Character Names

I’ve been reviewing my OC names recently and polishing them (and my goodness is there a lot of polishing to do, because I created them in middle school when my only dictionary was the back of The Silmarillion). Some help would be appreciated.

First Family Tree

I had them named the House of Anor (Nossë Anár/Nos Anor) which was fundamentally flawed because the Sun didn’t exist when the House was formed.

I’m renaming it to the House of Heavenly Fire, which may not seem like much of a change but is pretty important. My paper-thin justification for calling them the House of Anor was that one of them had a vision of the Sun and so they could be named that.

Instead, I’m drawing inspiration from Idril’s mother-name for Eärendil, which came from a vision that she couldn’t quite explain but thought important anyhow. Ardamírë, meaning World-jewel, was an attempt at explaining Eärendil’s future as a Silmaril-star.

In the same vein, ‘Heavenly Fire’ sounds like a way Elves from the Years of the Trees would describe the Sun without having seen it.

Would Nos Nár Menelwa work?

The nár needs to be inflected here as well, Nos(se) Narwa Menelwa.

Though I should point out that, to my memory, apart from the Houses of Gondolin (which originate from very early writings), houses in the sense of families/clans are always named after a person, e.g. "House of Finwe" and such.

Thank you! I was going for a more Gondolin feel to this House, because this was Glorfindel’s House before he journeyed to Middle-earth. It was founded by his Awakened grandfather and his grandfather’s siblings, who, as Vanyar, did not travel back to Middle-earth until the War of Wrath (when they fought for Ingwë).

My headcanon is that Glorfindel founded a new House when Gondolin was built, thus we have Losloriol.

Names I’m looking to revise:

Anordil Andúnë -> Nárdil Andúnil (epessë meaning sunset-lover)

Laeranor -> Lairchín (summer child)

Loranor Laerdur -> Lauramírë/Lorvír (Lormír?) Lairendur (golden jewel, lover of summer)

Taranor Minyathil -> Taranáro/Tarnor (any suggestions for an epessë that means first to shine?)

Malanna Áriena -> Mallanna Áriendilmë (golden gift, devoted to Árien)

Malfin -> Malvoron (steadfast gold or something like that)

Can Malloth (gold flower) be used as a male name?

Losloriol is impossible in Sindarin (and even more so in Quenya); it should be Lothlóriel or Lethlóriel if we retain the same elements.

• Nárdil Andúnil > Nardil with a short vowel. As for Andúnil, I believe it should be Andundil. These are Quenya, naturally. If you want these in Sindarin, then they would be Narnil Annunnil.

• Lairchín > Laerchen; Sindarin does not permit -ai- in non-final syllables, and "summer" is laer anyway. If you want this in Quenya, then Lairehína or shortened Lairehin.

• Lauramírë/Lorvír (Lormír?) Lairendur -- you seem to be mixing languages here... Lauramíre Lairendur seems fine for Quenya. In Sindarin you'd have Glorvir as the cognate of Lauremíre, but Q. Lairendur would not have a direct cognate since the -ndur suffix does not occur in Sindarin, so instead you'd probably have Laerdil.

• Taranáro/Tarnor > Táranáro in Quenya, Taernor or Taenor in Sindarin. For "first to shine" I can offer Q. Mincalmo "first-shining-one", S. Minchalor or Minchol.

• Mallanna Áriendilmë > Malinanna Ariendilme (though I am not entirely sure of the validity of the -ndilme suffix here). Instead of malina you could use laure, and get Lauranna*, which I find more appealing.

• Malvoron > Malvorn (Sindarin). There are other options for "steadfast" though, with slightly different semantics - I explained them here.

As for Malloth, yes, it can be used as a name (either male or female), but bear in mind that it means "a flower that is made of gold (the metal)".

Thanks for all your help!

Some things I’ve been revising for a while are names where I used mal (the material) instead of laur (the colour), like where I changed Malfin. For Malloth, I did indeed mean flower crafted from gold.

For Áriendilmë, I took inspiration from Elros’ granddaughter Vardilmë, which seems to mean devoted to Varda.

I was in part trying to avoid Lauranna because it’s only a letter off from the name of a Dragonlance character that I never really enjoyed.