Guild Wars 2

So, yeah, kind of a weird question, but I’m trying to make a character name that has “of the new moon” in it, and can’t seem to find a direct translation anywhere, either in Old Norse or Icelandic.

I know “nyr” is new and “mani” is moon (so is “tungl,” but I like the connection to the Norse character Mani), but I’m guessing it isn’t as simple as just sticking them together. Is it? Getting all confused with grammar stuff like declensions, adjective-noun agreement, and whether I can make a compound word out of it without making a bigger mess of things.

It also seems that “Nyi” has some connection to the new moon in Old Norse, but it’s too short for my tastes.

Anyway, any help would be much appreciated.

TheOtherTed.7032:

but I’m guessing it isn’t as simple as just sticking them together. Is it?

I cant know for sure as I know neither Icelandic or Norse, but it probably is. In regular modern day Swedish (decently related), it would be “ny” and “måne” – “nymåne” for new moon.

Edit: Or maybe Swedes are just lazy. I did find one term called “nýtt tungl” which seems to be Icelandic. Maybe someone from Iceland is better qualified to speak :p

Icelandic can be tricky but the straight word for word translation could be

[CharName] of the new moon = [CharName] nýja mánans

So nýja is new and máni is moon, now you could make something different like:

[CharName] hins nýja mána, which is roughly “of the new moon” and sounds a little better in icelandic.

And if you want it to be Máni the one who guides the moons in Ásatrú you would of course write it with a capital letter, while máni would be just the Icelandic word for moon. Perhabs you should also not use the special Icelandic letters ý & á since it might confuse people

Ah, was afraid of that. I’d hoped I was missing some compound word or nickname or something that made the grammar easier, but so it goes.

If I used the Swedish “nymånens” (but with “a” instead of “å”), would that sound right enough, or is there a more natural way of saying it (like the Icelandic “hins” thing)?

…man, if I put as much effort into something constructive as I do into making names for fantasy MMOs, I might actually go somewhere…

Well “hins nyja Mana” does mean exactly “of the new Moon” so that would be fine, a lot of letters so maybe the whole name doesn’t fit.

Make no mistake, I definitely appreciate the input; you gave me exactly what I needed to know. I’m just sort of stuck between what’s right but awkward-looking to my non-Icelandic eyes, versus something more stylized and therefore wrong. I’m leaning towards the latter; if it sounds good to my ears, I’m not so concerned about its rightness, but I don’t want it to be so wrong as to lose meaning. If that makes sense.

The nice thing about the norn is that they do not use special characters. So even if you don’t use them in your name (which I also recommend for other players’ sakes) it isn’t at all lore-breaking. For example, a very common one… we don’t see any norn named ‘dóttir’, but ‘dottir’.

TheOtherTed.7032:

If I used the Swedish “nymånens” (but with “a” instead of “å”), would that sound right enough, or is there a more natural way of saying it (like the Icelandic “hins” thing)?

While it may be correct additon of “the” in Swedish, it wouldnt make sense, no. You expect something to follow it. Its like saying “the moons [something]”. Even if you remove the s and just use “nymånen” it still only become “the new moon” and not “of the…”. The only decent way is “[Charname] Nymåne” in this case. But its not that pretty a name tbh – it just make you sound like a hippy. Using something like “[Charname] Nyimani” seem more fantasyesque (even if it may not be correct) :p

I would personally take it one step further and use “Nyimanir”, which sounds good on a Norn I think. Hey you could always claim its actual Norn (which is a real Norse dialect)

Whether you like it ultimately comes down to personal preference. Sometimes one can overthink a name. Just go with what you feel like.

I vote for “Nymane”. I think it sounds good and is close enough. I respect your interest in trying to be authentic. It seems even better with the accent character over the “a” but I agree that special characters can be a pain for others.

By the way is this character male or female Norn? Post a screenie when you finally make him or her.