Nominative Determinism: Clues in Plain Sight

[CrypticWeirwood]

In real life, the notion that names lead their bearer to become the thing they’re named for is known as nominative determinism. However, in a work of fiction these are never accidents but wilful manœuvrings by the author. For example, all six wolf-cubs are given names each prophesising their respective guardian’s destiny in the broader tale: Ghost, Grey Wind, Lady, Summer, Nymeria, and Shaggydog.

From far Carcosa to Dagon Greyjoy and Beren Stark, George Martin is well known for his call-outs and homages to other works. The man who gave Aegon the Conqueror both an Aenys and an Orys as close kin is also not afraid to hide meaningful names in plain sight: sometimes via puns or bad jokes (Wun Weg Wun Dar Wun), other times more subtly. Many names in A Song of Ice and Fire are dead giveaways once you cotton to their hidden connections, even in hindsight. Here are a few that spring quickly to mind:

• Weirwood: From Old English were meaning man (think werewolf), so a man-tree.
• Roose Bolton: A ruse is a trick, and he bolted the first chance he got.
• Stannis: From Latin for tin, our own ice-cold Tin Man lacks a heart, so he’s off to see the Wizard(ress) for her Burning Heart of R’hllor.
• Benjen Stark: The benjamin is the baby of the family in many cultures.
• Cersei: Circe was Homer’s witch who turned some men into pigs and spurred others into rut.
• Lancel Lannister: Cercei’s favorite cousin, secretly known to lance a lot in her company.
• Tyrion: Tyrian purple was associated with and reserved for royalty who would wrap themselves in it, while royalty is wrapped up in Tyrion’s origin, life in King’s Landing, and perhaps ultimate destiny.
• Brandan Stark and Brynden Rivers: Bran under various spellings means raven in various Celtic tongues, and both our brannish greenseers use ravens to fetch and carry thought and memory, just like Odin’s ravens.
• Old Nan: Nan often means grandma in various English dialects.
• Viserys: Someone whose name makes one think of viscera is unlikely to end well.
• Jon Connington: A cunning name for someone with a secret identity, especially for a gay man who isn’t into c——— er, unwritable four-letter words.
• House Stark: Means strong in Old and Middle English and modern German, with links to winter in Bilbo’s verse “The old that is strong does not wither, / Deep roots are not reached by the frost.” House Stark is strong against the frost of winter, and the current Lord Stark is hidden from the killing frost amongst old roots deep and strong.
• House Arryn: With “As High As Honor” for their words and the falcon their sigil, the Arryns are the purest line of Andal nobility and once Kings of Vale and Mountain; in Tolkein’s Sindarin, ar- means “high, noble, royal”.
• Castamere: Sided with the Blackfyres in first rebellion, clearly Tolkien’s Castamir the Usurper, a rebel.
• Dareon: An untrustworthy bard of the Night’s Watch, a call-out to Tolkien’s Daeron of Doriath, the harpist who was smitten with Lúthien.
• Gendry: A distorted version of gentry, for his hidden link to the monarchy.
• Illyrio: I can’t quite pin this one down, but one thing to know is that the Illyrian Movement was an attempt to found a nation-state.

What other names can be said to be instances of nominative determinism or secret links to something more than they initially appear?

Perhaps some are ironic. For example, I really don’t think Victarion Greyjoy will have a victorious happy ending, but rather one ending in grey the colour of death, like Robb’s direwolf presaged.

[deja vu]

Petyr Baelish: Petrus (Latin/Greek) = rock; Baal or Bael (Aramaic?) = demon, devil

[Winds of Winter blow cold]

Weirwood: wire-wood as in "magical internet".

[kimim]

Varys, from "vary"-someone who has various shapes and identities, a mummer.

Arya, as in" aria," which can mean a song, but is also tied to the Italian word for "air." Possibly a reference to Arya's loss of self, identity.

Sansa, from medieval Basque, meaning a "princess."

[Victarion Chainbreaker]

Bronn. When he and Tyrion are in the Mountains of the Moon, Tyrion sends him to chop wood. This is reminiscent of the Brawny lumberjack.

[JonCon's Red Beard]

• Jon Connington: A cunning name for someone with a secret identity, especially for a gay man who isn’t into c——— er, unwritable four-letter words.

:lol: I see it more as a cunning man who is being conned.

[BettyCrocker]

I saw this somewhere...

Jon Snow = "John Doe" or a placeholder name.

Interestingly, I found this:

Tully = the former english name for Marcus Tullius Cicero who was a Roman consul, orator, and writer. He foiled Catiline's conspiracy and was killed by Mark Antony's agents after he denounced Antony in some written work.

Umber = Umbrage/anger

And of course,

Glover = glove... Though their sign deems it a fancy gauntlet

[AdmiralKyrd]

Alayne Stone.

Sigil of House Aryyn: falcon.

Using the old adage, Sweetrobin will die so Lf can kill two birds with one stone.

[Ramsay's Penguins]

Alayne Stone.

Sigil of House Aryyn: falcon.

Using the old adage, Sweetrobin will die so Lf can kill two birds with one stone.

Harry the Heir is called the Young Falcon, is this what you mean? Or killing the Robin and the Arryn Falcon to have a new young falcon take his place, one who was once a Hardyng and under Petyr's influence?

[Greymoon]

Eris, as in Daenerys, Viserys and Aerys

Eris (/ˈɪərɪs, ˈɛrɪs/; Greek: Ἔρις, "Strife")^[1] is the Greek goddess of chaos, strife and discord. Her name is the equivalent of Latin Discordia, which means "discord". Eris' Greek opposite is Harmonia, whose Latin counterpart is Concordia. Homer equated her with the war-goddess Enyo, whose Roman counterpart is Bellona. The dwarf planet Eris is named after the goddess, as is the religion Discordianism.

• Erion, as in Viserion...Erion is a name of Albanian origin, variants of the name are Herion and Erjon. It is shortened to Eri and Jon. It means 'from the Ionian sea'.
• Vis- the prefix/root, as is Viserys, Viserion...from the latin videre, means to see, look at, observe as in the words vision, visionary, visit, revisionism, television, envision invisible.
• an alternative etymology has vis come from volo (wish). Vis also means power, strength, energy as in ad vim atque ad arma confugere > To fly to violence and fighting. (vim being the accusative form of vis.)

Daenais a Zoroastrian concept representing insight and revelation, hence "conscience" or "religion." Alternately, Daena is considered to be a divinity, counted among the yazatas. [...]

Daena is a feminine noun which translates to "that which is seen or observed". In Zoroastrianism: An Introduction to an Ancient Faith, Peter Clark suggests that the term might also be tied to the Avestan root "deh" or "di-" to gain understanding.

Definitions of aery
n. - An aerie.
a. - Aerial; ethereal; incorporeal; visionary.

• Daenerys: to gain understanding, to be enlightened, have insight and revelation (religion), to cause strife, chaos, war.
• Viserys: to have power, energy, alternatively, to be visionary, and the cause of strife, chaos, war. or maybe, to have chaotic vision/energy (to be mad?) ?
• Aerys: to be aerial, from latin aerius -- high in the air (> not touching ground) and chaotic, to cause strife, war.
• Viserion: to have power, energy, alternatively, to be visionary + the Jon connection ;)
• Rhaegal: close to regal, from latin rex, reg, regalis, king.
• Drogon: Drogon is close to dragon, from the latin Draco. Draco was a lawgiver, first legislator of Athens. From him derived the term draconian, meaning unforgiving rules or laws. Drogo, was also an illegitimate son of Emperor Charlemagne, who became Archbishop and died fishing. (law> enlightenment > harshness > strife > conscience and religion...)

dracō m (genitive dracōnis); third declension

1. A dragon; a kind of snake or serpent.
2. The standard of a Roman cohort, shaped like an Egyptian crocodile ('dragon') head.
3. The astronomical constellation Draco.
4. (ecclesiastic) The Devil.

• Arya: arya is of sanskrit origin and means noble, one who does noble deeds....otoh, aria, means air in Italian. In music, it designates a melody, a 'self-contained piece for one voice'. Saint Arria was a martyr in ancient rome, wife of Caecina Paetus. She chose to die alongside her husband when he was sentenced to kill himself by Emperor Claudius. (nobility, sacrifice/martyrdom, melody)
• Arianne: one etymology sees ariane as indo-european and related to arya. the second sees Arianne as an alternative spelling to Ariadne, Mistress of the Labyrinth, who falls in love with Theseus, son of King Aegeus, and helps him defeat the Minautor. (> Gendry, 'the Bull'?)
• Jon: the Ballad of John Barleycorn, the Corn King. Jon is the shortened form of Jonathan > god given; and/or an alternative spelling of John > graced by god. John the Baptist was the 'forerunner' of the Christ. He was beheaded. (Sacrifice, martyrdom, harvest, spring, godly connection (to BranTree; + inadvertently responsible for the conversion of Sam, Satin and possibly the Fair island twins, Arron and Emrik))
• Bran: Bran the Blessed, from the welsh, 'crow' or 'raven'. Sometimes associated to the Fisher King, the Wounded King from the arthurian legends, the keeper of the Holy Grail (cf, Holy blood and Holy Grail + Schmendrick's Lightbringer theory.) The Fisher King is incapable of moving on his own, wounded at the groin or legs.

Aeron and Victarion:

• vince, vic -- from the latin, to conquer. as in convince, invincible, victory. Victarion....
• Arion, was a Greek poet who was captured by pirates, and thrown into the sea. He was rescued by dolphins. Arion is associated to Apollo, the god of poetry, truth, plague and prophecies.

• Casterly, from Castely, from Anglo-Norman French and Old Northern French castel, from Latin castellum, diminutive of castrum ‘fort’.
• Castemere, mere, meager, small, insignificant. A lake. Or, mère, mer, in french, respectively mother, or sea.

N.B.: all quotes from Wikipedia.

[Lasicka]

Don´t know if relevant, but:

Orell - "orel" is Czech for "eagle"

[ache]

Weirwoods are interesting. A weir is a dam. Are the trees not working as they should because too many were cut down and the living ones are not being fed?

[CrypticWeirwood]

Don´t know if relevant, but:

Orell - "orel" is Czech for "eagle"

Good catch!

[WeaselPie]

Val and Dalla. Valhalla, hall of the slain adorned with a great tree, where dead warriors, led there by the Valkyrie, prepare for a cataclysmic war

Ilyn Payne. Ill, in pain

[Aestas]

• Illyrio: I can’t quite pin this one down, but one thing to know is that the Illyrian Movement was an attempt to found a nation-state.

"Illyria" is also the name of the fanciful country in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night; Illyria was the name of an ancient part of the Balkans, conquered by Rome.

Not entirely sure what meaning can be derived from this, but still interesting.

[CrypticWeirwood]

Ilyn Payne. Ill, in pain

Ouch! Considering what was to befall Wilko Johnson, the actor who played the part on HBO, that one really hits home. I can think of no better case of nominative determinism than this, and this one was wrought by a higher power than George Martin.

Now if only we could figure out how Conleth Hill with his obvious Westerlands-bastard name managed to rise to become Lord Varys, everything will truly make sense. ; - )

[deja vu]

Petyr Baelish: Petrus (Latin/Greek) = rock; Baal or Bael (Aramaic?) = demon, devil

While on the topic of "Bael" - a variant of Baal (more commonly used in English) - which is an ancient name for a demon or devil, or maybe even Satan himself - has anyone wondered why GRRM is so flagrant in his use of names with "Bael" as the root? historical characters named Baelor, the Sept of Baelor, Baelish.... anyone else think this is odd?

[Arya Weinergaryen]

Ba'al in its original form just meant "lord" and was used to denote patron gods of cities.

[Arya Weinergaryen]

The word Arya is Sanskrit meaning "noble," it was also used to refer to followers of Vedic tradition.

[Ibbison from Ibben]

Baratheon

"Bar" is a metric (but not SI) unit of pressure. 1 bar = 100,000 Pa = .987 atm. (Thus, barometer.) It is derived from the Greek βάρος (baros), which means weight (sometimes pressure). Theo-, of course, refers to gods. Which means in English, if you take "bar" to refer to specifically air weight or pressure, or other atmospheric phenomena, "Baratheon" can basically mean something pretty close to "Storm Lord/God"

"Bar" might also mean strong. Here's a couple links.

βάρος

βαρύς