Around Dukeston on Ramnu, clans do not share a territory. Instead, a single family owns a small patch of land and passes a surname down the generations. Thus, Yewwl of the Kulembarach clan meets a fellow Ramnuan called Ayon Oressa'ul.
In the dominant Wilwidh Ocean culture on Merseia, an individual is known by his personal name, his (changeable) nickname and his Vach. However, other laws and customs survive. Thus, in Ensign Flandry, Dominic Flandry meets Tachwyr the Dark but also Lannawar Belgis whose full name sounds like a personal name and a surname. Lannawar mentions his old friend, Ralgo Tamuar. Centuries before, in "Day of Burning," Chee Lan had met Dagla Quick-to-Anger, Hand of the Vach Hallen, but also Olgor hu Freylin, Warmaster in the Republic of Lafdigu. Again, Lafdiguans seem to use surnames. David Falkayn dealt with Morruchan Long-Ax, Hand of the Vach Dathyr, but also with the disreputable (black, not green) Haguan Eluatz, head of the Gethfennu, organized crime.
So how many intelligent species in the galaxy use surnames? We know of at least one other...
8 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
The sooner the human race gets out into the Galaxy makes it the sooner we find answers to the questions you asked. And many others!
Ad astra! Sean
Naming conventions are extremely interesting. I'm currently writing a book (hopefully the first of a series) involving time travel and the Roman Empire starting in 166 CE.
One of the things about Roman names that's fascinating is watching it progress from, in early times a single name accompanied by "son of", to two names (one a family name), then to the tria nomen, with personal name (but from a very restricted list), family name in our sense, and "gens" (roughly, clan) name.
(I copied that in the Emberverse, where more or less by inadvertence the Mackenzies come up with a similar system -- all clan members except the chief and her immediate family have a name, surname, and the Clan name; the chief is 'the' Mackenzie.)
And then the Roman system broke down in the late Empire, with people ending up with names six or seven items long, and then after the fall it all collapsed back to "X, son of Y".
Mr Stirling,
Please get the time travel logic right!
Paul.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Roman naming customs? One example from late Roman times I thought of was Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius, best known for writing THE CONSOLATION OF PHILOSOPHY. With "Anicius" being his gens name.
And I look forward to your "Antonine" series!
Ad astra! Sean
Paul: I'm using the 'easiest' form of time travel. It happens just once, and the people who travel in time are stuck in the past without hope of retrieval. Tho' this time it's done deliberately by human beings.
So, for example, the people from 2032 stranded in 166 don't know if they're creating a new timeline or altering a single mutable one. There's no way for them to check, so it's moot -- an unfalsifiable hypothesis, a semantic null set.
Sounds straightforward!
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
A permanent one way trip back in time. That reminded me of L. Sprague De Camp's classic LEST DARKNESS FALL, albeit Martin Padway was accidentally thrown back to sixth century Rome. Ditto Anderson's short story "The Man Who Came Early."
Ad astra! Sean
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