Names inspirations

[Ygrain]

On 1/12/2020 at 2:27 PM, Aldarion said:

Thanks. I made myself a list o latin names. Ones starting on Ae- are Aeacus, Aebutus, Aelianus, Aemilianus. Note that these are all cognomina.

 

Aelianus and Aemilianus are cognomina of people from Aelia and Aemilia gentes adopted into a different family. You have people like Lucius Aelius Sejanus or Marcus Aemilius Lepidus from the original gens.

The diphtong would be more common within words, as in praetor, Caesar, Scaevola, Caecilius etc.

- That said, I don't think Latin was much of an influence in the linguistic sense (though Valyria as a powerful, slave-holding empire whose language survived only among scholars, does have Roman vibes). The names don't sound Latin; the -ae- thing may be just latinised mannerism (just like Tolkien spelled his characters with a c instead of k). Some elements sound like ancient Greek - the rh- element, -on,  -ys ending (Rhodos, Philemon, labrys).

[Aldarion]

1 hour ago, Ygrain said:

Aelianus and Aemilianus are cognomina of people from Aelia and Aemilia gentes adopted into a different family. You have people like Lucius Aelius Sejanus or Marcus Aemilius Lepidus from the original gens.

The diphtong would be more common within words, as in praetor, Caesar, Scaevola, Caecilius etc.

- That said, I don't think Latin was much of an influence in the linguistic sense (though Valyria as a powerful, slave-holding empire whose language survived only among scholars, does have Roman vibes). The names don't sound Latin; the -ae- thing may be just latinised mannerism (just like Tolkien spelled his characters with a c instead of k). Some elements sound like ancient Greek - the rh- element, -on,  -ys ending (Rhodos, Philemon, labrys).

Indeed. It actually seems that inspiration for names is at least partly Greek. I have found name Aegon in a Greek legend, and both Ae- prefix and various suffixes common in Valyrian names appear in Greek.