There have been previous attempts to establish a naming convention for Ashlanders. These attempts to create a system have simply reduced their naming convention to a combination of prefixes and suffixes. However, Ashlander names are actually inspired by Babylonian (as well as Assyrian and Akkadian). This new Ashlander naming convention is heavily inspired by Babylonian naming conventions; therefore, it is necessary to briefly review how Babylonian names were created.
Assyrian, Akkadian, and Babylonian Names
These naming rules were specific to mostly northern Babylonia, as Assyrian and Akkadian influences are very prevalent in Ashlander names. There are a couple of core rules that dictated the creation of Babylonian names. First, Babylonian names, unlike many modern naming systems, were not patronymic. In fact, Babylonians did not have surnames at all. This leads us to the second rule: Babylonian names were full sentences that were typically theophoric. That is to say, their names included the name of a god or divine being, and their names praised these beings or held them in reverence. Non-theophoric names did occur, but they were highly unusual. The third basic rule of a Babylonian name was that they were sentences that were built using a subject, and object, and a predicate (though there were cases of names that lacked an object). Below is a list of real names from across different time periods of Babylonia, with translations included (courtesy of this collection of largely Assyrian names):
Adad-dan: Adad is judge
Ashur-rabi: Ashur is great
Marduk-apal-iddin: Marduk has given a son
Musallim-Nashi: Nashu preserves me
Abi-ul-idi: I did not know my father
*Adad, Ashur, Marduk, and Nashu were the names of Babylonian gods
All social classes used the theophoric naming system, regardless if the person was a slave or a king. It should be noted, however, that it was difficult to find many records of the names of women or queens. Therefore, the proposed Ashlander naming convention will treat the names of men and women equally.
Proposed Ashlander Naming Convention
A Note on Name Formatting
Morrowind formats many Ashlander names in two parts (e.g. Minnibi Selkin-Adda, Hairan Mannanalit, and Dun-Ilu Assurnumausur). However, some names lack a second part (e.g. Emul-Ran, Senipu, and Zaba). There is a twofold explanation for these inconsistencies: first, Ashlanders have a purely oral tradition, which would make it difficult to consistently document their names into a Tamrielic writing system. Second, Tamrielic names often include a proper name and a surname (e.g. Imperials and Dunmer). There is no consistency with how an Ashlander’s name is formatted. A general rule is that names include no more than one hyphen and one space. City-dwelling Ashlanders would be more concerned with how their names are written, as the format would need to be consistent for census records, legal documents, and personal letters. For Traditional Ashlanders, format is less important.
Surnames
Like Babylonian names, Ashlanders do not have surnames. Ashlanders do not list the name of their tribe or family within their own name. So, unlike other Tamrielic naming conventions, do not provide an Ashlander with a surname (unless they married into a non-Ashlander culture or took a surname intentionally). Even though some Ashlander names are formatted as two names, Ashlander names are actually sentences; therefore, putting a space in their name is simply formatting the sentence in two parts. City-dwelling Ashlanders may use the second half of their name as a surname for ease of documentation, but it is not a true surname at all (it is simply half of their true name).
Proper Names
Ashlander names come in one of two forms: either, their names are simply a proper name without any other components (e.g. Yen, Lanabi, and Zebba), or, their name is a full sentence (e.g. Kanat Assaltammis and Mamaea Ashun-Idantus). Below is a list of proper names directly lifted from Morrowind’s NPCs:
Male: Ainab, Kanat, Kanit, Kausi, Kind, Kund, Massor, Mausur, Mut, Nirait, Oda, Sal, Satus, Ula, Ulath, Ya, Zalit, Zallit
Female: Addu, Adur, Antu, Elu, Hansi, Kammu, Kummu, Lanabi, Maela, Maeli, Mid, Nirai, Sen, Shina, Uli, Zaba, Zabi
Gender Neutral: Adad, Adda, Addar, Adid, Adur, Ahan, Antu, Antus, Asha, Ashar, Ashi, Ashu, Assa, Asse, Assi, Assur, Ha, Han, Kummi, Mal, Nummu, Sadda, Saddas, Shara, Shin, Tinti, Tis, Udad, Ushar, Yan, Yen, Zebba, Zan, Zen, Zenn
Ashlander names, unlike Babylonian names, are not theophoric. Babylonian gods exist in the names of Ashlanders, though (for example, Adad). Because Ashlanders practice ancestor worship, rather than their names being theophoric, Ashlanders are named for a significant ancestor. This keeps the naming convention lore-consistent. So, for example, an Ashlander son could be named Oda, for his great-grandfather who was a famed gulakhan. All of the above examples are based on existing names. Below is a set of lore-friendly rules that allow you to create a new proper name:
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- The proper name can be no more than two syllables long
- Examples of one syllable names: Mal, Yan, Sen
- Examples of two syllable names: Adda, Kausi, Zebba
- Proper names can only include certain letters
- Male-exclusive rules:
- Letters that can begin a name: A, H, K, M, N, O, S, U, Y, Z (e.g. Oda, Ya)
- Letters that cannot begin a name: E, L
iii. Vowels that can be included: a, ai, au, i, u, o
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- Vowels that are never included: e, ae
- Consonants that can be included (after the first letter): b, d, l, n, r, s, ss, t, th
- Female-exclusive rules:
- Letters that can begin a name: A, E, H, K, L, M, N, S, U, Y, Z (e.g. Elu, Hansi, Lanabi)
- Letters that cannot begin a name: O
iii. Vowels that can be included: a, ae, ai, e, i, u
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- Vowels that are never included: o, au
- Consonants that can be included (after the first letter): b, d, dd, l, mm, n, r, s, t
- Gender neutral rules:
- Letters that can begin a name: A, H, K, M, N, S, SH, T, U, Y, Z (e.g. Han, Tinti)
- Letters that cannot begin a name: E, O, L
iii. Vowels that can be included: a, e, i, u
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- Vowels that are never included: ae, ai, au, o
- Consonants that can be included: bb, d, dd, h, mm, n, r, s, sh, ss, t
- Proper names – regardless of gender – never begin with the letters B, D, I, P, R, or W
- There are some letters and sounds that do not exist in Ashlander names or words at all, and thus, must be avoided: *c, *ch, f, g, j, q, and x
- *The only exception to these rules is Conoon Chodala; however, he is a ghost, and there are no modern Ashlanders whose names include these letters
The following is a list of new proper names created using the three rules:
Male: Har, Harai, Kasar, Onat, Osur, Udal, Yin, Zusi
Female: Ensi, Essa, Haeli, Nabia, Nummi, Shadu, Ziba
Neutral: Habi, Sudda, Tammu, Ulad, Ussi, Zebi
At this stage, an Ashlander’s name is technically complete, as some of them are simply named for an ancestor, and they do not have a sentence-length name. Sentence-length names are not difficult to make, however, and they also have easy-to-follow rules.
Sentence-Length Proper Names
Sentence-length names follow one of three formats:
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- Describing an ancestor, praising a quality of theirs, and/or entrusting the child to the ancestor’s protection: “Kausi is great,” “Antu is lordly,” or, “Shina loves [this child] dearly”
- Declarations of an heir, provided by an ancestor: “Oda is giver of an heir,” “Ya gives a brother,” or, “Sadda has replaced [the previous child]”
- Unusual names: “I did not know my father,” “What shall I say?,” or, “Han, I cried for thee”
- It is worth noting that this category of names is very uncommon. An Ashlander with a name in this format will turn heads, often for the wrong reasons.
While these guidelines are useful, they cannot be acted upon without a dictionary. The following is a basic dictionary that uses a mix of Babylonian words and unique-ly Velothi words. These definitions are by no means official; however, all of the words themselves are lore-friendly, as they are all derived from the names of Morrowind’s Ashlander NPCs:
Sample Velothi Dictionary
Key:
+ female-only words
*male-only words
^words that almost always appear at the end of a name (avoid using multiples of these in names)
Nouns:
-abu: father
o –abi: my father
-ahu: brother, sister
o –ahhi: my brother, my sister
-ammu, -ummu: mother, my mother
^*-apal, *-ipal: son, son of
^+-apli, ^+-rapli: daughter, daughter of
-esur: eldest child, eldest son, eldest daughter
^-ilu: noble, devout, faithful; or, a reference to an ancestor
^-ipu, -ipul: child, child of
*-kit: warrior, fighter (implying physical prowess)
+-mil +-milk: counsel, my counsel
-samsi: sun, my sun
*-sel, *-selk: advisor, leader, a Gulakhan or Ashkhan
-shi: gift, present (e.g. “this child is a gift”)
*-usur, *-ussur: eldest son, eldest son of
Verbs:
^*-ael, -bael: to protect, protected by
-alit, -allit: to know, to be known by
-amat: is loved, praised, exalted
*-amma, *-samma: to preserve
^-babi, -bibi: is faithful, to be faithful
-dan, -idan: to judge, is judged by [ancestor]
^-erib: to reward
^-iran, -^ran: to replace, is replaced
-isun, -issun: to watch, to be watched over; to be guided by
-sour: give, to give; to provide
Adjectives:
+-beb, +-bebi: caring, gentle (femn.)
-musa: good, loyal
-nabi, -nabia: great, is great
+-niri: wise (feminine)
*-numa: mighty, fierce
-rari: swift, surefooted
-shah: grace, with grace, graceful
*-sub, *-suba: wise (masculine)
*-tab: caring, gentle, kind (masc.)
Interrogative:
-man, -manu: who, who is like
The sample dictionary is in no way official, but all of the words are lore-friendly. Feel free to provide different meanings to these words. However, for the sake of example, the following names were designed using the above definitions.
Male:
Zusi-numa-usur: The mighty son of Zusi
Tab-har-dan: Kind Har judges [this child]
Osur-shi-bael: This gift is protected by Osur
Ula-kit-ahhi-musa-ran: Loyal warrior Ula has replaced the brother
Female:
Ziba-milk: Ziba is my counsel
Niri-ensi-apli: Daughter of wise Ensi
Haeli-esur-erib: Haeli rewards us with an eldest daughter
Elu-shah-sour-ipu: Graceful Elu provides a child
Gender Neutral:
Sudda-sour-ipul: Sudda provides a child
Ussi-nabi-esur-iran: Great Ussi replaces the eldest child
Habi-rari-dan: Swift Habi judges [this child]
Tammu-musa-bibi: Loyal Tammu is faithful
These names were formatted with hyphens in order to make the separation of words more apparent. Ashlander names, though, are written with no more than one hyphen and one space. Therefore, there are a variety of options when it comes to formatting a sentence-length name. Ussi-nabi-esur-iran, for example, could be formatted as Ussinabi Esuriran, or as Ussi Nabi-Esuriran, or as Ussinabi Esur-iran.
As a final note, this naming convention did not use the names of ESO’s Ashlander NPCs. This is because their names do not clearly follow Babylonian naming formats. This naming convention can be used for an ESO Ashlander player character, however. Not only was the purpose for this proposed naming convention to create Ashlander characters whose names are both meaningful and lore-friendly, but also to provide insight into the values and complexities of Velothi culture.
This article was featured in Volume 1, Issue 11“Inktober – Ashlander Camp” | Illustration by SnowyAvis, DeviantArt
An updated version of this document can be found here