Guild Wars 2

Lots of people have made norn chars with made up old nordic names. But I have noticed several names wich is incorrect. Or as incorrect anything can be in a fantasy setting of course.
A correct name is Braham Eirsson. Because he is Braham, son of Eir. But there are several with names like Charles Victoriadottir, wich means Charles, daughter of Victoria. Wich dont make sense.
So, I wonder, are these people simply not aware of what the name means, Or do they know but just like the sound of it?
Or are there something else about it?
Just curious.

Norn are not human. They don’t follow human naming conventions even if they are similar to them in some cases.

Well, you see, Charles used to be Charlene…

Maybe not all npcs are handmade. Could be random name generation thing. Or sounds cool > consistency.

Hey now, don’t you tell me how to name my characters.

If I want to play a big black norn and run around in a pink dress and call myself “Conan the Curvy”, then that’s my choice.

It depends on the person. Not everyone wants a perfectly lore appropriate name. Some people will use the lore as a starting point and then adapt it to what they like. And some people just don’t care about the lore.

I wouldn’t rule out some people just getting it wrong too though.

All names are fine, this is a fantasy world after all. Was just curious if there was something I didnt see. As I am a bit of an altoholic myself I understand its not easy to come up with a new name all the time.
If someone like the sound of Dalila Sparewheelsson its perfectly fine with me, though I dont think I will have the heart to name any of my male chars as someones daughter.
But then again, who knows what words can mean in different languages.

All of my names are based on Finnish words. Usually based on a description, like Lyhyt Insinööri meaning ‘short engineer’ for my asura engineer. Right now I am leveling a necro who would be Jory if she were an asura, so have named her ‘Tutkija Helmi’ (investigator pearl, as pearl is the derivation of the name Marjorie). My norn warrior is dressed in blue and white (yes, that includes the white wings) and is Valtava Soturi.

Since some Finns were vikings it fits to have a norn’s name based that way. Although it was a happy accident as it is the naming convention I use for all my characters.

One thing to also consider is that many names of this style have come to be used as normal surnames over time, without any regard to what they originally meant. One example would be Swedish actress Greta Garbo, born as a Gustafsson. She was neither a son, nor was her father named Gustaf.
So if we bring modern naming conventions into play, those names aren’t even neccessarily false.

A male char with a female name might be someone who used a total makeover kit to switch the sex but for whatever reason didn’t use a name change contract.

I suspect people just don’t know what dottir means. Not like Nordic names would be the only ones were people kinda just briefly look something up on Wikipedia…

… but it sounds like “daughter.” How hard is that to figure out?

Ok ok I’ve been reading fantasy of all sorts since I was a kid, including old Norse sagas, original Grimm fairy tales, Greek myths, etc. And I’ve done Viking reenactment. So maybe it’s more obvious to me. But … dottir = daughter. It seems so no-brainer.

Yamialexa.5103:

One thing to also consider is that many names of this style have come to be used as normal surnames over time, without any regard to what they originally meant. One example would be Swedish actress Greta Garbo, born as a Gustafsson. She was neither a son, nor was her father named Gustaf.
So if we bring modern naming conventions into play, those names aren’t even neccessarily false.

True. In Norway common afternames like Hansen, Olsen and Jensen is originally son of Hans, Ole and Jens. But I dont remember any names that could come from daughter of. Too bad.
I think they still use the “old” names in Iceland, I remember they had a female (worlds first?) prime minister Vigdis Finnbogadottir (or something like that) some decades ago.

@Just a flesh wound
It isnt just a female name, its a male first name, like Sven, with -dottir at the end of their last name.

Menadena.7482:

All of my names are based on Finnish words. Usually based on a description, like Lyhyt Insinööri meaning ‘short engineer’ for my asura engineer. Right now I am leveling a necro who would be Jory if she were an asura, so have named her ‘Tutkija Helmi’ (investigator pearl, as pearl is the derivation of the name Marjorie). My norn warrior is dressed in blue and white (yes, that includes the white wings) and is Valtava Soturi.

Since some Finns were vikings it fits to have a norn’s name based that way. Although it was a happy accident as it is the naming convention I use for all my characters.

Finnish is as difficult as, well, finnish
As a kid I believed the finnish kids was the slowest to learn talking, simply because finnish is so hard to learn.
Shame on me

Donari.5237:

… but it sounds like “daughter.” How hard is that to figure out?

Ok ok I’ve been reading fantasy of all sorts since I was a kid, including old Norse sagas, original Grimm fairy tales, Greek myths, etc. And I’ve done Viking reenactment. So maybe it’s more obvious to me. But … dottir = daughter. It seems so no-brainer.

It may sound like a no-brainer going from English. But what if that person speaks something else? It might be a lot less clear.
Also, sounding the same doesn’t always equal meaning the same. One example from German-English: ‘bekommen’ = ‘to become’ would be a no-brainer, right? Nope, ‘bekommen’ means ‘to get’.

There is truth in that, Yamialexa. I was confining it to that one word and not exploring the array of things that can go wrong with transliteration. I’ve failed in it myself, though.

I honeymooned in Vienna a couple of decades ago. We took a bus-tram thing up through the vineyards to an old monastery, then back down. On the way down I used my even-then-rusty German to try to tell a young girl who was sitting down against a bulkhead that she could stand up and grab a bar near me to look out the window. She stared at me in bewilderment and asked in a very puzzled tone, “Wie, bitte?”

Once we debarked and I could pull out my little dictionary, I realized I had told her she could form an opinion and have the flu. Because “Stand” and “Grippe” do not in fact mean “Stand up” and “Hold on.”

I often wonder if she thinks Americans are insane thanks to that encounter.

JoeytheHutt.1742:

True. In Norway common afternames like Hansen, Olsen and Jensen is originally son of Hans, Ole and Jens.

This. Do you expect people in real life to alter their last name if the gender of the child doesn’t fit the last name? Names like Janssen (Jan’s son) are very common in The Netherlands and yet you see plenty of female Janssen’s around without anyone being bothered by it.

Melanie.1240:

JoeytheHutt.1742:

True. In Norway common afternames like Hansen, Olsen and Jensen is originally son of Hans, Ole and Jens.

This. Do you expect people in real life to alter their last name if the gender of the child doesn’t fit the last name? Names like Janssen (Jan’s son) are very common in The Netherlands and yet you see plenty of female Janssen’s around without anyone being bothered by it.

No, I dont expect anything. The only thing that matters with names is what the owner think of it. Im not “bothered” about it, just curious.
Are there any -daughter names in The Netherlands?

Edit: Do you think people use their real name, like Janssen, but change the ending, to Jansdottir?
Hadnt thought of that

And then there are traditional Arabic names, which are more like a description or a family history and can get very complicated, especially when people try to describe them by comparing parts to the different parts of a western name.