These Ivanhoans use a personal name and a patronymic but not a surname. Thus, Juan must introduce himself not as "Juan Hernandez, apprenticed to Master Trader Thomas Overbeck" but as "Juan Sancho's-child, called Hernandez, pledged follower of the merchant Thomas William's-child, called Overbeck..." (p. 139)
Some of us might remember that, in a Star Trek film, McCoy, carrying the telepathically transmitted memories of Spock, son of Sarek, felt that he had to identify himself as "Leonard, son of (whatever his father's name was)." (Some of us might prefer to forget.)
As we all know, a Merseian of the Roidhunate culture has a personal name, a nickname, a Vach, and maybe also a military rank.
The best alien name, so I thought, was "Ramri of Monwaing's Katkinu" in Poul Anderson's After Doomsday.
6 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
And Icelanders still have surnames as we know them, using a given name followed by a patronym.
E.g.: "Magnus Palsson," "Magnus son of Paul."
And in Hungary the surname comes before the given name.
Ad astra! Sean
Patronymics were the original form in most of Europe -- IIRC, the Romans invented surnames in that part of the world.
Nobles acquired surnames first, usually deriving from a location: "So-and-So, Lord of Suchaplace".
My father's mother's family, the Uphills, got their surname by living up-hill from the parish church.
Later, surnames were imposed in parts of the world that didn't have them because they were so administratively convenient.
In the Austro-Hungarian Empire, when Jews were compelled to adopt surnames, they often had to bribe officials to avoid having "humorous" ones handed to them.
The Japanese made it compulsory for commoners to have surnames (previously a samurai/noble monopoly, like swords) after the Meiji Restoration, in 1875. And like Hungarians, Japanese put the surname first.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
As you said, surnames are administratively convenient! But, was it in Tsarist Russia that Jews had to bribe officials to avoid getting stuck with "humorous" names?
Ad astra! Sean
Possibly both, but I know it happened in Austria (technically this was before it became "Austro-Hungarian"). The surname measure was passed in 1785 in Austria, during the reign of Emperor Joseph II. The corresponding measures were adopted in Russia much later -- 1834 and 1844.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Got it! I did recall mention somewhere of Tsarist officials needing to be bribed by Jews if they wanted to avoid getting stuck with offensive surnames.
Ad astra! Sean
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