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When a commoner is given lands and title, how does he come up with a last name?


shameeka

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On 8/30/2018 at 9:43 AM, shameeka said:

It is my understanding that commoners have no last name. If a commoner is knighted or given lordship, how does he create his house name?

 

Davos was a smuggler from Flea Bottom until he was knighted and later became lord of Rainwood. Where did his house name - Seaworth come from? Seaworth sounds like a region name. Maybe Seaworth is a place where his wife and children are currently living.

 

The founder of house Clegane was a kennelmaster. How did he come up with a name Clegane? My theory is his given name was Clegane and after he was knighted he passed his name to his children as the name of the house.

Well this was also the case in real life, unless you are descended from the upper classes, at some point one of your ancestors basically made up your name. Many come from jobs- Smith, Butcher, Baker, etc, but few people would choose those if knighted, as it emphasises their past. Janos was most likely previously known as "Janos the Butcher", so "Butcher" would have been an obvious last name, but he was never going to choose that. A lot of names are geographic too, there's quite a few in the style of House Tarth of Tarth, which makes sense. Obviously if Arlan had started a house, you would assume he'd be Arlan Pennytree of House Pennytree. Unless his seat wasn't in Pennytree, as that might be confusing. The Manderleys kept their name, though.

We do have historic examples of house names being invented, like when the Riverlands new king was a just man, so his house was called... House Justman. I would guess House Strong had a similar origin. 

A name shows how someone wants to be seen, how they identify. Clegane might not mean anything in Westeros, but it sounds right, doesn't it? That's the most important thing. Whereas Kettleblack sounds pretty humble, seeming to reference metal working... maybe suitable for a house that want to slip under the radar and seem less important than they really are. 

 

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On 8/30/2018 at 9:43 AM, shameeka said:

It is my understanding that commoners have no last name. If a commoner is knighted or given lordship, how does he create his house name?

 

Davos was a smuggler from Flea Bottom until he was knighted and later became lord of Rainwood. Where did his house name - Seaworth come from? Seaworth sounds like a region name. Maybe Seaworth is a place where his wife and children are currently living.

 

The founder of house Clegane was a kennelmaster. How did he come up with a name Clegane? My theory is his given name was Clegane and after he was knighted he passed his name to his children as the name of the house.

Surnames were needed to distinguish people with the same first name.  Firstly, aristocrats adopted them, then the merely well-off, then the urban poor, (in a city like Kings Landing, there might be thousands of people called Jon, or Dickon, or Robert).

So, I would imagine that a commoner who was made a knight or lord would do what people did in real life.  He might take a place name that was significant to him, for example, Ser Bronn of the Blackwater. His descendants would be House Blackwater, save that he married a woman of higher rank, and they'd be House Stokeworth.  Or you could adopt an occupational name.  A military man might call himself Archer, or Fletcher, or Bowman, or Pike, or Axeworthy.  A man who'd made his way in commerce might call himself Goldsmith, or Fuller, or Chandler.  A professional man might take the surname Beauclerk or Scrivener.  Some men would take their father's name and add -son to the end of it.  Some might take the name of a great House that they had been in service to, or held land from, as a mark of respect, but their coat of arms would show that they were not actually members of that House. 

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Location seems to be the biggest single influence on house names; Davos' deeds are centered on the sea, Rolly literally was knighted in a duck field, the Manderly's are from the Mander, House Forrester lives in the woods. House Marsh, House Boggs, and House Lake are probably pretty easy to find as well. This probably stems from the whole "of Pennytree" situation.

Then the regions have their own quirks too, like the northern penchant for short, strong names like Stout, Locke and Umber, or nature-based names in the Neck like Reed, Branch and Peat. Most of these are descriptive and related to the physical areas the houses are from or where they won glory. It would be easy to believe that 'Stark' describes aptly the lands aroundWinterfell, at least during winter.

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