Hobbits are the oddballs of Middle-earth. Their naming traditions follow our own. They are given a baby name, which they keep for their entire lives. They have family names. Like us, when two Hobbits marry, the female drops her family name, and takes her husband’s. They name each other after

The Rohirrim will name each other after each other. They rarely have more than one name. (I have a hypothesis that names were given after the person was a few years old: like Éowyn – Horse Joy. Éowyn probably was a tomboy when she was a little girl, and probably

The Númenóreans love to name themselves after other people or Elves that they respect. They won’t take a name from someone who is living at the time because that could create misunderstandings and other such trouble. In Númenor and its followers: Gondor and Arnor, a king is given a new

If you haven’t read the essay on the Elven naming traditions of Valinor, go back and read it, then read this essay. The conclusions and terminology used in this essay will make more sense if you do so. Of the naming traditions of the Eldar who lived in Valinor, we

One of the most important aspects of building a character in Tolkien’s world is the character’s name. The name of the character speaks of the character’s history, culture, personality, present, and occasionally, its future. Many fan writers try (and fail) to do this, so here is a few pages devoted

Elven names are not like our names these days, where we don’t know what our names mean without hefty amounts of research, and our names were chosen from lists of pre-existing, traditional names. Elven names have meaning, and an Elf, upon hearing for the first time the true names of

Once upon a time there was a fanatical fan of The Lord of the Rings. In fact, this is hardly an unusual occurrence, except this fan had read both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings before she saw the movies. Shortly after the movies came out, she discovered