Middle Kingdom Pursuivants Handbook 2nd Edition - Midrealm ...

. Presumptuous Claims - A name or piece of armory which expresses or implies presumptuous claims tostatus or powers that the submitter does not possess will not be registered.No name or armory will be registered that could be considered presumptuous and thereby cause offenseto a significant segment of the Society. See Part VI, Presumptuous Names, and Part XI, PresumptuousArmory.PART II - COMPATIBLE NAME CONTENTEvery word in a Society name must be compatible with period naming practices, as is required by GeneralPrinciple 1a of these rules. This section defines the categories of words that the College of Arms has generallyfound to be compatible.1. Documented Names. - Documented names, including given names, bynames, place names, and validvariants and diminutives formed in a period manner, may be used in the same manner in which they wereused in period sources.The name "Bucephalus", although it is documented as the name of Alexander the Great's horse, should notbe used as a name for a human. Pronunciation and spelling variants are linguistically valid if formedaccording to the rules for such variants in the language of the documented name. For example, thealternation of "C" and "K" at the beginning of names is a well-documented feature of Welsh. Therefore,both "Ceridwen" and "Keridwen" would be permitted, even if only one of these forms had been found inperiod sources. "Qeridwen" would not be permitted, since "Q" does not alternate with "C" and "K" inWelsh.2. Constructed Names. - Documented names and words may be used to form place names, patronymics,epithets, and other names in a period manner.Constructed forms must follow the rules for formation of the appropriate category of name element in thelanguage from which the documented components are drawn. For instance, the standard male patronymic inOld Norse consists of the possessive form of the father's name joined to the word son, like Sveinsson is theson of Svein. The documented Old Norse given name Bjartmarr could be used in this construction to formBjartmarsson, even if this particular patronymic was not found in period sources. Similarly, German townson rivers regularly use the name of the river with the word brück, like Innsbrück, to indicate the town had abridge over that river. A new branch could use the documented German name of the river Donau toconstruct the name Donaubrück.3. Invented Names. - New name elements, whether invented by the submitter or borrowed from a literarysource, may be used if they follow the rules for name formation from a linguistic tradition compatible withthe domain of the Society and the name elements used.Name elements may be created following patterns demonstrated to have been followed in period naming.Old English given names, for instance, are frequently composed of two syllables from a specific pool ofname elements. The given name Ælfmund could be created using syllables from the documented namesÆlfgar and Eadmund following the pattern established by similar names in Old English. Other kinds ofpatterns can also be found in period naming, such as patterns of meaning, description, or sound. Suchpatterns, if sufficiently defined, may also be used to invent new name elements. There is a pattern of usingkinds of animals in the English place names Oxford, Swinford and Hartford, and so a case could be made forinventing a similar name like Sheepford. No name will be disqualified based solely on its source.a. Invented name elements may not consist of randomly arranged sounds or characters.Use of components of name elements without reference to a period naming pattern, such as combiningthe syllables of Ælfgar and Eadmund to form Ælfmunead, will not be allowed. Similarly, patterns fromone language or tradition may not be applied to elements from a different language. The existence of thetwo syllable pattern in Old English cannot justify combining syllables from the Spanish names Pedro andJose to invent Pese. Elulol and Myzzlyk, which create nonsense syllables and link them withoutreference to any period pattern, are also not acceptable.b. Invented given names may not be identical to any other word unless a strong pattern of use of a class ofwords as given names in the same language is documented.124 Middle Kingdom Pursuivants Handbook2nd Edition - 2002