#thank you dreamers and only the dreamers for having uncommon names with titles after and making tagging this less hard

[sinecosinewheel]

variety pack of hollow knight doodles from when i was working my way thru the first 3 pantheons

[inonibird]

How do Kaleesh names work?

Uh-oh. Long answer incoming.

I remember Kaleesh naming conventions being one of the very first things I explored when I started doing world-building for Kalee in my fic, seeing as the theme of name and identity is greatly significant to Grievous’ story. (This was around the same time I decided to use Sumerian as a stand-in/inspiration for the Kaleesh language; I have had a Sumerian-English dictionary tab open on my phone for...longer than I’d like to admit.) Official naming rules didn’t exist, so it was time to get creative—through research! Ahh, research.

At first I was thinking the middle bit of Kaleesh names might be something like a nobiliary particle (especially since they were presented in lower case, something that still bothers me), but finding out that the name “Sheelal” referred to his role as the “Dreamer” in the Dreamer/Dreamt parable (meaning it probably wasn’t a family name or a nom de terre, but more like an epithet) threw that idea out the window pretty quickly. Wookieepedia and the “Lord of War” article both made mention to the “Lig tribe”, and the structure of that name (monosyllabic, three-letters) was too similar to the “middle names” I knew of (jai, lij, san) for me to ignore it...and it didn’t hurt that “Lig” and “Lij” were so alike at a glance. Tribe names they became, though I ultimately ended up calling tribes “clans”. Also knowing about Sheelal = Dreamer helped point to what that third name might represent—not a name a person was given at birth, but rather, again, an epithet that was given once they did something worth earning a new name, like a rite of passage.

I also poked around elsewhere online to see if there was obscure naming lore I wasn’t aware of, and HAHA wow, my findings. Turns out I’m not the first to get nerdy about this kind of thing, because not only was there a Kaleesh name generator, there was a tumblr discussion critiquing the generator and making alternate suggestions, and they brought up ideas that aligned SO WELL with what I’d been quietly exploring. There are excellent thoughts out there on Kaleesh names, and everyone can headcanon whatever they want, but for my own world-building and story-telling purposes, I landed on this:

birth name - clan name - earned name

Birth name: Just what it sounds like. It’s your given name. Your parents name you when you’re born. There’s a nice little ceremony and everything. These names mean about as much as any given name can mean, and it’s not uncommon to name children after parents or elder-parents.

Clan name: Okay, a bit more complex. I kept with the trend of monosyllabic, three-letter clan names and have a whole stinkin’ list of Kaleesh clans in my back pocket. Clans are regional and made up of multiple families that aren’t necessarily immediately related, and I decided the Kaleesh subscribe to patrilineal kinship. You retain the agnatic name of the clan you were born into. Thus, you have Qymaen’s father, his cousin, and his cousin’s son all belonging to the Jai Clan, with Qymaen also being born into the Jai Clan, but Qymaen’s mother retaining her own clan name—this serving as a sort of reminder that these two clans are now considered allies. Clan names often translate to geologic features (Jai = clan of the deep valley) but also concepts or things (Nim = morning sun, Kal = shield).

Earned name: This is the name that truly defines the individual. You “earn your name” that aligns with your personality or your deeds. Perhaps it’s something you’re good at...which means earning a combat-oriented name is about as common as having a surname like Smith in the US. Usually a Kaleesh doesn’t get an earned name until they’re of age (12), give or take a few years (and like a birth name, there’s also an associated ceremony), but if you, say, have a prophetic dream that comes true when you’re only three years old, you’re earning a damn name then. Usually parents or elders approve of the earned name for a younger Kaleesh. One can change their own earned name later in life, but such a decision is frowned upon, since an earned name is seen as the essence of a Kaleesh, and to change your earned name is like changing your very soul. Can’t imagine what would drive someone to do that. 9_9

So, yep! In my mind, for my fic, this is how naming works. Names are important on Kalee. As a certain character will eventually say, “In my language, our names inform our identities. My name is my title, my title is my name. It is all my being.” Kaleesh strangers will introduce themselves by their full names and that immediately tells the other Kaleesh where they are from and either a primary facet of their personality or a skill they excel in. Acquaintances and subordinates call you by your earned name; clan kin and friends usually use birth names.

Thanks for the question! Now that I’m posting the story it’s fun to share behind-the-scenes stuff like this!