Creepy, I was literally just thinking about Carthaginian names only a couple of hours ago. Any chance of Numidian names as well? 
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You can be helped; I’ve got a few. Unfortunately, I have no female Numidian names at the ready.Any chance of Numidian names as well?
Numidian Names
All these names come from people alive between 250 BC and 50 BC, with the exception of Masties and tacfarinas, which are attested slightly later. As the Numidians assumed aspects of the Carthaginian culture, Carthaginian names would not be completely off for them, too – both for men and women.
The names are this time all given in their Latinized, not their Graecizised forms.
Male Names
Adherbal
Arabion Name probably of non-Numidian origin
Astalis
Ateban
Bocchus
Bogudes
Capussa
Gala
Gauda
Gulussa
Hagasis
Hiarbas
Hiempsal
Iphthas
Iuba
Iugurtha
Lacumaces
Mangi
Masgabas
Massinissa
Massiva
Mastanabal
Masties
Micispa
Narauas
Narva
Ozalces
Saburra
Sosus
Subas
Syphax
Tacfarinas
Varaskan Authenticity in slight doubt
Vermina
Zamar
Zelalsen
As good as never. The Greeks/Macedonians were cultural snobs. The vast majority of them didn’t know more than a dozen words of the Egyptian language and would probably have had vast troubles pronouncing it. They did for instance not even use the Egyptian names for native Egyptian towns – and it is usually these names by which these ancient towns are nowadays still referred to in the western world. The city of Memphis (Greek name) was for instance called something like Mennofer in native Egyptian.
So Hellenistic Greeks and Macedonians in Egypt adopting Egyptian names would have been about as common as 18th century immigrants into the Americas adopting Indian names.
Like English Patriot said. Kleopatra was a Macedonian name that was in the Hellenistic age adopted throughout the Greek-speaking world – and it was of course exceedingly common among the Lagid dynasty, commonly known as the Ptolemies.
The name was quite common in the Argead dynasty, the royal house of Macedon, long before the Macedonians conquered the Persian Empire. Alexander the Great actually had a half-sister by the name of Kleopatra, and this was also the name of the one of the wives of Philipp II., Alexander’s father. The earliest Kleopatra I can name from the top of my head was the wife of the Argead king Perdikkas and lived in the late 5th century BC – a full century before the Macedonians conquered Egypt.
So if you have up until now considered Kleopatra an Egyptian name, reconsider. It’s about as Egyptian as Ho Chi Minh is English.
The same is btw true for Ptolemaios, or Ptolemy as the name is commonly garbled in English. It, too, is not the slightest bit Egyptian. There’s a Neoptolemos already in the Iliad, the Greek national epic, composed possibly as early as 800 BC.
EDIT: And lest I forget -- like traditional Christian names, Greek names also had a meaning. The literal meaning of Kleopatra would have been "born of a glorious father".
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The native name for memphis survives into coptic as /'menfə/ or /mən'fe/, depending on how you interpret the orthography. In earlier phases it would have been pronounced /min na:fir/ "beautiful stable."
Edit: maybe a better translation is "that which is stable and beautiful"
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Ok, ok. I give up
Thought about it, because of the "ra" at the end of the name. Otherwise I could have known better because of the Kleo like Kleomenes
I am out
Thought about it, because of the "ra" at the end of the name. Otherwise I could have known better because of the Kleo like Kleomenes
I am out
I'm slightly surprised of your considering these two names as rare. I'm only an amateur in Roman History, but AFAIK, they were fairly common names. Specially the first, Titus, so common as to be abreviated with a single T. in inscriptions.
Moreover, I don't think the name Appius, (almost) strictly limited to the gens Claudia, was a commonly used name. Only the long and outstanding preeminence of that gens during republican times has made it familiar to us.
Nevertheless, great, great work.
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Had I known that you know Coptic/Ancient Egyptian, I would have spared myself the lengthy explanation. I myself am but a dabbler in Ancient Egyptian.
That would make Barbara also Egyptian.Ok, ok. I give up
Thought about it, because of the "ra" at the end of the name.
Quite astute points – I don’t hesistate to damit that my division into rare and common is less than ideal. But than any division of of something that has got a gradual transition into two sharply-defined groups is bound to be somewhat arbitrary – exactly where do you draw the line between common and uncommon?
“Tiberius” and “Titus”, and also names like “Manius” and “Servius” and “Sextus”, were certainly more common than “Mamercus” or “Opiter” or “Volumnius”. But then they were much more uncommn than “Gaius” and “Lucius”, or “Marcus” and “Publius”. A finer distinction than just “common” and “rare”, probably into four groups, would do the matter more justice. I was just reluctant to do that, as I don’t even know if modders can implement any distinction; I feared that the list would get cluttered and hard to read with too many distinctions, and possibly all for nothing. But if a modder can positively inform me that commonality of names can be implemented, I’ll be happy to rework the list of Roman surnames into four groups.
The fact that “Titus” was abbrevated with but a T is hardly relevant for its commonality, though – “Kaeso” was abbrevated with but the single letter K, and “Numerius” with just N, and both are much rarer that “Titus” – or “Gnaeus” and “Tiberius”, both abbrevated with two letters. It’s just that the Romans used as few letters as possible while still being unambiguous.
You’re of course right that “Appius” was mostly limited to the gens Claudia. It’s just that there were so many branches of this huge clan and that so many f its members rose to prominence that the name was actually not uncommon – among senators; and EU:R needs names for just senators.
In an onomastically perfect mod, though, “Appius” should be a rare name for everybody but a Claudian, for whom it should be exceedingly common.
But then every single Roman noble house would have to have its own list of rare and common names, as each had naming traditions of its own.
Iberian Names
The following are all names attested for members of Iberian or Celtiberian tribes from about the 4th to the 1st century BC. A portion of these names comes from actual Iberian sources and this given in its native, Iberian form, with the exception of “K” being rendered as “C” – this is how the Romans would have transliterated these names. I chose to do this because another portion of the names is derived from actual Latin sources, where the – undoubtedly actually slightly different sounding native names – are rendered in this way.
Unfortunately, I have again no female names to offer you.
Male Names
Abelux
Aenibeles
Agerdo
Alco
Allucius
Alorcus
Anar
Andobales
Arantonius
Aunin
Avarus
Baiseiltir
Bartasco
Beconiltir
Beles
Bicicaltur
Caisarus Authenticity in slight doubt
Connoba
Corocotta
Curtaricor
Ditalcus
Edeso
Iltirarcer
Iltirbas
Iltircer
Indibilis
Iscerticis
Istaniltur
Istolatius
Iunstir
Laurto
Lusbanecar
Mandonius Authenticity in slight doubt
Mbarcibas
Minurus
Moericus
Nalbebeles
Neitin
Ortincibas
Otoceiltir
Sanico
Secenicors
Selcinars
Sirbeles
Tarbanunin
Teitanis
Tircis
Tumarbir
Tursiltir
Ulticors
Ustain
Viriathus
I had hoped Paradox might stick this in one of the patches, I assume it wouldn't be too hard to code, simply to add the name/percentage chance to the family text file ala EU3..
Hi Guiscard,
I am currently creating a few greek laws for a Mod and was wondering if you could check/improve the naming ?
It would be much appreciated, since I have no idea.
The laws:
Cancellation of Debts - rhetra klaria
Redistribution of Land - rhetra agros
Reintroduce Agoge - rhetra agoge
Revoke the law of Epitadeus - rhetra epitadeus (Epitadeus is a guys name)
Abolish the Ephorate - rhetra ephorate
Also would you consider renaming the roman laws to greek ?
I am currently creating a few greek laws for a Mod and was wondering if you could check/improve the naming ?
It would be much appreciated, since I have no idea.
The laws:
Cancellation of Debts - rhetra klaria
Redistribution of Land - rhetra agros
Reintroduce Agoge - rhetra agoge
Revoke the law of Epitadeus - rhetra epitadeus (Epitadeus is a guys name)
Abolish the Ephorate - rhetra ephorate
Also would you consider renaming the roman laws to greek ?
Roman laws are named after those that introduce them, Lex Iulia etc, their name is given as an adjective to Lex, so there isn't a 'true' translation into Greek. Ideally, there would be empty fields in unpassed laws so they would take the name of the Consul/Tribune...
I wonder if this can be done by simply repeating the more common names several times? For example, have "Gaius" appear 3-4 times for every instance of "Titus" in the list - since the game chooses words from the list at random and doesn't make any real distinction between them other than the fact that they are separate words, then in theory you could actually differentiate between the more common names and the less common names.“Tiberius” and “Titus”, and also names like “Manius” and “Servius” and “Sextus”, were certainly more common than “Mamercus” or “Opiter” or “Volumnius”. But then they were much more uncommn than “Gaius” and “Lucius”, or “Marcus” and “Publius”. A finer distinction than just “common” and “rare”, probably into four groups, would do the matter more justice. I was just reluctant to do that, as I don’t even know if modders can implement any distinction; I feared that the list would get cluttered and hard to read with too many distinctions, and possibly all for nothing. But if a modder can positively inform me that commonality of names can be implemented, I’ll be happy to rework the list of Roman surnames into four groups.