let's talk about personal names!
names are fascinating on several levels: they can demonstrate archaic forms of a language, or outside linguistic influences; they reflect societal norms around gender, social hierarchy, family structure, internal diversity, etc; and they can become a surprising source of controversy.
my questions for you all:
- where do personal names in your clong come from? old forms of the language, other languages, religion, nature, etc?
- is there a distinction between personal and family names? which one comes first? do you have other kinds of names- religious, secret, or something else?
- how are names gendered (if they are at all?) where does THAT distinction come from?
- is there a name that's considered extremely generic, like John/ Jane doe or Peter Magyar (that's a joke don't come after me)?
- anything else that's interesting about your naming conventions?
in my case: due to it's storied history, okśa names (like the language itself) are a strange combination of latin, brittonic, french, esperanto, and pre-Indo-European (possibly Aquitaine/ Vasconic) sources. names are extremely regional: celtic ones like Cadoc and Nesta are more common in Britia (a popular cartoon character satirizing Britia stereotypes is even named Cadoc deWanś), whereas French ones like Luc and Clementine are popular in the urban Eastern region. the West is home to "purer" okśa names like Poɬo and Ibak, which come from Latin and the pre-Indo-European substrate..
finally, names in the Esperanto-speaking Pacejo Autonomous Region are the most identifiable. generally first names end with the nominal suffix -o and are Esperantized versions of common european names; whereas surnames end with the adjectival suffix -a and are adaptations of Esperanto words. for instance, a famous paceja pop singer is named Aŝlio Rosa: Aŝlio from "Ashley" and Rosa from a uniquely Paceja spelling of roso "rose".
now what are names like in your clongs? let's discuss!