Chapter One: Introduction
Chapter One: Introduction
What’s in a name? That wich we call a rose, By any other name would smell as sweet. —William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet.
Surely you’ve needed, from time to time, to make up The Lists a name for a character from a distant country, its language completely unknown to you. You probably ended up Chapter Three, which we have titled Name Lists in combining the names of a couple of local celebrities, if an unoriginal but very self-explanatory way, contains you could find them!. The following pages strive to exactly that – lists of personal names and surnames. Each provide list of names from different languages and table in the previous chapter refers to some of these cultures, as well as combination tables that will help you tables. to correctly combine names and surnames per the customs of each particular country – always with the possibility of making random selections via 10-sided dice, Appendix in case you don´t want to hand-pick them. Finally, an Appendix provides some ancient, literary or very particular name options, with witch adding a little fantasy, or at leats variety, to the subject. The Tables Chapter Two, Character Names, offers a series of tables organized by languages or cultures, with some notes about usual names, structure and order for name and surname, and random creation possibilities. Each table refers (and is linked to) a list of surnames and personal names that you can find in Chapter Three.
Sample file
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SUMMARY Congolese names and surnames … 29 Croat-Serbian-Bosnian names and surnames… 30 Character Names Czech names and surnames … 27 Arabic characters … 6 Dutch names and surnames … 33 Brazilian characters … 7 French names and surnames … 31 British characters … 7 German names and surnames … 23 Bulgarian characters … 8 Greek names and surnames … 32 Chinese or Taiwanese characters … 8 Guarani names … 33 Chinese (hongkonese) characters … 9 Haitian names and surnames … 33 Congolese characters … 9 Hindu names and surnames … 34 Czech or Slovak characters … 8 Hungarian names and surnames … 34 Dutch characters … 13 Irish names and surnames … 35 Flemish characters … 11 Italian names and surnames … 35 French characters … 11 Jamaican names and surnames … 36 Germanic characters … 5 Japanese names and surnames … 36 Greek characters … 12 Kenyan names and surnames … 37 Haitian characters … 12 Korean names and surnames … 29 Hungarian characters … 13 Mapuche names … 38 Indian characters … 14 Mayan names … 38 Italian characters … 14 Nahuatl names… 38 Jamaican characters… 15 Persian names … 38 Japanese characters… 15 Polish names and surnames … 39 Kenyan characters … 16 Portuguese names and surnames … 39 Korean characters … 10 Quecha names … 40 Latin American characters (North) … 16 Romanian names and surnames … 40 Latin American characters (South) … 17 Russian names and surnames … 41 North American characters … 17 Scottish names and surnames …30 Polish characters … 18 Sikh names and surnames … 35 Portuguese characters … 19 South African names and surnames (2 lists) … 42 Romanian characters … 20 Spanish names and surnames … 31 Russian characters … 20 Tatar names and surnames … 42 South African characters … 21 Turkish names and surnames … 43 Spanish characters … 10 Ukrainian names and surnames … 43 Turkish characters … 21 Ukrainian characters … 22 Apéndice
Rom and calé surnames … 45 Name Lists Hebraic surnames … 45 Albanian names and surnames … 24 Biblical (Old Testament) names … 46 Angloamerican names and surnames … 24 Invented names … 46 Arabic names and surnames … 25 Unforgettable names… 46 Arabic Christian names … 26 Literary names and surnames … 47 Basque names and surnames … 44 Spanish names and surnames (18th-20th cent.) … 47 Berber names … 26 English names and surnames (18th-20th cent.) … 48 British-English names and surnames … 26 Punic-Carthaginian names … 48 Bulgarian names and surnames … 27 Byzantine medieval names … 48 Catalan names and surnames … 27 Slavic medieval names … 48 SampleChinese names … 28 Spanish medieval names … 49file Chinese (Mandarin) surnames … 28 Magyar medieval names … 49 Chinese (Cantonese) surnames … 28 Roman names … 49
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Chapter Two: Character names
–Are you a Spaniard? –I asked him, surprised at the lack of any Peninsular accent, or even an Hispanic American one, in a man with such a surname. —Horacio Quiroga, The Vampire.
Arabic characters Riyadh, Jeddah, Dubai, Beirut, Cairo, Alexandria, Tangiers, Casablanca, Fez. Arabic names are used throughout the Muslim world, from the Maghreb to the heart of Asiam always subject to dialectal or local modifications. This names are quite different from Western ones, but follow a fixed and recognizable name + surname patron, sometimes (not always) with patronymics or nicknames inserted in-between. In Muslim countries, believers of other religions often use Muslim names. The exception to this are some Christians, who adopt Arabic-style names but subject to their faith (especially in Egypt) or European names, mostly French.
1d10 Name Patronymic 2nd Patronymic (grandfather) Surname (father) 1 Christian Arabic or French Arabic 2-3 Persian (Iran), Arabic Berber (Morocco) or Arabic (another country) 4-7 Arabic Arabic 8-9 Arabic Ibn (“son”) or Ibnat (“daughter”) Arabic +Arabic male name 10 Arabic Ibn (“son”) or Ibnat (“daughter”) Ibn (“son”) or Ibnat (“daughter”) Arabic +Arabic male name +Arabic male name
Examples done with this table: Tajeddigt Samara (berber), Joury Al Ghazzawi, Youssef Al Farsi, Amir Ibn Muhammed Ajam
SampleA relatively common type of Arabic nickname (that doesn’t appear in the table, because it replacesfile the “official” name in its use) is the kunya, a respectful but familiar appellation that indicates the person is father or mother of a notorious, important or very loved person. It’s composed of the the word Abu (father) or Umm (mother) + a personal
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name or a complimentary nickname. A kunya can also be “figurative,” such as the pseudonym Abu Nidal, “father of the struggle,” or Umm el Dunya, “mother of the world,” nickname of Cairo.
Brazilian characters Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia, São Paulo. Brazilian names generally follow the Portuguese name norms, with a couple of peculiarities: first, surnames are much more varied due to immigration to Brazil - second, the surname "accumulation" is usually shorter, if any, as it is considered snob. The only surname in everyday use is the paternal one, along with only one of the personal names (if there are several ones).
1d10 Name 1st surname (mother) 2nd surname 3rd surname (father) 1 Angloamerican Portuguese Portuguese 2 Portuguese Angloamericano 3 Portuguese Compound: German- Portuguese 4 Portuguese Italian Spanish 5 Compound: 2 portuguese names Portuguese Compound: 2 (not being José nor Maria). Portuguese Surnames 6 If female character: Portuguese María + Portuguese fem. name or If male character: José + Portuguese m. name 7 If female character: Portuguese Italian María + Portuguese fem. name or If male character: José + Portuguese m. name 8 Portuguese Spanish Portuguese 9 Portuguese Arabic 10 Portuguese Compound: 2 Portuguese Portuguese Portuguese Surnames separated by “e” or “de”
Random examples done with this table: Ariana Schneider-Martins, Leonor Sánchez Oliveira (senhora Leonor Oliveira), Rafael Conti Mora (senhor Rafael Mora), Afonso Miller.
Sample file
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British characters London, Birmingham, Liverpool, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dublin, Sydney, Melbourne. British characters have two names, but only one of them is daily used (usually the first one). Sometimes, when writing their name, they will write the initial of the middle name between the first and last name. However, in official documents, the full name is always used. Women takes their husband's last name at marriage, but they can recover their maiden surname if divorced.
1d10 Name 2nd Name Surname (father)
1 Scottish name British-English n. Scottish
2 British-English n. Scottish name British-English
3 Irish name British-English n. Irlandés
4 British-English n. Irish name British-English
5-6 British name British-English n. British-English
7 Angloamerican n. British-English n. British-English
8 British-English n. British-English n. Hindu
9 German name British-English n. British-English name
10 Scottish name British-English n. Compound: French surname-English surname
Examples done with this table: Lucy Bridget Davies, Diane Olivia Evans, Oliver Luther Clarke, Ian Warren Dupont-Wright.
Bulgarian characters Sofia. Bulgarian name consists of a name, a patronymic and a single surname. The patronymic is created by adding the suffix –ev or –eva to the name of the person's father, depending on the person’s gender. Thus, for example, two different gender siblings whose father's name is Ivan Petrov would have their patronimic be Ivanev (brother) and Ivaneva (sister) respectively. Surname is also gendered. It’s feminine when it ends in –a, while the masculine always ends in consonant. Following the example above, two siblings of different genders could be named Petrov and Petrova respectively.
1d10 Name Patronymic Surname (father)
1 Russian name Russian male name Russian
2 Bulgarian name Bulgarian male name Russian
3-8 Bulgarian name Bulgarian male name Bulgarian
9 Bulgarian name Turkish male name Turkish
10 Tatar name Tatar male name Tatar
Random examples done with this table: Maria Ivaneva Hristova, Evgenya Georgieva Georgievova, Dimitar Hristoev Markov, Kaloyan Georgiev Mikhailov.
Sample file
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Chinese or Taiwanese characters Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing. Chinese name consists of a surname and a single name, each composed of one or two monosyllabic words written with the traditional Hànzi ideograms and that make up, when combined, more complex concepts. The surname goes before the personal name. Personal name is used very little, reserved only for family and close acquaintances. That has originated China’s rich tradition of pseudonyms, including childhood, formal or posthumous names, which has been somewhat lost throughout the 20h century. Chinese people living in another country, or who deal frequently with foreigners, adopt a name in the corresponding foreign language while retainging their surname, altering the usual Chinese surname-name order if necessary. If they marry, Chinese mainland women don’t adopt their husband's surname. Children generally inherit the father's surname, although law indicates they can use the mother's if they want. Interestingly, the Chinese don’t marry among people with the same surname, even if they aren’t relatives.
1d10 Surname (father or mother) Name
1-10 Mandarin Chinese (If a character has a “foreigner” name, just use an appropiate list.)
Random examples done with this table: Liang Ai, Li Shu Fen, He Hang Wei, Zhou Hóng.
Chinese (Hongkonese) characters Hong Kong. Hong Kong names follow most of the rules for Chinese names, but with an important feature: Hong Kong people usually take a foreign nickname (usually English) for regular use, but without official validity. Hongkonese women, unlike mainland Chinese women, adopt their husband's last name if married.
1d10 Nickname Surname (father) Name
1-2 Anglo American Name Cantonese Chinese
3-4 Any (absolutely any) adjective or noun of normal Cantonese Chinese English vocabulary, other than a proper name,
apparently random chosen
5-6 British name Cantonese Chinese
7-8 The carácter hasn´t any nickname Cantonese Chinese
9 British surname Cantonese Chinese
10 German name Cantonese Chinese
Random examples done with this table: Mary Cheng Shu Fen, Number Chiu Li Na, Kwok Li Wei, Oscar Zoeng Huáng.
Congolese characters Brazzaville, Kinshasha, Lubumbashi, Mbuji-Mayi, Kananga. The Congolese name is typically composed of a Christian name (i.e., French), a Congolese name (mainly of Lingala, Kikongo or Kituba origin) and a Congolese surname. These names are common both in Republic of Congo and in Democratic Republic of Congo, formerly Zaire. In this second country, having a middle name after the surname, a Samplecommon African custom, is more common than in the first. This name might be the name offile an ancestor, the tribal clan of the person or even some personal attribute, in a fashion very similar to the ancient Roman cognomen. When the name needs to be simplified, only the first personal name and the surname are used.
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It should be noted that the name order described above belongs to the written language. When asking a Congolese person their name directl, they will usually say their surname first and then her first name.
1d10 1st Name 2nd Name 3rd Name Surname (father)
1-2 Congolese name Congolese name Congolese name (after the surname) Congolese
3-4 French name Congolese name Congolese
5-8 French name French name Congolese name (before the surname) Congolese
9-10 French name Congolese name Congolese name (after the surname) Congolese
Random examples done with this table: Ambre Louise Nbanga Mambou, Léna Manon Kangelu Ilunga, Julien Dikembe Lékoba, Raphaël Benjamin Sassou Ntsoni.
Czech or Slovak characters Praga, Bratislava. Czech and Slovak characters speak mutually understandable languages and share basically the same names. These simply consist of a personal name followed by a last name. Women take their husbands’ surname if they marry. As in other Slavic languages, surnames are gendered. When masculine, surname end up in consonant, in –y or in –a without accentuation marks. In feminine, that last letter is replaced by the ending -ová. For example, Milan Filipek's sister would be Hana Filipeková and David Svoboda's would be Adéla Svobodová.
1d10 Name Surname (father)
1-2 Czech name German (Czech Rep.) or Hungarian (Slovakia)
3-8 Czech name Czech
9-10 Czech name Polish
Random examples done with this table: Lucia Rybářová, Adéla Kazmareková, František Němec, Milan Fischer.
Dutch characters Amsterdam, Rotterdam. Dutch characters have two names, only one of them used daily, in the same way as the British. However, the complete name always appears in official documents. If Dutch women marry, they traditionally add their husband's last name to theirs, creatig a compound one. If done, law allows her to choose the order in which the surnames are added (for example, Roos Kuijpers-De Vries could be called De Vries and be married to Mr. Kuijpers). However, these changes are not legally binding.
1d10 Name 2nd Name Surname (father) 1 Dutch name Dutch name Arabic 2 Dutch name Dutch name Hindu 3 Dutch name Name del Antiguo Testamento Dutch 4-7 Dutch name Dutch name Dutch 9 Dutch name Anglo American name Dutch 10 Anglo American name Dutch name Dutch
Random examples done with this table: Eva Mirthe De Graaf, Fleur Lynn Abdullah, Thomas Thijmen Bakker, George Stijn Peters.
Sample file
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