Board Thread:New on Mythril Aces Wiki/@comment-4005222-20140523095914/@comment-4005222-20140523101152

Overview
Ossetian culture is varied, and as such, so are the assorted naming traditions that come with that culture. There are no real set-in-stone laws about Ossetian naming, but there is a loosely-followed collection of rules that can make identifying the origin of Ossetian names a bit easier.

Formal and Non-Formal Names
A good number of Ossetian names are European in origin, but spellings will vary greatly depending on one's social status. In general, one will have both an ignoble or common name, and a formal or noble one. Which one is used more often will vary widely depending on the person in question. In some cases, nobles may choose to disregard their noble name and use a nonformal one regardless. The inverse however, is rare.

Example:

Lorayne Bannikerseng(common) as opposed to Lorraine venne Bannikberg (formal)

When the occaison requires it, Non-Ossetians are usually referred to by what the literal formal version of their name is, for instance if one wanted to refer to Alexei Niktokov in Ossetian Formal Speech for whatever reason, one would call him Alexander Vinnict ("Niktokov" meaning "of nothing", in Old Russian and "Vinnict" meaning the same in Ossetian).

Titles:

Someone of great esteem may recieve a title. The format of the title is usually, but not always the following:

"venne" (male)/"vanna" (female)-dair-(adjective or noun)

this will sometimes be contracted into either "vendair" (male) or "vandaira" (female)

Titles also compose Knight callsigns. For instance, if we wanted to call Lorraine by her callsign in Ossetian, we would have to follow the above formula.

As such, we can break "Lorraine, Lady la Blanc" which means "Lorraine, Lady in white" into "Lorraine, Lady of the White", which we can then translate into "Lorraine, vanna dair Blenkh" which means the same. Titles that are simply nouns are most often translated as "[name] of [callsign]" as such, if we wanted to translate Roxanne Bishop's title ("Brazen Rocket") into Ossetian, we would first have to restructure it as "Roxanne of the Brazen Rocket".

Honorifics and Nicknames:

Honorifics as a conversational practice have mostly died out in Ossetia, but two close friends will still often give each other nicknames. There are two ways in which this is usually done, either by shortening their first name (eg. turning Lorraine into Lor or Lory) and adding the honorific "-shen" at the end. As such, if you were close friends with a young Lorraine, you might call her Lory-shen. However, if you were not, calling her such would be highly innappropriate. Likewise, even if you were friends, as the two get older, the childish nickname will usually be reserved for teasing. If a nickname such as this is retained at this stage, the "-shen" will usually be dropped.

Later in life, those same two friends will usually give each other descriptive nicknames, one might choose to call Lorraine "Nolë-shen" or simply "Nolë", "nolë" meaning "silent".

Nonstandard Names
Names not descended from European or more rarely Japanese or African names will often be a combination of two or more adjectives in Ossetian. Take Ilwax, which is combined of the words "Ili" and "ewax/ewakse" meaning "sweet" and "honey" respectively. Other times, an adjective itself may be taken as a name (such as the aforementioned Nolë. (and indeed, the first female prime minister of Ossetia was named Nolë Joan Umetten).

Surnames
Surnames are perhaps the most complex part of Ossetian naming. As one can have dozens to scores of them, reflecting a long and storied lineage. This version of one's name is often referred to as the superformal. Usually reserved only for high-priority official documents such as Declarations of Knighthood and Crownings. Many Ossetians do not know their superformal name by heart. However, it is common practice for the Archduke or Archduchess to be referred to by their superformal at important events.

Surnames can come from many places, but perhaps the most common is other surnames. If one's last name is Bennet, and one has a child, the child's last name will usually be Bennetseng, Bennetsing, Bennetshang (all meaning "sing of Bennet" or, more figuratively, "praise Bennet"), or, if one is a noble, venne, vint, vai, or vist (or a number of other formal variations of the word "of") Bennet. More rarely du, di, or d' will be used instead. (as in, du Bennet.)

Some surnames are based off of locations most often cities, villages, or neighboorhoods therein. If one's family is from Dyrgastad, one may be named Sedyrgastad, Sidyrgastad, or Shedyrgastad (again, all meaning "sing of Dyrgastad") more rarely, the capitalization of the city may be kept intact, leading to names such as SeDyrgastad, Se'Dyrgastad, or Se-Dyrgastad. This practice has fallen out of favor in recent years, and is mostly reserved nowadays for orphans whose parentage is otherwise unknown. Hence, the fact that most of the children in the Klovistad orphanage have last names such as Seklovistad, and She-Klovistad. These same prefixes can be placed in reverse on the ends of the city name, leading to last names like Dyrgastades. But these are far rarer. More generally, one may be named after a vaguer location they come from (for instance, someone from the country might be called Sekender or Kenderes). Formal names use the same "venne" etc. nomanclature outlined in the previous section.

Over time, names will frequently corrupt. Which is why from the original Banniker family are descended the venne Bannikbergs, the vai Bizekbergs, the vint Bernkers, and a number of others.

Other
In some areas, particularly parts of Berzegette, ancient naming traditions survive, and are sometimes combined with newer ones. Such is the case of minor Berzegettian noble Gregory O'Harkenes.

Five Most Common Ossetian Names: (Formal/Common)
Boys:


 * Lawrence/Lorense, Lorints, Lawrense


 * Bartholomew/Bartholomew, Barthalamew


 * Alexander/Aleksander, Aliksander, Aleksandur


 * Maximilien, Maximilion, Massimilien/Maksimilien, Maksimilyen, Massimilyen


 * Ilwax (Ilwax is both formal and informal)

Girls:


 * Alice/Alis, Aliss, Alyss (Alice can be both a formal and informal form of the name)


 * Teresa (Teresa is both formal and informal)


 * Lorraine/Lorain, Lorayn, Lorayne, Loraine, Larayne


 * Roberta/Raberta


 * Lamarcka/Lamarka, Lumarka