#i did think that it was aredhel so i checked on Tolkien Gateway

[aragornsrockcollection]

He absolutely contradicts himself, we are talking about Tolkien and elves, I didn’t check to find where he contradicts himself and I’m still confident it happened.

Every character doesn’t necessarily follow the customs word for word, (Aredhel and Eol invert this for instance, which is kind of seen as Eol being neglectful or something, but he’s not a high elf so the customs might be different, either way he doesn’t name Maeglin until he’s like 12) but the father-name is supposed to be at birth, and the mother-name is sometimes at birth sometimes later, because mother-names are supposed to be reflective of the individual and some mothers have visions and some do not.

I googled it to double-check because I was like “shoot, am I mixing it up?” and Tolkien Gateway at least backs me up that father names are at/around birth and mother names are either at birth or later and that cites The Peoples of Middle Earth.

Father names have a consistency that makes them reminiscent of the western concept of last names: they are predictable and descriptive, so you can tell what house someone is from by their name.

Feanor sees his family as the legitimate house of Finwe, so his sons are named according to Finwe’s naming scheme “something-Finwe”

Fingolfin uses his amilesse -kano the way Feanor uses -Finwe, and Finarfin uses the non-Finwe part of his father name in his, the “ara” in “Arafinwe” becomes “-Arato.” In some ways Finwe, Kano, and Arato are their house names, and the other part of the name is just so they can be told apart, and therefore not particularly deep.

But fathers HAVE to have premonitions too sometimes, otherwise how did Finwe nail Feanor as being “crafty-Finwe”? “Wise-Finwe” and “Noble-Finwe” are generic enough things to want in princes that they don’t have to be premonitions, but you just GUESSED your son would be known for being the greatest craftsman?

It’s supremely unimportant, really, but I’m pretty sure Father names come first.

And girls are just left out of this system completely, the only female character with a mother and a father name we know of (I think I could be forgetting someone) And we never learn her brothers’ mother names if they have them) is Artanis Nerwen, and besides both of those names sucking, neither has the house name of Arato. Though Ar-tanis, so it’s included there.

Actually wait! Arwen! Arwen is her mother name and Undomiel is her father name, and that ALSO swaps the El- from her fathers line that everyone since Elu Thingol had in their names from the front of the name to the back! (As opposed to the Arato going to the beginning of Artanis)

… I don’t know what that means. Perhaps because women marry into houses they don’t carry the house name the same way. Idk it’s probably something dumb like that. Galadriel still managed to change her name when she got married in spite of the society not being set up for that so idk.

ever thought about how fucked up it is that fëanor named maedhros "finwë the third" as if maedhros wouldn't have any distinguishing characteristics other than being fëanor's kid??? like maglor gets "commanding finwë" and celegorm gets "strong finwë" and even the twins get cool names, but maedhros is just. the manner in which he was born.