opinions on this theory about bastard names
Now I saw someone in an asoiaf comment section on reddit (cant remember where exactly) mention that ironborn bastards being named pyke and not salt makes sense, since it is "where they would be collected for sacrifice"
and it got me thinking, "hmm, who would collect sacrifices from the first men?"
the children
it is my opinion that the lord's night was an ancient tradition initially meant to supply plenty of children of noble blood to the children of the forest for sacrifice to the weirwood network, but eventually with the disappearance of the children below the wall post-andal conquest, it simply became a horny tradition for lords to do.
back to my main point, being that the bastard names are where these bastards would be collected, it seems logical to assume that in times of strife perhaps the first men would sacrifice to the children.
them being on pyke links into the legend of nagga, which was probably just a really big weirwood, like whitetree sized. we know that trees probably can grow on the iron islands, but not in dorne which DOES cause some problems with this theory.
so if we look at the names themselves (omitting crownlands as thats post andals and targ conquest):
in dorne sacrificial kids were placed on sand for the children to collect, iron islands they just threw em on pyke, in the north just plain in the middle of snow, the reach perhaps in fields of flowers, in the riverlands placed in the rivers, maybe besides a weirwood cluster, the stormlands in the midst of a storm, in the westerlands just placed on a hill, and perhaps in the vale of arryn the stone they were placed on is some kind of altar?