Calishite naming conventions

"Contrary to the barbarians of the northern lands, we of Calimshan take great pride in our families and clan. A person is worthless without the identity gained by his name and that of his family."

- Pasha Amid yn Bhalar el Mjoal yi Manshaka

Names and titles were a matter of pride and honor to a typical Calishite. This article describes the conventions and traditions of Calishite naming.

General Format
For a free individual, a Calishite would first list his or her titles, followed by given name, followed by his or her parent's name, followed by family name, followed by hometown.

For a slave, the individual's given name was followed by the particle adh and his or her owner or owning family.

Titles
A Calishite noble often had many titles. Formally, all of them would be listed in order of importance with the least important title first.

If one was the highest rank of a given title, the prefix syl- was added to the title name.

Patronym/Matronym
Male Calishite names indicated the father with the particle yn, meaning "son of", followed by the father's given name. Female Calishites used the word yr, "daughter of", followed by their mother's name. Occasionally, a man might refer to himself as the son of his mother, or a woman as the daughter of her father, if the parent was particularly famous or if the other parent was particularly infamous.

As a sign of true respect, one might additionally include the names of grandparents when addressing another.

Surnames
A Calishite individual's family or clan name followed the patronym/matronym, prefixed with the article el or less commonly al.

A woman would take the family name of her husband when marrying, but she would maintain a link to her family of origin through her matronym (mother's name).

Religious devotees often replaced their family name with the name of their god, going by the surname el Ilmater for example. This was not considered disrespectful to their family but was seen as a sign of respect to their patron deity.

Hometown
Sometimes, a Calishite would proudly indicate his or her place of birth or residence with the preposition yi, meaning "from", followed by the name of the town or city. If a person had rejected his or her family or been disowned, this would commonly substitute for the surname.

Examples

 * Oma yr Asfora el Tenassar yi Almraiven: Oma daughter of Asfora of the Tenassar family from Almraiven
 * Pasha of Gemcutters, Druzir of Emerald Drudach Bollus yn Kalil el Erispar : Guildmaster of Gemcutters, Leader of Emerald Precinct Bollus son of Kalil of House Erispar
 * Kwalu adh Erispar : Kwalu, slave of House Erispar
 * Buttercup adh Oma : Buttercup, personal maid for Oma el Tenassar
 * Brother Faruk el Anachtyr : Brother Faruk, priest of Anachtyr

Exceptions
Due to the influence of other cultures, some Calishites dropped the article el or al in their surnames. For example, the sultan of Keltar, Duncan el Ashnarti, often went by "Duncan Ashnarti".

In other cases, if one wished to hide his or her background or did not know it, the usual naming traditions were abandoned. This was often the case among the many rogues of Calimshan.

Address
To formally address a Calishite, one used as complete a name as possible. If one had many titles, the annuv, a hand motion in speech or a marking in writing, could be used for the sake of brevity to indicate that not all titles had been spoken or written.

If the status and name of the person were unknown, the terms tabarif and tabarifa were used for males and females respectively, which translated as "honorable stranger". When addressing those of higher status, the terms were rafayam and rafayar.