Westerosi Names?

[KarlDanski]

We all know that Westerosi names are based somewhat off of real names, whether they be English, German, French etc. For example, Eddard for Edward, Robb for Robert, Jon for John, Rickon for Richard, Bran for Brandon, Joffrey for Geoffrey, Stannis for Stanley etc. What process does George actually use for creating characters, and with them, their names? It seems he takes a real life name and fantasies it a little bit by spelling it different, but I don't truly know. 

[Adam Yozza]

That seems to be about it. For the most part he seems to take a real name and swap out the spelling, either by changing letters around or replacing them, and therefore adding more 'fantasy' type names to the story. With the Valyrians, I think he just throws letters into a hat and pulls them out at random but who knows

[Seams]

The names, aliases and nicknames are carefully chosen and interrelated. Sometimes it seems as if he uses a favorite name - Robb and Lyanna are both characters from previous GRRM stories; Jon may be a variation on Jaan (from his novel The Dying of the Light); Jenny is a name he has used before.

Some of the names may come from puns and wordplay: I suspect (but can't yet prove) that Tywin and Cersei are meant to recreate a Lannister version of winter and ice when combined. Of course, Circe is also an ancient goddess of magic who became known as a witch in later tellings of the legend, as well as a wicked seductress character from The Odyssey.

In the Puns and Wordplay thread, people pointed out that Jaime comes from the French words for "I love" - which is consistent with his famous, "The things I do for love" line when he pushes Bran out of the window.

The Robb and Robert names are part of a pun or wordplay pair with "boar", I suspect: Robert is killed by a boar and the feast at the Red Wedding is set up with allusions to a Boar's Head Festival, which is a pagan European tradition involving the turning point in the winter season.

I can't seem to access it on this work computer, but there is a passage in GRRM's The Dying of the Light novel in which a character discusses taking a new name in the culture's coming of age or a kind of "elder status" ceremony. One character took syllables from the names of two heroes he admired and mixed them up in a new way to create his own new name. I realize this is a different novel and a different universe, but I suspect a character like BenJen might reflect this kind of appropriation of old names. Rickon may have part of his grandfather's name, Rickard, but where does the -on syllable come from?

The character from The Dying of the Light had his name modified again when he moved to a new planet / culture. With all of Arya and Tyrion's name changes, the taking of new names helps to signal us that a character is changing and growing.

What does it mean that there are specific bastard names in Westeros? The Dornish claim that there is no social distinction between "legitimate" and "illegitimate" children, yet they don't give the father's surname to the children born outside of marriage.

You've raised a good question and there could be a lot of answers.

[Cridefea]

A couple of weeks ago I asked @ravenous reader for a thread about names and their origins (why GRRM chose that name etc) that I was sure I've read, but it turned out it didn't exist.  I have a super-power, I foreshadow threads.

My question is: why has he chosen that particular name? because I think some names mirror a trait of the character, as @Seams said for Cersei or Jaime.

So why did he choose Arya? Why Varys? etc etc