Adding a naming system to a "normal" conlang?

[Informer]

I've heard about how some people make conlangs just to name things, but since I'm getting ready to start naming my gods I was wondering if there's a different approach better suited for making naming conventions for a conlang I've already started the vocabulary and grammar of. Any tips/advice?

[Arayaz]

I've heard about how some people make conlangs just to name things, but since I'm getting ready to start naming my gods I was wondering if there's a different approach better suited for making naming conventions for a conlang I've already started the vocabulary and grammar of. Any tips/advice?

Obviously, you can just make stuff up for names; most fantasy authors do that. If you want to make it naturalistic, though, try looking into the naming systems of natural languages. We have a thread about this somewhere, I think, also.

[Khemehekis]

Here's an example, from Greco-Roman mythology: it's believed that the Latin "Jupiter" comes from "deus + pater": God-father.

[Informer]

Thanks, I'll look for that thread. I've already gone this far so I might as well go all the way now lmao.

[Dormouse559]

I feel like names may be a place for some non-naturalism in your conlang, if this is the same divine language you’ve talked about earlier. Some aspects of naming may come as a logical consequence of your “theology” for the conworld: What do the gods value? What is their function in the world? How did they come to be? How do they relate to mortals? Do names (divine or otherwise) have power in themselves?

[Informer]

I feel like names may be a place for some non-naturalism in your conlang, if this is the same divine language you’ve talked about earlier. Some aspects of naming may come as a logical consequence of your “theology” for the conworld: What do the gods value? What is their function in the world? How did they come to be? How do they relate to mortals? Do names (divine or otherwise) have power in themselves?

Yeah it is the same one, thanks for pointing that out. I was close to missing that opportunity if I'm being honest.

[Arayaz]

I feel like names may be a place for some non-naturalism in your conlang, if this is the same divine language you’ve talked about earlier. Some aspects of naming may come as a logical consequence of your “theology” for the conworld: What do the gods value? What is their function in the world? How did they come to be? How do they relate to mortals? Do names (divine or otherwise) have power in themselves?

Yeah it is the same one, thanks for pointing that out. I was close to missing that opportunity if I'm being honest.

Oh, you should consider stuff like the ever-popular fantasy classic that a powerful being's "true name" can be used to fight against it somehow.

[Informer]

I feel like names may be a place for some non-naturalism in your conlang, if this is the same divine language you’ve talked about earlier. Some aspects of naming may come as a logical consequence of your “theology” for the conworld: What do the gods value? What is their function in the world? How did they come to be? How do they relate to mortals? Do names (divine or otherwise) have power in themselves?

Yeah it is the same one, thanks for pointing that out. I was close to missing that opportunity if I'm being honest.

Oh, you should consider stuff like the ever-popular fantasy classic that a powerful being's "true name" can be used to fight against it somehow.

That could definitely work at least for any beings that were specifically spoken into existence like the semi-immortal angels (for lack of a better word yet) that were created by the god of light. Maybe because the name was used to create them they fear it could be used to destroy them?

[Informer]

I don't think it should work with the gods though since even though they aren't omnipotent they were created primarily from the dying body of the creator god after they had overexerted themselves when they used too much mana creating the earth. The five original gods were made from the five limbs of the creator with the god with his torso turning back into the mana they had formed from before dispersing back into the universe.

[Shemtov]

I don't think it should work with the gods though since even though they aren't omnipotent they were created primarily from the dying body of the creator god after they had overexerted themselves when they used too much mana creating the earth. The five original gods were made from the five limbs of the creator with the god with his torso turning back into the mana they had formed from before dispersing back into the universe.

That honestly reminds me of some things Brandon Sanderson has said regarding the Gods in his created universe, the Cosmere, though it's different. He names the Gods after there main attribute, though always in English. However, perhaps inspiration may be taken from one of his works, Warbreaker, which I am reading where there are beings seen as divine by a certain culture, and only the Chief Deity is given a Proper Name, while the others were given poetic epithets by their priests, based on what they are the deity of, though Sanderson translates them to English, examples being Allmother, for the goddess of motherhood, Mercystar for the goddess of compassion, and Weatherlove and Mirthgiver for the gods of storms and comedy, respectively. Perhaps you could have the Gods name themselves in this fashion in a "Divine Language" and then have the name be corrupted and evolve as a Proper Name in the "Human Languages".

[Informer]

Perhaps you could have the Gods name themselves in this fashion in a "Divine Language" and then have the name be corrupted and evolve as a Proper Name in the "Human Languages".

I like that idea, and having them name themselves in that way could also help show how they think of their domains as well. Using one of his names as an example usually for a god of storms many people imagine some wrathful angry god that dolls out divine punishment in the form of disastrous weather, but if they had named themselves something like weatherlove then it creates a vison of the type of deity who wouldn't mind being prayed to in order to end disastrous droughts with torrential rain rather than one who uses cyclones as an anger outlet.

I had already divided them up by element anyways so this shouldn't be difficult to implement, quoting from my creation story I've drafted: "From their right leg they created the fire god and from their left leg they created the ice god. From their right arm they created the earth god and from their left arm they created the wind god. Finally from their head they created the light god...". From there the fire and ice gods created the water god, the wind and water created the weather god, and the fire and earth god created a kind of forge/metal god as an accident when they created metals (I just wanted some kind of forge god for my dwarves but I'm considering removing that one as I'm not sure it fits in with the other third generation ones).

As a quick note, none of the sub-gods were made in any kind of romantic way, as an example the water god was created from mana and tears shed by the two kind of parents. They do still feel some level of respect to their parents though

[Salmoneus]

Worth saying maybe that it's not always that gods are "named after" their qualities - that's kind of an abrahamic way of looking at things. For the Greeks, for instance, divinity was the same as being an abstract noun - any abstract noun could be the name of a god or goddess. Not because the deity had that characteristic or field of interest, but because... that's what they were. Persuasion, for instance, was just... persuasion. [Gorgias argued that she was the most powerful god of all].

Most major Greek gods, of course, did have non-literal names, because they were inherited from earlier tribal-idol type gods. But that didn't stop them from being seen in abstract terms. Zeus, for instance, was at one time at least widely considered an abstract noun for cognition (the Greeks believed, at least at one time, that although there were many people, there was only one mind, which was Zeus, which is why he did a lot of commanding and impregnating). (of course, they also believed he was a big guy with a beard who lived on a tall hill either in rural Greece or in a galaxy far, far away (or both); non-Christians are just as capable of paradox as Trinitarians are!).