#Onomatology

[al-zel]

Explaining every H:SR characters name, Part 1-- The Astral Express Crew!

I’ll put a symbol →(!!!) on every section that has a potential spoiler.

Stelle: A shortened version of the French name Estelle, meaning “star”. This name was derived from the Latin word “stella”. As for how it applies to the character, I’m sure it’s meant to show that the trailblazers true place is among the astral express exploring the cosmos. It might also be a reference to the Stellarons appearance.

Caelus: Derived from the Latin word “caelum”, Caelus is a name that means “sky” or “the heavens”. This name also belonged to the Roman god of the sky. It’s a little more convoluted than Stelle’s more straightforward name, but I think it holds the same narrative meaning as Caelus (the god) has heavy ties to the planet Jupiter, fitting the space theme. It's also the most yellow planet aside from Venus, (which is more associated with the color green due to how it appears in the sky anyway).

March 7th, DH, WY, and Himeko under cut!!

(!!!!) March 7th: It is the day March was found, but the specific date can bring some symbolism to mind. The month of march signals the beginning of of spring, a season full of new growth and revival from the stasis that winter brings. This fits into March’s character arc in her companion quest, as the garden of recollection locks away her past, essentially saying that It’s not something March should be remembering or looking for, implying something awful or traumatizing has happened to her. This shows that without those memories, March may have turned from a cold, "icy" character into a warmer, healthier one. 7 is also a lucky number, as it was very lucky that March has survived so long drifting in space and frozen, even if it was in 6 phase ice.

(!!!) Dan Heng: The character 丹 (Dān) simply means red, although it can also be pellet, powder, or cinnabar. I think this is mainly to tie in with Dan Heng’s maple leaf theme. The character 恒 (Heng) means “constant” or “persistent”, a nod to Dan Heng’s collected and steady nature compared to his eccentric companions. It may also be a reference to Dan Heng’s rebirths as a Vidyadhara or the number of years he spent inside of the Shackling Prison as Dan Feng.

Welt Yang: “Welt” is said to be the “name of the world”, but it’s really just the German word for world. “Yang” (杨) is Welt’s mother’s surname, meaning willow, poplar, or aspen, all three of them different trees. I don’t think that either of these names imply anything about Welt’s story, aside from the mantle of "welt" given to him by Welt Joyce, whoch is another post altogether. I think they highlight his responsible, powerful, and thoughtful character, as well as his sentimentality.

(!!!) (Welt Yang) Joachim Nokianvirtanen: Joachim is an abridged or contracted form of the biblical name Jehoiachin or Jehoiakim. They mean "Yaweh will establish" and "raised by Yaweh" respectively. Yaweh is a name of the Hebrew god, with possible roots to the old Semitic root הוה (hawah), meaning "to be" or "to become." This name is a probable reference to Welt inheriting his mentors Herrscher core and becoming the second Herrscher of Reason. His surname, Nokianvirtanen, is not an actual last name, but a mix of two names. The first part, Nokian, is a town in Finland. The second, Virtanen, is a common surname in finland derived from the word "virta", meaning "stream." I don't interpret this surname to have any meaning aside from establishing that Welt is (not confirmed outright, but heavily implied to be) ethnically half Finnish and half Chinese.

(!!!) Himeko Murata (無量塔姫子): Her first name is comprised of the characters 姫 (hime), meaning princess, and 子 (ko), meaning child. Put the whole thing together and it means "princess child", though I'm sure I didn't have to tell you that! I think it's less about her personality and story (especially in regards to Honkai Impact 3rd), but I think it represents her parents live for her, particularly her father's, as he's the one we know most about. The characters for her last name are-- 無 (Mu; nothing/nothingness), 量 (Ra(?); measurement, but with two connotations. First, it can mean a measurement, like weight or quantity, or it can mean "to measure" by estimate or actual documentation, or "to consider."), and 塔 (Ta; pagoda, tower, steeple). I think the most important part of her name is that last part-- in both universes, Himeko acts as a rock or mentor figure to many characters, being a motherly/older sister type towards the young trio of the express, and a teacher and squad leader toward Kiana, Mei, and Bronya, going as far as to strap a bomb to Mei's heart to keep her powers in check (with Mei's consent) should she lose control. 

And that's the Astral Express crew! I'm going by groups of characters divided into: Stellaron Hunters, Herta's Space Station, Belobog, The Xianzhou Loufu, and Penacony! (Characters are ordered by introduction. Characters will be put where they were first shown, despite their relevance in other places. Dr. Ratio, for example, will be put with the HSS characters instead of the Penacony category.)

[youdontknowhowtodiequietly]

y’all, andrew’s name is like fucking remus lupins name except it’s not wolf werewolf (or smth like that) it’s basically strong strong and actually that makes me cry so fucking much cause YES HE IS!

[frankencanon]

just realized these names (Max and Jax) are really similar actually:

✓ short form of a surname (Maxwell, Jackson)

✓ aforementioned surname was originally formatted as "[Name]'s [x]" (Mack's well, Jack's son)

✓ the plural became combined with the original name over time (Mack → Mack's → Max, Jack → Jack's → Jax)

✓ original name is slang for man (ex. guy)

[muirneach]

lol

[teashadephoenix]

elizabeth is a family name on my momma's side. my middle name is the alleged name of the clan my dad's side of the family is from.

This poll is specifically asking about how parents named their children, so even if you have a different chosen name now, answer for your given/birth name. If you're not comfortable doing so but want to see results, just choose the "not sure" option.

Answer based on the intention when the name was chosen for you, not the actual origin - so for example if your grandmother was named Mary after the biblical figure and you were named Mary in honour of your gran, you'd answer "a relative" instead of "a religious figure".

We ask your questions so you don’t have to! Submit your questions to have them posted anonymously as polls.

[fecior-de-crai]

Hello magical people!

This is a new blog where I will be posting content mainly regarding romanian mythology, language, literature, etc, but also general cool stuff I find about mythology, culture, anthropology, literature, onomatology (the study of personal names), short story prompts and ideas, yada yada. General whimsical stuff (as vague as that sounds)!

If you're interested in those sorts of subjects, I recommend you keep an eye out on what will be posted here. I will try my best to make posts in both Romanian and English, but I think I might just focus more on the English part, because there're very scarce resources and information about romanian *shenanigans* on the internet. I will make sure to provide sources for what I post If need be, and also: since a lot of these sources don't have English translation, I will most likely provide them so please keep that in mind ^_^

That said, I hope this will be a fun and helpful blog!

(tbh I made this so I could have a place to ramble about my favorite subjects like an unsupervised feral raccoon and just spit them out into the digital sea)

Pupici vrăjitorești!

[sambhavami]

Women in Mahabharata - Kavyamata

Her name itself is very poignant for me.

She is the mother of Shukra, and it leads me to think if Kavyamata is her actual name or is it an epithet inherited from her son.

Or, a more beautiful possibility, maybe she was a poet herself?

Aside from the onomatology, she wields enough power to hold back an entire divine army, so as to protect the Asuras who took refuge in her home, so much so that Vishnu's power is needed to kill her to get to the other side.

No wonder Shukra permanently aligned with the Asuras from then on.

[that-cool-queer]

Onomatology of Timelords

decided to have some fun + analysed the doctor and master's names and ended up writing a short essay :D its set up like a UNIT file just bc i could

google doc link for the people <33

[rainwolfheart]

Generated first names for Rook

I'm a huge nerd about naming customs, and I'm really intrigued by this name generator feature in the Veilguard character creator, so here's a compilation of the generated first names I've seen in videos so far.

Disclaimer that I can't guarantee that all of these were generated by the game rather than by the player, but in most videos you see the player replacing one of these with a name of their choice, so I figured it was a safe bet. Shoutout to Ghil Dirthalen on YouTube in particular for actually talking about the name generator and showing several generated names!

Burhan (qunari, she/her?, woman?, Lords of Fortune, source)

Esha (qunari, she/her, woman, Lords of Fortune, source)

Esha (qunari, she/her?, woman?, Lords of Fortune, source)

Filip (qunari, she/her?, woman?, Lords of Fortune, source)

Grier (elf, he/him, man, Shadow Dragons, source)

Jirell (qunari, she/her?, woman?, Lords of Fortune, source)

Kalais (qunari, she/her?, woman?, Lords of Fortune, source)

Lorant (dwarf, he/him, man, Veil Jumper, source)

Lorant (qunari, she/her?, woman?, Lords of Fortune, source)

Turvi (qunari, she/her?, woman?, Lords of Fortune, source)

Veryl (qunari, she/her?, woman?, Lords of Fortune, source)

There's one more name I came across that seems likely to have been a player input, but that I can't verify:

Veil (elf, she/her, woman, Antivan Crows, source)

The namebank seems limited, as I saw a two names come up more than once: Esha and Lorant. While both Eshas were essentially the same build, both Lorants were quite different: a Veil Jumper dwarf man and a Lords of Fortune qunari who I guessed was a woman. That, plus the fact that it generated Filip (a name I would instinctively associate with a human male) for a (presumably female) qunari, leads me to believe there's a single namebank that doesn't take into account lineage, pronouns, gender, or faction. But who knows!

There also seems to be a name generator for Inquisitors, but I haven't seen anyone click that button yet, so the only name I've seen is the default female Lavellan name, Ellana (source). I wonder if the namebank will be the same as the one for Rooks, or will be separate?

Please let me know if you have more info on this, and I'll keep this post up to date!

Also, if you're also a name nerd, follow my new name blog @rains-onomatology

[griffinkid]

how are you so good at coming up with names for your stuffed animals? :)

I don't know if you wanted a serious answer or not, but here's a serious one anyway

Onomatology (study of names) is one of my lifelong special interests. When I was a kid, I could have listed off thousands of names, their origins and meanings. I fell out of the way of it when I was a teenager, but in the last few years, I've got back into it… so I always have name ideas!

I 'collect' names from everywhere; names I hear spoken on the street, or read in books, or see on TV. I always read the opening and closing credits of TV/films, because there'll be so many nice names in the lists of cast and crew that I've never heard before, particularly on big productions that span countries.

I recommend writing down names when you hear ones that you like so you can remember them later, take a note of which names you particularly like- if, say, you find that lots of the names you like are Greek, you can look for more Greek names that you hadn't heard before.

Hopefully that's helpful advice, go find some cool names 👍🏻

[starfxkrinc]

obx name meta is so fun and onomatology has been a special interest of mine since i had dreams of being an author at 10 so thats why i refuse to accept *that* as jjs name lowkey

love popes name tho. pope heyward is such a distinctly southern black name in a way i cant describe thats a toni morrison novel name

[dinagothsdress]

🌻 ✨ this stupid baka life isn't going according to keikaku ✨ 🌻

Please refer to my stance on all these so-called "Donation Posts" before sending me any [TDLR: don't]. Anyone who does so anyway will be blocked and reported as spam.

the basics:

i'm kass! <3 (she/they) (here's my little labels hoard)

my hobbies and interests outside of shitposting and gaming include: onomatology/linguistics, writing and worldbuilding, aviation, seismology, fishkeeping, music, and clinical psychology.

this blog is a bit of a mess but i'm too lazy to maintain sideblogs. therefore, expect a mix of shitposts and multi-fandom stuff.

i tag fandoms so you can easily block the tag if it's annoying or not your kinda thing.

current fandom hyperfixations:

(as of september 2024)

the sims (special shoutout to 2000s sims 2 cc, i love you even if it's hard to find you now)

pssst: my simblr is @peridot--sims

house md (yet more old man yaoi, except it also feeds my medical hyperfixations) (also cuddy is a lesbian the writers were wrong actually)

duran duran + depeche mode (thank you for inventing synthpop) (honourable mentions to devo + ymo)

project zomboid (my beloved)

balatro (i hate you i hate you i love you)

byf: [political] discourse is a big DID/PTSD trigger and also annoying so i will avoid it. if i suddenly break moots or unfollow, this is likely why. if i wanted my existence and hobbies to be politicised i'd go outside.

[lambsixtysix]

BAMBI LOREEEEE!!

( drawing here )

text under the cut! (for those who can't read my shitty handwriting)

Pre-Murkoff!Bambi :

Avon-Lady-In-Training

Lived w/parents

Of French descent

Mid 20s

Name Onomatology :

Bambi -> child

Du Bois -> of the woods

Full name meaning -> “child of the woods”

Mini excerpt from file titled “[B. DU BOIS]”

Bambi Du Bois joined Murkoff under the assumption that they would help her elderly parents, immigrants from the countryside of France. She insisted that her recruiters call her parents once her audition was done. All she wanted to do was help.

Notes :

Deer symbolism

“Babe in the woods” trope

Inspired by vintage makeup, Avon ladies, and the color blue

Other Notes for Murkoff!Bambi :

Crooked teeth

Always smiling

Shades of blue/white

Always in hospital gown ( the message above her says : “just woke up)”

[anglosaxonpersonalnames]

Bruning

Bruning is an Anglo-Saxon masculine name composed of brun (brown) and -ing (one possessed of the quality of).

Variants:

Bruning [William Bawdwen 1812 Dom Boc 2 (Hertfordshire): 16].

Bruningus [Joseph Stevenson 1841 Liber Vitæ Ecclesiæ Dunelmensis, page 6].

Bruninc [Herbert Grueber 1893 A Catalogue of English Coins in the British Museum, Anglo-Saxon Series 2: 163].

Bruning [Herbert Grueber 1893 A Catalogue of English Coins in the British Museum, Anglo-Saxon Series 2: 244].

Brunnic [Herbert Grueber 1893 A Catalogue of English Coins in the British Museum, Anglo-Saxon Series 2: 244].

Brunic [Herbert Grueber 1893 A Catalogue of English Coins in the British Museum, Anglo-Saxon Series 2: 330].

Brunninc [Herbert Grueber 1893 A Catalogue of English Coins in the British Museum, Anglo-Saxon Series 2: 330].

Brúning [Henry Harrison 1907-1918 Surnames of the United Kingdom 1: 53].

Brūning [Olof von Feilitzen 1937 The Pre-conquest Personal Names of Domesday Book, page 210].

Browning [John Morris 1976 Domesday Book 12 (Hertfordshire): chapter 5, paragraph 4].

Brunning [Keith Briggs 2021 An index to personal names in English place-names, 1st edition, page 70].

Note:

Bruningus is a Latinized form, whereas Browning is a modernization.

Stem:

Brun = Brown [Joseph Bosworth 1838 A Dictionary of the Anglo-Saxon Language, 1st edition, page 67].

Suffix:

-ing = a suffix forming derivative masculine substantives, with the sense of ‘one belonging to’ or ‘of the kind of’, hence ‘one possessed of the quality of’ [Sir James Murray 1901 A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles, 1st edition, 5 (I, J, K): 282].

Usage:

A man named Bruning held land in Hertfordshire during the reign of King Eadweard III (the Confessor): De hac t͛ra tenuit Alnod . ɪ . hiᵭ  ⁊ dim͛ ⁊ Bruning . x . ac֞s” [John Morris 1976 Domesday Book 12 (Hertfordshire): chapter 5, paragraph 4]: “Alnod held one hide and a half of this land, and Bruning ten acres” [William Bawdwen 1812 Dom Boc 2 (Hertfordshire): 16].

Comment:

Patrick Hanks & Flavia Hodges [1988 A Dictionary of Surnames, page 79] thought that “Brūning” was a patronymic derived from “Brūn”, which they supposed was a byname, but it is more probable that Brun is a short form of compounds commencing with Brun-, such as Bruning, and that Bruning arose as a variation upon Brunwine, as was implied by Charles Bardsley [1901 A dictionary of English and Welsh surnames, page 17]: “It is curious to notice that these two suffixes go side by side, sometimes suggesting that ing is the parent, sometimes that win is, and that from a modified in, and excrescent g, it has become ing. The instances seem innumerable: cf. Hurlwin and Hurling or Hurlin, Hardwin and Harding, Brunwin and Bruning or Browning, Gunwin and Gunning, Goodwin and Gooding, Goldwin and Golding”. Likewise, Mats Redin [1919 Studies on uncompounded personal names in Old English, page 186] observed “the increased frequency of ing-names during the 11th cent. must be due to the fact that -ing was less and less clearly understood as a patronymic ending, and was used, instead, as an ordinary onomatological suffix”.

[intothetlkverse]

Decided to challenge myself by drawing every single TLK character out there, up until this point in time, and post it here. You can see the finished project on my main account, though I figured to post it on my tumblr just show I could proudly show off my work and a few of my head canons.

Here are all the rhinos across TLK:

Starting off the list, from the Operation Pridelands game we have Gaucíngoua aka Gyasi(wonderful/knowledge). In the game he is a rhino which lets Timon and Pumbaa know where the Pridelander animals are in the jungle so that they can help bring them home after Scar's reign. A native to the Pridelands himself, he was already old before Scar's reign, though by the time he sees the rest of the willing animals return back to their homeland, he is too old to make the journey on his home. The animal who were helped on the mission, including an elephants, a handful of crocodiles and hippos, some reptiles, invertebrates, and an amphibian, help fashion a sled to help move him across the desert from the oasis in order to see his homeland one last time before the sun sets on him for the last time, surrounded by his close friends, the ones he helped, and his trusty hornbill Kigali by his side.

I've chosen to get this guy done first and give him a good ending if only to help ease my nerves after trying to figure out his name for so long. Every other animal in Operation Pridelands, sans the hippos/crocodiles/spider, have names that refer to cities/places in Africa. Gaucíngoua has no translations, no locations, nothing. If y'all know anything, please enlighten me, but I'm just glad to be finished with this onomatological oddball.

Coming from the Lion Guard we have Mbeya(scandalmonger, gossip), a black rhino, leader of his crash in the Pridelands, along with one of his notable members (TLG)Kifaru(tank/rhino) with his trusty tickbird partner Mwenzi(spouse, partner). I did find it interesting that Kifaru, an obvious white rhino, is a member of Mbeya and his group, which I'm assuming are black rhinos based off their dark colors. My HC is Kifaru joined their crash one day and no one has figured out the difference in species.

Last from the Lion Guard we have Young Rhino(TLG)/Kujengwa(built) with his mother Msingi(base, foundation). Pretty much identical to how we see them in the show, though I want to add that Kujengwa would eventually hoping and strive for becoming part of the future Pridelands' protectors.

Following we have a rhino couple from the comic Love Struck: Rasha(smear/spray) and Kuloo/Kwuoo(say-Igbo). While Kigali was helping Gyasi bring back animals who had left during Scar's reign, Zazu was assisting with internal matters, ensuring that animals coming back were getting along and such. During this time he assisted Rasha and Kwuoo, helping introduce them together and eventually becoming the godparent to their calf.

Speaking of rhinos and lions, next up are Tanka/Tangi(tank) and her son Butu(blunt), friends of Simba and Nala. Tangi is a wise, sentimental soul who has an interest in family trees while her son is more interest in testing his strength and going on adventures with his friends, the lion prince included.

Tangi is based off the 'Rhino' character from the comic "Family Tree" while Butu is based off 'Rhino' from the comics "A Great Team/ Monkey Magic". The wiki describes Tangi as male, but after reading the comic there weren't any pronouns used, even though the comic was translated from German to English, so I decided to make them female to stand out against the other 'Rhino' character. I really like the calf rhino's fluffy ears and Outsider eye marks. He's one of Simba's friends growing up and one of his supporters in building back the Pridelands after Scar's reign.

Continuing with characters sharing names, we have another Kifaru(tank/rhino), this time from the short story "Rhino Trouble". A fearsome-looking, but sociable and kind fellow, he is unfairly accused by Zazu and some other creatures of being responsible for the death of several waterbuck over the limited plants growing back from the time of the Shadowlands. However it soon becomes clear that the killings are due to several remaining hyenas in the Pridelands, of which both Simba and Kifaru help chase out. Due to his assistance and kindness, Kifaru is made protected from predators of the kingdom and he is able to graze and live out his days peacefully.

The story describes him as a "lumbering" black rhinoceros with unusually dark skin, a "wrinkled and warty" face, "narrow and piggy" eyes, and "sharp and deadly" horns, and overall, to Zazu, is one of the ugliest and deadliest-looking animals he has ever seen. However considering how OOC this is of Zazu, I decided to somewhat amend this by making Kifaru the rhino that Zazu smacked into and later sat on him during IJCWTBK, unable to hear him due to his older age, hence why Zazu is so disliking of him. Also technically speaking, the description is rather accurate to rhinos overall, though this Kifaru is too kind, and frankly too old, to take that offense seriously.

Hard to believe that he shares blood with the much more aggressive Herr Rhino/Irino(rhino-Zulu) from the Broad Veldts and the King of the Kalahari script. A large black rhinoceros with spectacular anger issues, he chases a young Rego and hyena Baasho when the two accidently barrel into him, though is promptly shamed into decency after the three come into contact with the King of the Elephants Jambo. He later shows up to support Rego and the other inhabitants against Mruki, though is still very rude and aggressive. He also has two tickbirds, Tiki(tick) and Kupe(tick), a yellow-billed and red-billed oxpecker respectively, seen holding onto his ears for dear life as he charges impulsively without thinking. Despite this habit, he's very protective and caring towards them.

From the Oasis in the Hakauna Matata magazine Blockhead!, we have the apply named rhino Blockhead/Bloku(blocks). A selfish and antagonistic fellow, during the dry season in the oasis he began keeping other animals away from one of the watering holes, claiming the entire area for himself with his strength and rage. He eventually is bested when Simba, Timon, and Pumbaa goad him into charging his reflection on a shiny boulder. The impact is enough to knock some sense, or maybe just a concussion, and he leaves.

From the T&P Show episode "The Law of the Jungle" we have the Wonderful Rhino of Laws: Mahakama(court). A strict stickler, he has his own territory in the Oasis and is rather antagonistic towards anyone entering his territory like Bloku, however he's more likely to rally support from the vultures and other birds living in his territory to harass those who misbehave and breaks the rules. He also is voiced by Brad Garrett, aka Mr Boss Beaver.

And lastly, I decided to add one of the rhinos Kovu, Kiara, Timon, and Pumbaa run into while trying to chase off the birds. Pembe(horn/ivory) is the leader of this crash and is very protective of the tickbirds? that are a part of his group. Needless to say, after the incident with them chasing after the king's daughter, future king consort, and two Pridelands' national heroes, Simba has been less favorable with them on choice areas for grazing and secretly has Zazu's bird spies watching out for them.

[rains-onomatology]

onomatology, n. the study of name formation and naming practices (Collins)

I'm Rain (main blog @rainwolfheart) and this blog is dedicated to onomatology (aka onomastics), the study of names: their history, origins, usage, popularity, meanings, pronunciations, and spellings. You may also find some posts about hagiography (the study of saints), history, linguistics, human geography, and literature here.

This has been one of my special interests for over a decade. I love looking at data, digging through old records, and making lists. I spend a lot of time on websites and blogs about names, and I decided it was time to make my own in order to share my research and my thoughts. In particular, I approach name data and opinions from a nonbinary and non-American perspective. I also enjoy looking at names from speculative fiction.

Notes

With regards to gender, my convention is to sort names by default by total usage, not separated into males/boys and females/girls, unless I am specifically looking at a particular sex/gender.

Rankings and numbers are, unless otherwise noted, given in the following format: (total/female/male). Where data on nonbinary people and/or people with unknown or undisclosed genders exists, it will be noted in the post, and given in the following format: (total/nonbinary/female/male/unknown or undisclosed). When colour-coding is useful, total numbers are orange, nonbinary numbers are green, female numbers are pink, male numbers are blue, and unknown or undisclosed numbers are white, black, or grey.

With regards to nationality, I use Canadian data as my default. I primarily use national data, but for years prior to 1991, I use aggregated data from provincial and territorial data that I've been able to find.