Christian

Omegas:

Female: Isabella, Mia, Elli, Luna, Aurora, Eliana, Aria, Lily, Mila, Ella, Penelope, Stella, Leilani, Zoey/Zoe, Brooklyn, Bella, Melody, Everly, Gabriella, Millie, Raelynn, Daisy, Lyla, Madelyn, Hailey, Jade, Anna, Lillian, Brielle, Liliana

Male: Oliver, Ezra, Luca/Luka, Grayson/Greyson, Daniel, Theo, Gabriel, Jackson, Santiago, Roman, Enzo, Nolan, Silas, Joshia, Rowan, Beau, Cameron, Colton, Bennett, Brooks, Jace,

Gender-Neutral: Kai, Logan, Eli, Micah, Charlie, River

[tomicscomics]

12/15/2023

A Lord by any other Name. ___

JOKE-OGRAPHY: In this cartoon a young Jesus visits John the Baptist, His cousin, and the two greet each other with much joy.  They begin by shouting each other's names, then switch to parodying each other's names back and forth, coming up with a ridiculous list of aliases.  Their mothers, St. Elizabeth and the Blessed Virgin Mary, just watch the naming convention being held before them.

[siren-of-the-ocean-tumbls]

I had the random Percy Jackson thought. Like. Why are these people naming their demigod kids after people in Greek Mythology?

Like, I get Percy. Sally specifically named him Perseus in hopes that he'll get a happy ending like his namesake did. Which seems to have worked? He ain't dead yet, at least.

But then you get to Castor and Pollux. Who are named after...well. Castor and Pollux. The one a son of Zeus and hatched from an egg and the other mortal despite being twins. But the interesting part of that Pollux gets stabbed by a Spear and dies in the myth. Castor gives up half his immortality to his brother. But the important part is that Pollux dies. Both of them.

Then you get to Thalia. Literally named after a muse. Like a goddess of the arts. Specifically, the muse of comedy. Because who wouldn't want to name their child after the goddess of greek comedies? But. Her name also means "flourishing". You know. Like a plant? Like the golden fleece. And Thalia is also the only one named after a goddess. Who is also immortal at this point in time.

Finally, Jason. Now, Jason (PJO) is not an asshole like his myth counterpart. But they do have a weird amount in common. They both have Hera as their patrons. In order to kind of placate Hera. In both instances, this works! Hera does not try to kill them. But. Both Jasons leave their lives behind due to a new influence of a mortal woman (Medea having Jason be an accessory to Murder, thus leaving Jason in exile. And Jason's mind literally being wiped and fake memories of a relationship being planted with Piper) which ultimately leads to their deaths.

Like. There is a clear pattern here. And these are the only 5 examples I can think of? But like. Why? Would you name your demigod kids? After doomed heroes? Or LITERAL GODESSES?

[thebat-musicman]

me: *obsessively explaining how infant morality rate affected naming conventions and how it was common that if a baby died you would get another one and name it the same thing. Common example of this is Philip Hamilton who died in 1800 (or 1801) and the other Philip Hamilton who was born a year later*

person im talking to: …please stop calling him Philip the Sequel

me: no.

[intergalacticsouvenirs]

From Romans to Rectums: Thoughts on the Naming Convention in Mad Max

I think it’s fascinating how that meme about how often men think about the roman empire is materialized in the mad max world in different forms, but especially in their bastardized-latin naming convention. In my mind, it appears that post apocalyptic warlords were aware that modern society looked up to the roman empire, but they didn’t quite understand how the romans influenced us exactly. Nevertheless, the warlords (or their history men) did have access to niche knowledge such as ancient roman military strategy, enough to inspire the imperator and praetorian warrior position names. It’s as if the first history men did not keep any pre modern history on their skins, so they had to reduce the entire roman empire into fragments of ideals (for oral tradition). Such fragments of ideals would combine in weird ways to inspire these war-men to write the most beautifully grotesque poems that are their names.

In a world where words have more power, names are more than just biographical micro-poems, they are multi-used as tools as well. They could be guns pointed to your face like “People Eater” and “Toe-Cutter”, a quality seal of approval on a product like “Capable” and “Splendid”, an aggressive dog warning sign like “Furiosa” and “Mad Max”, and even a prayer amulet as in “Corpus Colossus”.

As a trend among warlords, a wacky wrestling stage name is a must for a strong branding. After all, the ferocious marketing of late capitalism and show business did not die with the atomic bomb, but rather thrived, mutated, and embraced nature, believe it or not. Darwin’s nature, not you tree-huggers’ nature.

The names of the two capable immortan brothers Rictus Erectus and Scabrous Scrotus reveal the real underlying obsession of all men: the penis. The penis is the axis mundi around which all revolves in the (mad max) world. But more than just about sex, the penis cult is about finding strength and courage in a hypermasculine god to mentally survive in a hypermasculine hell. In this context, the names of Immortan Joe's sons take on a deeper significance. Firstly, Rictus Erectus translates to something like grin and erection, as if Immortan Joe had hopped for a future full of pleasures for his son. It is also a very verbal wish for an offspring who can physically stand up by himself and for himself. Unlike his disabled brother Corpus Colossus, who received a magnificent name meaning body like a giant greek god statue, in fruitless hopes that his imperfections would also grow away. Scabrous Scrotus more explicitly describes a unique physical attribute, namely some scabby nuts. Scrotus could very well be a nickname, which would parallel ancient romans who would choose a cognomen (nickname) to be known by, like Caligula meaning “little boot”, Oedipus (greek) meaning “swollen foot”, and Verrucosus meaning “warty”, for example. Better would be if Joe had named his son after his own beat-up ballsack, in which case this ode to biological reproduction against the environment would be very on brand. I bet Darwin is grinning wide, in his coffin.

It is interesting to note that most people in the recent mad max world appear to be illiterate and uncultured, so most don’t even understand the meaning of these stupid Latin names, but just that they sound as important as they say they are. That means these men who have access to nuance are really “dressing up” for each other, like an internal joke with the bois. Three brothers named to sound like roman emperors, to rule over all the erected men, by his mighty phallus.

It goes to show how colossal and monumental… the roman empire was, that it would outlast even the best of modernity. And its shadow would still loom over humans like the mysterious milky way in the night sky.

It’s a shame that Miller’s hyper-poetry is not that accessible.

[apollohour]

[qiqilasblog]

Its awsome to grow up reading american comics thinking that "Metrópolis" and "Bludhaven" are stupid, implausible names only to discover that HELL'S KITCHEN is actually a real place that exists.

[whycraft]

Piglin naming conventions

Piglin names are made up of three parts: the place of origin prefix, the public name, and the personal name.

The prefix is the first syllable of the name of the town they were born in. Someone who was born in the town Ghàk̨ḭ (lit. 'mountain') would have the place name prefix ghà-. If someone moves to a new town with an intention to stay there permanently--this usually happens because of a marriage--they add that place of origin prefix after the first one. The town Řeqhḭg̀ug (lit. 'soul soil', or 'light soil) would have the place name prefix r̂eq-. So if someone moved from Ghàk̨ḭ to Řeqhḭg̀ug, the first half of their first name would be Ghàr̂eq-.

The public name is how people are most often referred to in public spaces, especially by people they're familiar with. This includes coworkers, teachers, friends, family, etc. Personal names are often characteristics, such as Hik̨hṵ̀k ('skilled'), birth order, such as Kraghr̀i ('first'), nouns, such as Kkhḭqii (a diminutive of 'gold'), or of religious significance, such as Qegii (a diminutive of the piglin god Qegqeìr̂).

If someone's public name was Hik̨hṵ̀k, and their place name prefix was Ghàr̂eq-, their first name would be Ghàr̂eq-Hik̨hṵ̀k. This is the name they would use when introducing themself.

The personal name is never used in public places or with strangers. It is used only in private in the person's home. The people someone lives with would know this name, but it is also common to reveal it to close friends, lovers, and family who don't live in the same home. Many public names are also chosen for private names, although it's more likely to choose a name of religious significance for a personal name than a public name.

If someone's personal name was Qegii, and their first name was Ghàr̂eq-Hik̨hṵ̀k, their full name would be Ghàr̂eq-Hik̨hṵ̀k Qegii.

People who they've only known a little while would call them Hik̨hṵ̀k, or Ghàr̂eq-Hik̨hṵ̀k if it's a more formal situation. People who they're closer with, but not close with, such as work friends or teachers, would call them Hik̨hṵ̀k or a nickname like Hik̨hṵ̀kii. At home in private, family members would call them Qegii. In public, family members would call them Hik̨hṵ̀k or a more familiar diminutive nickname like Hik̨hii. The same would be true of their longtime-partner who doesn't live with them, or their closest friend from childhood, or their grandparent from a different town.

[bethanydelleman]

To your knowledge, is "doing a Fitzwilliam" seen as a sign of honour to the mother or deference to her family's higher rank? Or a personal value, depends on circumstance? Because I am contemplating the existence of an Elliot Wentworth. But while Frederick would honour his amazing wife in such a fashion in the blink of an eye, I doubt he would do it if it would be more seen as a way to suck up to sir Walter.

It was fairly common and, as far as I understand, not only done with sons of a high status mother. In Wives & Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell, the firstborn son of Squire Hamley has his mother's last name as a first name and at one point the Squire says the mother "couldn't tell her great-grandfather from Adam" implying that her family is not significant. (He does have a very inflated sense of self-worth though so take what he says with a grain of salt). (Is it possible that Hareton is named after his mother's last name in Wuthering Heights? Where did that name come from?)

Jane Austen herself only does the first-name from mother's last-name once. This is why I favour a Walter Wentworth, which both John Dashwood and John Knightley have done with their firstborn sons. Mary Musgrove also named her second child Walter. So maybe the second Wentworth boy would be named for Anne's father and the first would be Frederick.

If you ever want to learn more or explore the way that Jane Austen uses names, a full list of every named character in all six novels can be found here.

[thecreaturecodex]

Tzantza

"Jenglot" © Johann Egerkrans, accessed at his Facebook page here

[This entry caused a lot of consternation; almost all of it relating to the name. This is a conversion of the basic D&D topi. But a topi is a real thing. It's an antelope. Antelope are not little shrunken undead things, and so I wanted to use a different name. @abominationimperatrix suggested jenglot, which is a real folkloric shrunken person. But they're much smaller, and inanimate. An authentic jenglot would probably be more like a magic item than a creature. @monstersdownthepath suggested the current name, which is the word for shrunken head in the Shuar language. The conversion itself, on the other hand, was very straightforward, and very close to the original.]

Tzantza CR 2 CE Undead This dwarfed figure appears to be a shrunken mummified human. Its teeth are disproportionately large in its shriveled head, and it has long hooked claws.

A tzantza is an undead minion, faster and more intelligent than a zombie at the cost of its strength and size. Tzantzas are created as an extension of the process to make a shrunken head; only, it is the entire person that is shrunken. As such, they are most commonly found in communities that practice the art of making shrunken heads. Tzantzas are used as guardians of important sites, or as bodyguards and scouts by the necromancer who created them.

Tzantzas can follow more complex orders than a zombie can, but still default to violence if situations emerge that they didn’t receive instructions for. Left to its own devices, a tzantza will gleefully kill whatever it can sink its talons into. These talons inflict a magical slowing effect, and victims that survive a tzantza attack are often still slowed long enough for reinforcements to arrive. Tzantzas are excellent leapers, and often are instructed to hide and watch their warded sites from an elevation, so they can pounce down at intruders.

Creating a Tzantza A tzantza is created by skinning a humanoid and stuffing the skin with wooden rods to serve as its new skeleton, as well as at least one living venomous animal or vermin. The whole effigy is then boiled in rare herbs worth 150 gp for eight hours while the following spells are cast: animate dead, hold person or slow, and jump or grace. Creating a single tzantza counts as creating 6 HD of undead with an animate dead spell. The same casting of animate dead may be used to create more than one tzantza at a time (assuming the caster can create that many HD), but the secondary spells must be expended for each tzantza to be created. The tzantza statistics above assume a Medium sized humanoid as the base creature; Tiny tzantzas are created from Small humanoids, and Medium sized tzantzas are created from Large humanoids.

Tzantza CR 2 XP 600 CE Small undead Init +2; Senses darkvision 60 ft., Perception +4

Defense AC 15, touch 14, flat-footed 12 (+1 size, +1 dodge, +2 Dex, +1 natural) hp 16 (3d8+3) Fort +2, Ref +5, Will +3 DR 5/slashing or piercing; Immune undead traits Defensive Abilities channel resistance +2

Offense Speed 30 ft. Melee 2 claws +5 (1d6 plus slow)

Statistics Str 10, Dex 15, Con -, Int 3, Wis 10, Cha 13 Base Atk +2; CMB +1; CMD 14 Feats Dodge, Weapon Finesse Skills Acrobatics +7, Climb +4, Perception +4, Stealth +10; Racial Modifiers +4 Acrobatics, +4 Climb Languages Common (cannot speak) SQ leaper

Ecology Environment any land and underground Organization solitary or gang (2-8) Treasure none

Special Abilities Leaper (Ex) A tzantza does not suffer any penalties for jumping without making a running start. If it does make a running start, it doubles the distance it travels. Slow (Su) A creature struck by a tzantza’s claw attack must succeed a DC 12 Fortitude save or be slowed, as per the spell, for 1 minute. Additional failed saves do not worsen the condition, but do extend its duration by an additional minute. The save DC is Charisma based.

[twst-hottest-takes]

I think that at the VERY least Leona should've had a Swahili surname. All of The Lion King properties have the characters have Swahili names, except for TWST. It makes TWST stand out in a bad way. Plus, it makes a lot more sense for him to have one. He's a prince, so he should have a surname from his own culture not an English one that's based on a Japanese pun.

(I would also say this about Jamil as well, especially since Kalim has a normal one. But since I hc that "Viper" is not his actual one and is something forced on his family after becoming the Asims "servants", it makes more sense. Leona doesn't have that excuse.)

No arguments here.

I think even the closest approximation to the name they chose translated into Swahili would be cool. I see what they're going for with "Kingscholar" but it's another example of poorly thought out world-building.

Thank you for your take.

[do-i-even-know-stuff]

I would like to call out the entire magic and misfits side of the fandom who ship Sam and Evan, not for my personal disagreement around the ship, but for your inability to find SAVAN AS A SHIP NAME!! You know, like, Savant? One of them being the autistic guy with a lot of random info and the other being the chosen of objective truth?

Or on the more cursed side of things, because we know Kelmp is already awful to pronounce, may I offer: Blaelmp (Black + Kelmp and 100% a nightmare in your mouth). Come now, friends, I am not one of y'all and it took me 2 seconds!!!

EDIT; Spoilers: Welp, now that it's canon, I must put my difference of opinion appart and agree with what is. However, y'all need to up your name game