Need help with 🧝Elvish name

[legofansrule]

Hi all,

I've been struggling for the past day trying to create a male character that I plan to incorporate into a few short-stories. So far, everything but the Epessë (third name) have been fairly easy to come by. Since the Epessë is assigned (from what I've read, typically based off of a character's actions or personality), I thought it would be best to make mine somewhat related to stars. The main problem is the fact that, after thinking for several hours, I can't come up with anything relevant. I've come here to ask for suggestions/help. As an advanced warning, sorry if I upset any die-hard Quenya or Sindarin fans.

When I originally started tinkering with names, I figured something like "stargazer" or whatnot would suffice. In short, most of the things I've come up with are absolute rubbish. Most of the english (title?) names I come up with simply aren't present in any dictionary of either language, and the ones that sound remotely applicable to my character have already been used (for example, Gil-Galad). If at all possible, I'd like an adjective-like formal name that is along the lines of a "night star" (a trusty star that can be followed in all darkness), or better yet "guiding star" (unfortunately the first word doesn't exist in Elvish).

It's not necessary to do extra work and translate the Epessë into Sindarin or Quenya (I could probably figure it out using a dictionary), but if anyone wants to go the extra mile and help put it into a good format, that would be awesome. I have a couple preconceptions of what I'd like the name to sort of look like, but if any of these are completely atrocious don't hesitate to speak up:

• Preferably, I'd like the name to be in Quenya, since I prefer "elen" over Sindarin's "êl", but I'm not sure if this is okay to do given the fact that the rest of my character's name is in Sindarin--would it be shameful to hybridize the two forms?
• I'm trying to learn the basic structure of both Quenya and Sindarin, but in regards to formatting I'm pretty poor. This is especially an issue when I'd like the "elen" to appear at the front of the name. Most of the decent titles I can fathom have "star" at the end (guiding star, etc.). Would it work to incorporate reverse syntax with a dash between each word, or is that too indecent? For example, if I wanted to use "silver star", is "star-silver" tolerable? I'm sure there's ways to say "star of silver" or "star of guiding (wisdom would be awesome as well)", but since I'm very new to these languages, such methods are unknown to me.

I would be overjoyed if any of you could assist me in this mildly frustrating journey. If you have any more questions or concerns, feel free to ask. Also, please don't take offense if I don't completely approve of the name--I'll admit I'm a little picky and just want to make the ideal character since I believe he'll be included extensively. Hopefully I can get pointed in the right direction with this and finally get some sleep.

 

[Arquen]

Hmm, very interesting thread, as creating non-cheesy names is always hard. As someone who plays a lot of RPGs, I know how frustrating it can be to not be able to come up with a good name. What were some of the names you came up with; translated into elvish? Why didn't they work?

Now, I don't know Sindarin much, so I can't really help there, apart from looking up words online and trying to connect them using limited knowledge of mutations (consonant shifts that sometimes occur within words). I can try listing some hopefully cool-sounding names in Quenya though. (Side note: according to elfdict, "star" in Sindarin can be also elen and not just el, so maybe your Sindarin translations would work.) As for the problem with the rest of the name being in Sindarin but epessë being in Quenya, idk. I'm not one of those "die-hard Sindarin or Quenya fans", so I can't really tell if combining languages in names is ok or not. I personally would advise against it though.

From what you stated:
•Stargazer - Elentir Q :: elen: star, tir- to watch. This is not exactly grammatically kosher, as simply "tir" doesn't mean "gazer", but merely the verb stem "gaze/watch". If you really wanted "Stargazer", I guess something like Elentirindo, but that imho sounds stupid. Or you could render the name into Sindarin: Elentîr (c.f. Palantîr).
•Star of wisdom - Elenûl S :: elen + gûl (knowledge). Supposedly, when connecting words together, G disappears, but I cannot vouch for this name being correct. As for the exact meaning, this would mean something along the lines of "starlore".
•Guiding star - Very problematic to turn into a name, if not impossible. "Guiding" could be substituted with "leading", which is tulyala. How to connect tulyala and elen together is beyond my imagination though. Maybe you'd come up with something.
Q - Quenya, S - Sindarin

Some suggestions:
•Elenwë Q :: -wë is a common masculine name suffix. This name is already taken though, and it's apparantly a feminine name. (Weird, when Aranwë and Nenwë are masculine names.) I just listed it because I think it sounds good.
•Elencalar - Starshiner Q :: cala-: to shine, -r: the one who does the action (c.f. English -er). Note that cala- is early "Qenya". In LotR-style Quenya, the verb is cal-, which would then need the suffix -indo again, or you could just maybe(?) do the same as with Elentir and just use Elencal.
•Elentultar - Starbringer Q :: tulta-: to bring.
•Elensîr/Elsîr - Starlord S :: hîr: lord. In compound words, H is lenited into S.
•Elehen/Elensen/Elsen - Stareye Q/S/S :: hen: eye, in both Quenya and Sindarin. In Sindarin, hen is mutated into sen, but in Quenya, I found no notes how N and H behave together. As NH is not a possible consonant cluster in Quenya, I simply omitted the N.
•Elentiris - Starwatch/Starguard Q :: tiris: watch, vigil.

Some suggestions, with elen as the second element:
•Morielen - Blackstar Q :: morë: black. In compounds, changes to mori (c.f Morimá - Blackhand, not Moremá)
•Telpelen - Silverstar Q :: telpë: silver.

Hope this helps at least a bit.

 

[legofansrule]

Wow, thank you so much! I hadn't been able to find anything that said that "elen" could be Sindarin as well (although I swear I've heard it somewhere), so that solves a lot of original problems I had. I had looked for a few hours on how to make "star of wisdom" work, but I hit a brick wall with trying to create a compound name. Thank you so much for the suggestions! Depending on how the rest of the name flows, I'll probably end up using Elentîr or Elenûl--they're exactly what I've been looking for!

 

[Elthir]

Quenya Elentirmo *Star-watcher is attested in Unfinished Tales, and Halatir(no) Fishwatcher is attested "back in" Etymologies...

So maybe *Elentirno could give you a version that echoes Tolkien, but is just a bit different (as far as I know at the moment anyway, as I didn't look further to see if *Elentirno itself is attested anywhere too).

As an added suggestion.

 

[legofansrule]

Thanks for bringing that to my attention. While I was leaning more towards Elenûl, I'll certainly keep that in mind if I decide to go the Elentîr route...would have sucked to realize that the names were already used after I'd written extensively with the character.

 

[Elthir]

Hmm. If it helps the Elentirmo in question was a Numenorean, not an Elda. Plus Elves can have the same name in any case, although I realize you might want something different anyway.

*Elentirno is not attested as far as I recall (at the moment), though granted, it's not much different!

Also I don't know why I coloured the world Elda there. Sometimes I just like some
colour in my posts!