Vetthi naming conventions

Vetthi names are a fiendishly complicated social hurdle for all visitors to the island, and can represent a challenge even to the most socially adept Vetthi hierarch. Vetthi names can be lengthy, since they describe not only family connections, but a history of honours and distinctions both personal and inherited. The longer a person's name, the greater the prestige of the family, and those wishing to curry favour are obliged to remember the entire name of a new associate.

Vetthi names have up to five parts, as follows:

• (Female) Praenomen | Title | Nomen | Matronym + Cognomens | Patronym + Cognomens
• (Male) Praenomen | Title | Nomen | Patronym + Cognomens | Matronym + Cognomens

A given name or nickname, used amongst family and intimates, this is generally not quoted in formal settings, though when written down it is usually abbreviated with an initial. This is the name given to them as a child. Peasants often only have a praenomen.

This is the person's current formal rank, particularly if the person has a role in government, the military, the Vetthi Merchant Fleet, or any other personal honorific. Many job titles have ranks or honorifics associated with them, such as academia, the law and the church.

The republic has no equivalent of aristocratic titles; the upper classes are expected to gain rank through public service. Honoured family history is reserved for cognomens.

The individual's public name. Nomen once described a person's clan, or the town or region the person came from, and was related to the ancient practice for electing leaders. Today married men often take the nomen of their wife, particularly amongst high status families. Descriptive nicknames for branches of families have been popular for time to time, or references to a family profession or the source of their wealth. The use of descriptive nomens has grown greatly over time, particularly as the population has expanded.

Next comes either the patronym (for men) or matronym (for women), which is their surname for everyday use. This can be followed by numerous cognomen, or honorific phrase-names, which the person has either inherited or personally earned.

Each cognomen has up to three parts: the field in which the honour was won (eg Chelera meaning “battle”, indicates military achievement), the level of the honour (Purpas being the highest). The last part is only used for inherited honours, as an indication of how distant the honour, usually a parent or grandparent. People claiming honours from long dead relations they never knew are regarded as gauche or pretentious, with the exception of the direct descendants of great Vetthi heroes.

Lastly follows the matronym (for men) or patronym (for women), plus another list of cognomen for that line.

Vetthi names can seem impossibly lengthy and cumbersome to foreigners, but they play a useful social role. Full names are recited in full at official functions and when making introductions. It is considered gauche for a Vetthi to list herplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigHerbs

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Children inherit the matronym of their mother and the patronym of their father. Illegitimate or natural-born children, who lack inheritance rights but suffer little other social stigma, are usually adopted into a patronym by a family member.

As an example, the famed Vetthi navigator Mared Kellonin, from a distinguished but faded noble family, has the formal name:

• Mared Cheilo Kellonin:na Chelera-Purpas Dakta; Gevraisuin:Zuin'ta-Purpas Sari.

This indicates that he is of the Cheilo political clan, his father Kellonin served at least one term as military Supreme Commander, that his grandmother of the noble Gevraisuin family was appointed one of the twelve hereditary peers, meaning his family are of top noble rank, though somewhat faded in recent history. Vetthi hearing this name would note that he is of proud and capable stock, and his mother is likely to be a Kedron, but his parents seemed to lack either talent or ambition.