Common Standard

The Varian people have been some of the greatest travelers of the world, finding multitudes of reasons to continue their travels, be it trade-, scholastic-, or entertainment-related. For generations, the Common language of the old Willory Hinfolk has spread as the expected language of trade, literature, and art, taking little cues throughout its evolution, from the many communities it abuts. Despite its close similarity to all of its Varian-based siblings, for most of history, the formalized Common of the Willory Hinfolk served as a privileged crypto-language for the educated and worldly, as very few actual commonfolk fully understood the grammatical and nuanced complications it contained. This changed greatly, however, with the arrival of the Willonian people; in the search for accelerated progress, most Willonian people learned the Common language as their primary language within one generation. Within three generations, Common replaced Armadic as the standardized language of formally-educated Willonian people. With this change, Common became the primary language of many regions of the continents, and soon Common was adopted as a secondary “Lingua Magna” for most cultures of the world. Thus the heavy majority of the Common Standard names are simple reinterpretations of well-known foreign names. 

Shared Vari First Names

Countless names are shared amongst the Varian-based languages, however these names come in a wide variety of spelling, pronunciations, and other nuances. In the most diverse areas, these names have come crashing into each other forming new and evolving variations. These names have such long histories in multiple cultures that it becomes hard to untangle from which culture the names and spelling truly originate. These names have seen particular favor amongst small-town and rural communities where a sense of community is stronger than individualism.

Modern Common First Names

Alongside the many new, shared, fusion names, this culture has led much of the new name innovation of the last centuries, so much so that these names have begun to influence the cultures it was once reliant on for inspiration. These names are very popular in the densely populated cities and large towns of the Imperial Crownlands and Willonia, where folks look to find additional ways to shine amongst the large swaths of folks.

Common Family Names

Family Names in the Common language conventions are heavily influenced by the practices of the Willonian people, who put a stress on the importance of the family name in a way few cultures ever did in history. These practices date back to the naval-nomadic times of the Willonians, in which their family names identified one of two things: the boat the owner or belonged to, or (if they were a skilled professional) the name of their profession.

In the modern times we see this practice continuing in a varied way, as the heavy majority of family names fall into one of three categories: location, profession, or in rarer cases, the vaunted names of the bloodlines and ships that plied the seas during their earlier history. Notably, the “Professionalist” names lack much of the flair of their Imperial counterparts, and the “Locationalist” names often still bear the Armadic word ‘Fen’, (often abbreviated as f’ before a vowel), to indicate their homeland, or ‘Cer’ in vaunted names to indication rulership over said location or historical fleet.

Hinnish Cultural Standard

Hinnish names are some of the oldest known names in written record, and have thus evolved greatly over the span of history. Despite their close similarity to existing Common names, traditional Hinnish names have an unmistakable, sing-song style and are often devoid of any harsh or sharp consonant sounds. Amongst their shared and historic names, they generally represent the most soft and Sylvan-influenced spelling and pronunciations of Varian names. This Sylvan influence extends as far as to making “Namesake” names much more prevalent than in any other Varian culture, and the distinct infrequency of the letters j, k, and x outside of loan names.

Shared Vari First Names

The Hinnish variants of the commonly-shared Varian names are distinct in their appearance in the group, as they represent the least formal (and most pleasant to say) version of each name. This comes from generations of caravan merchants that traveled the world looking to be welcome wherever they roamed. They quickly found the warm, pleasant nature of the names may put foreigners at ease, as the names were vaguely familiar, easy to pronounce, soft on the ears, and quick to remember.

Traditional Hinnish First Names

These Hinnish names have certainly evolved with time, but their ancient roots are apparent, and still tied to historic individuals and legends. These names have most resisted the influences on foreign language, and are most common in areas with long-standing, predominantly Hinfolk communities. These names often push the joyous sing-song nature of Hinnish names to the maximum, and are often used in theatrical art to indicate characters that pose no threat to the protagonist of the performance, and will likely be an unrecognized ally.

Modern Hinnish First Names

Due to the great density of historical and borrowed names in most Hinnish naming convention, names that are distinctly ‘Hinfolk’ have begun to dilute, diffusing into the greater Common and Imperial cultures. While many Hinfolk see this as a good thing, some still hold the concept that personal identity is of growing importance in a world that is become more homogeneous. Not wanting to lose control over their own distinct culture many modern Hinfolk have taken to inventing entirely new names with no representation in other cultures, creating some truly unique names. 

Hinnish Namesakes

Unlike any other Varian language culture, Hinfolk have taken strongly to namesake first names. They have gone as far as being responsible for translating and popularizing namesake names from the Tok language cultures. These names are sometimes also favored by those who are preferable to alliterative, rhythmic, or performative full names.

Hinnish Family Names

Hinfolk people treat family names very differently than all of their Varian brethren, who typically view family names as a way to track and display one lineage; instead most people of Hinfolk cultures allow the last name to be a performative part of the full name. Typically these Hinfolk family names are compound names, frequently alliterative, most capable of evoking their wares of trade, accentuating their art or performance, or highlighting personal or family mythos and values. This does mean that in the larger generations, some of the family members break off and take up new names to better identify their new path. These derivative names usually maintain some similarity to the original. It is uncommon however, for a Hinfolk family to abandon their family name entirely, even if it has come into disgrace. Raising your family name up above the distasteful actions of the past is one of the greatest feats a Hinfolk can achieve, as it elevates not just themselves but any ancestors and predecessors that shares the name.

Grimmish Cultural Standard

While Grimmish names have changed greatly over time, just like the people, their names have always maintained a distinctly ‘Grimkin’ nature. They uniquely maintain names with a wide variety of sounds, including those sometimes considered harsh and strange. Due to the long-held historical ties to the neighboring Lovalians, there are many shared names and spellings between the two cultures.

Shared Vari First Names

These names are certainly the most contained of all Grimmish cultural names and are usually only taken by Grimkin who do not live in the Grimlands but cannot bring themselves to disconnect from their Grimmish heritage.

Traditional Grimmish First Names

Lineage and heroic ancestors are very important within Grimkin society. That being said, many ancestral names have survived into the modern era, with few modifications to their spelling and pronunciation. Children will often be given altered versions of one or both of their parents’ names, creating entire lines of ancestral repetition.

Modern Grimmish Names

Contrary to historical names, modern Grimmish names have taken the opportunity to become as strange and unique as desired, freely stealing from other cultures but dispatching from any sense of formal structure. These frequently take names that are popular in other cultures and flavor them with Grimmish feeling, spellings, and pronunciations, sometimes intentionally flying in the face of expectations.

Grimmish Namesakes

Strongly influenced by the Sylkin influence on Grimkin society, namesakes have grown rapidly in popularity amongst newer generations. While these names have existed in Grimmish culture for millennia, they were typically only taken by those who felt disconnected from their familial roots. This stigma has all but disappeared in the last centuries, which has lead to a rise in namesake popularity.

Grimmish Family Names

Grimmish family names hold great importance and weight in society, and often connote the achievements, deeds, and ethos of the family throughout history. The strict rigid formality often associated with family names does mean that there is little variation in the types of last names in Grimmish cultures. Due to this, there is a subsection of native Grimkin society that refuse last names and the implied responsibilities that come with them. To fight back against some of this stiffness, Grimmish family names are very frequently alliterative or rhyming within themselves and within the full name.

Armadic Cultural Standard

The Armadic naming cultures have waned greatly in the previous centuries, but in the shadow of the Common conventionsm they have stabilized most amongst traditional Willonian communities. Due to their extended absence from the continent, Armadic names have strayed the furthest from the group and maintain a distinctly unique character not present in other Varian names, including the existence of a few remnant letters from the proto-Vari language. One of the largest contributions the Armadic language and cultures brought with them is the frequency and grammar of the letter ‘J’, a letter that was a relic or loaning from other languages in the Common language until the reintegration of the Armadic language.

Shared Vari First Names

Unlike most Armadic names, some of the Vari names remained similar enough to other names on the continent. While they are still quite different, they bear striking resemblance to revivified Dawin names. These names are particularly popular amongst Colonian communities, where having a unique—but uncomplicated—name is seen as a symbol of status.

Modern Armadic First Names

These names may carry the modern moniker, but for the Armadic people these names are as old as their histories, they are just uniquely classified as they both are still entirely new names to the continent, and particularly had no similar names upon arrival. Moreover, these names have seemed to not garner interest in other cultures as they are too difficult to alter for other tongues, so they have remained exclusive to the Armadian people.

Armadic Family Names

The uniqueness of Armadic family naming conventions has all but been completely dissolved as they have been adopted into the Common language practices, leaving them nearly indistinguishable from actual Common language family names. The true clues of an Armadic name are the remnant locational tags (O’, Cer’, Vak, nis, and others) that were not consolidated into the more commonly used ‘Fen’ grammatical consolidation. Similarly many of these names still have strong verbal connections to naval linguistics and terminologies ot the original port towns established by the first Armadians..

Loval Cultural Standard

The Lovalians, despite their close hereditary and linguistic links with the Tok people, truly transformed their ancestral linguistics by adopting entirely the Varian alphabet and grammar, creating a strange fusion of Tok words and expressions formally tied together through Grimkin grammar. Where it sets itself apart however is that these names all have strong historical, scholastic, and artistic ties to the height of the Lovalian Kingdom, a time period now considered old history but an often much beloved history. Due to this there are the occasional accents, letter variants, and other such weirdness at first site that is left over from the earlier versions of the language This being so, Lovalian names have refused to adopt many of the refined and merged versions of modern Varian names, like the Varian people themselves, giving them the ancient wizened nature that many of the names contain.

Traditional Loval First Names

These names are certainly the most contained of all Grimmish cultural names and are usually only taken by Grimkin who do not live in the Grimlands but cannot bring themselves to disconnect from their Grimmish heritage.

Loval Family Names

While first names are given by the parents, most Lovalians choose their second name later in life, usually around or after their rites of maturity; these names reflect personal accomplishment or powers and wisdom, though many Lovalians elect to take on their family name out of respect, or a lack of world experience. Before this time most Lovalians do just use either of their parents’ names and the -sson or -dotter prefix to indicate their lineage.

Dawin Cultural Standard

The Dawi are extremely traditionalist in their naming conventions and rarely stray from classic Dawi names, including all of the archaic letterings and pronunciations from a time pre formalized grammar. Due to this nature, the Dawi names also feel distinctly isolated and out of time from other Varian name—sometimes even disconnected further than Sylvan and Tok conventions. Despite this, as modern research suggests, the names are unmistakably Varian in origin and offer many clues to the truth of the Proto-Vari language. Interestingly, Dawi names have no male and female preference and Dawi of both sexes frequently share names. The heavy majority of opening letters lean towards the front end of the alphabet, with the letter ‘A’ starting over 25% of Dawi names.

Dawin Alphabet Additional Letters: 

Traditional Dawin First Names

Dawin Family Names

Dawin family names seem to have little unifying structure and are often indistinguishable from Dawin first names to non-speakers. They maintain their archaic spellings but do not show as much concentration on the front end of the alphabet.