This is brought on by the Rum & Monkey Elvish Name Generator.
I hate people who know nothing about the Elvish language and try to make these cutesy âtestsâ. Iâm not trying to ruin everyoneâs fun, but at the same time, letâs remember that Grelvish started out as fun, too â and look what happened. Not to toot my own horn, but itâs taken me a year to talk my friends into not using Grelvish in their fics. Iâd rather not have to spend more time undoing the damage if people start using things like this to get names for OCs.
First of all, Elves donât have last names. Iâve had to explain this to a couple of people over time, most recently when someone asked for Erestorâs last name, saying that because of Elrond Peredhil (sic) and Arwen Undomiel, she âknewâ that Elves had them.
Those arenât last names; they are honorifics. They are additional titles that those Elves have either been given or have taken on. Peredhel means âHalf-Elfâ. Elrond was called âElrond Half-Elvenâ in the books, and people have translated that into 'Elrond Peredhelâ or, incorrectly, as 'Elrond Peredhilâ (which gives him MPD, since Peredhil means âHalf-Elvesâ). And in the case of Arwen, 'UndĂłmielâ is an adapted Quenyan word, literally 'evening starâ or 'evenstarâ. She was given this name because she was the last of the line of FinwĂ« and represented the twilight of the Elves in Middle-Earth.
The closest that Elves â male Elves, at least â have to last names is the name of their father with the appendation 'ionâ meaning âsonâ. Therefore, we have Legolas Thranduilion (son of Thranduil) and Gildor Inglorion (son of Inglor).
Secondly, you canât just stick words together and hope to come up with something meaningful. There are grammatical rules that can change the initial consonants of words as well as internal vowels in some cases.
Let me show you a few examples of why this annoys me so much. These are all actual names that I got out of this generator.
Literally translated, this is nonsense. There are accent marks that are missing. Even assuming that this was MĂŽrdĂźlwen Glorelleth, that means âDark-Stopper Light-Elfâ with female endings on both words. Each of these individually would probably be okay, but stuck together and with no accent marks, it becomes redundant gibberish.
âGolden-Queen White-Flowersâ. Nimloth was an actual name used by a canon Elf and did not require a feminine ending. Galadrian⊠okay, sure. Itâs a combination of Galadriel and CelebrĂan, and should have the accent over the i, but whatever.
Letâs try some male names:
Bragolhen Avornion
âSudden-Child Fast-Sonâ. Okay, come on! Thatâs just crap!
Saerdil Laerdan
âBitter Songwrightâ. â-dilâ in this case is a male ending, so it doesnât need the accent as in the first name. But still, this is just a silly name.
And, just to be goofy, some famous names:
George W. Bush ==> Galenorn Golwen
âLight-of-the-Tree Wiseâ. Apparently, his Elven name is just as incoherent as his speeches.
Martha Stewart ==> Amarthiel Nimlothwen
Best translation for this is âDoom of White Flowersâ, which is probably the first appropriate name that Iâve seen out of this thing.
Arnold Schwartzenegger ==> Sarnindë Carandir
âFragile-Stone Red-Manâ. What is wrong with this one is that the first word, SarnindĂ«, is Quenya, while the other word is Sindarin! This thing even mixes languages!
The above is the same reason that I throw a fit when I see people using SilindĂ« in fics â this is a Quenya word and should not be used to name an Elf in Middle-Earth, especially one from Greenwood! Even the Elves who were around when Quenya was spoken changed their names when they returned to Middle-Earth where Sindarin was the primary language. FeanĂĄro became FĂ«anor, FindekĂĄno became Fingon, CurufinwĂ« became Curufin, and so on. The Elves either translated or transliterated their Quenya names into Sindarin, or else chose completely new names, as in the case of Galadriel (formerly Artanis, ânoble womanâ).
But, anyway, to wrap up this whole rant â Elvish names are very important and special. When you read Tolkienâs works, he states again and again that the Elves were prophetic. All of them had a measure of foresight. The names that were given to Elves were always given with that foresight in mind.
Humans give names because they sound nice or they go with the last name or they are unlikely to have the kid get his ass kicked in school by his peers. Elves are different than us. The names they gave their children meant something and served to shape that childâs life. Lindir would never have been a shipbuilder any more than CĂrdan would have written songs. Erestor is no more a warrior than Ecthelion is a scholar. You would never have found Legolas by the sea, nor Galdor in Mirkwood. Names have power among the Elves, which is why they had so many and were never (save for Legolas and RĂșmil) repeated. (Note: Haldir, Gildor, and Ecthelion both appear twice, but in all cases, only one was an Elf.) RĂșmil is an exception because the RĂșmil of LĂłrien was named by the Nandor, who would never have known about RĂșmil of Tirion, so thatâs excusable. Legolas is an exception because Legolas of Mirkwood was (IMO, intentionally) very much like Legolas of Gondolin in character and skill. And furthermore, one could use the same excuse as for RĂșmil, since Gondolin was a hidden city, so it is not too far of a stretch to say that Thranduil, a Sinda, would not have known of Legolas of Gondolin when naming his son 3000 years later.
This was not meant to say âDonât believe this site when it gives you a name!â or anything like that. I know that most people are only looking at this as a goofy little generator. This rant about names in general has been rattling around in my head for a while, and this is just what sparked it into fruition. There is a way to translate human names into Sindarin â it involves a little research into the deeper meaning of the name, and then translating that into Sindarin.
For instance, the name âRogerâ can mean either âspearmanâ or âquietâ depending on the derivation, so could be translated as âEchadanâ or âDĂnedirâ depending on the trait you wanted to emphasize.
Some other random ones:
Emily ==> eager ==> mara ==> Mara
Michael ==> like God ==> be Eru ==> Beru
Ethan ==> firm ==> thala ==> Thaladir
Ashley ==> from the ash tree ==> uin lithorn ==> Uinlithorn
Ellie ==> light ==> calad ==> Caladiel
Nathaniel ==> gift of God ==> ant Eru ==> Anteru
⊠and so on.
All in all, Elvish names are important. Donât just pluck them out of the sky, and donât go reusing past characters without a VERY good reason.
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