How do the different cultures naming schemes work? Imperial is obviously greco-roman, and Nordic is eastern european, Bretons are french, Argonians are a description of themselves in either English or Jel (Hides-His-Eyes/Haj-Ei), and Orcs are savage sounding, full of gs and ending in gr(o/a)-something. but the other races naming schemes I can't figure out. The Dark Elves especially confuse me, for amongst such fanciful names like Neloth or Vehk there is the relatively normal names of Eddie Theman and Jim Stacey. I can't really seem to find a pattern in how elven, redguard, and khajiit names sound.

Nordic is pretty Nordic/old Germanic actually. Eastern European, or Slavic most likely, is something entirely different.

Dunmer names seems based on E's and A's with most consonants but the guttural ones, into essentially fantasy names. From the Uesp list I can't see any real world equivalents.
Altmer names similarly fantastic, a bit reminiscent of generic Elven names from other worlds.
Redguard names seem to be an eclectic mix of latinized Persian (genre Cyrus), Middle Eastern (genre Amir), and obsolete forms of Medieval European names (genre Bauran, Wilbur) topped off with fantasy and just generic names.

Yeah, I just get the languages of those regions confused often.

Nords usually have a Old Germanic first name such as Ivar or Rorik and a 2-part second name such as Storm-Cloak or Whetted-Blade... Silver-blood etc

The Khajiit naming convention is as follows:
Dar = Thief, clever
Do = Warrior
Dro = Grandfather/Grandmother
J/Ja/Ji = Bachelor, Young advlt
Jo = Wizard, Scholar
M/Ma = Child, Apprentice, also used to imply virginity
Qa = Unknown
Ra = Shows Status
Ri = Status, often tribal leader
S = advlt

Dunmer who follow Dunmeri conventions have their house name before their first, like the Chinese.

As in: Lord Indoril Nerevar.

I would assume that the Dunmer with more household names we see are assimilated into Nord or Cyrod culture.

Khajiit names are very Indian in sound just with a change of spelling.

Even the name Khajiit sounds like the Indian name Harjit.
Many Indian names end in jiit such as Manjit, Ranjit, Harjit, Baljit, Daljit, Dalajit. Its one of the most common endings on an Indian name.

Names made from Ra, Ja & M / Ma like Indian names Raj, Raja, Ram, Rama.
Many names also with Dar are very common in India but usually spelt as Dha, Daa or Dah.
Names starting with Qa such as Indian names Qasim, Qadim, Qatadah, Quadir, Quamar.


Breton names are more French now but have also been very Welsh, Scots Gaelic in the past with examples such as Agrywyr (very Welsh sounding), Mordyn (like Welsh name Myrddin which is the origin for the name Merlin), Alabistair (like Scots Gaelic 'Alasdair'), Dunywyr (Welsh sounding)

The surnames have also often been very English with names like Ashton, Copperfield, Greencroft, Kingsley & Wickford

A few Celtic sounding surnames like Gaerton which is like Welsh "Gaerwen"

I do not think Khajiit naming is just a rip off of how Indian names sound.
Yeah, they tried to make it sound foreign, now if all the things meant the same as they did in the Indian language then you would have a point.

the Jiit in Khajiit is separated in meaning so you can't really say it is meant to end in jiit "The title "khajiit" is derived from the Ta'agra words "khaj" and "-iit", a literal translation of which would be "one who deserts" (where "desert" in this case is the noun, /?d?z?(?)t/, referring to a dry place, and not the verb, (referring to abandonment). The Khajiit themselves, however, point out that the only action of value that may be taken in a desert is to walk; as such, a proper translation would be "one who walks in the desert". For this reason, "khajiit" is translated in short-hand as "desert-walker", and thus are many Khajiit known"the rest of your statement for Khajiit naming just seems like over exaggerated connections.

This one depends. There are a lot of names that are baiscally Latin or fake Latin, but there are also names that are just the random whatever-the-dev-liked kind. You see them in Oblivion a lot. I sort of assumed that Latin was Nibenese style and the randoms were Colovian.


I think Fast Eddie is just Edd Theman. 'Edd' is still a little weird for a Dunmer name but not that weird.

Gentleman Jim Stacey is more complex. First off, he is a Redguard, not a Dunmer. In the CS he is just called 'Stacey' which is a very typical Redguard name. My assumption is that 'Gentlemen Jim' is a nickname/alias from his Thieves Guild life.


Dunmer names come in three basic forms:

- Housemer, aka 'Settled Peoples'. Names like Draren Thelas, Nels Uvenim, etc. They do have a distinct feel and you'll find some letters, like C, K, W, Z, etc, very rarely show up. There's a list on the IL if you want to compare 'em.

- Ashlanders and the Velothi (the semi-settled Dunmer like in Gnisis) use the same jaw-cracking style you see in Daedric Ruin names. It's based loosely on Assyrian.

- Some rare Dunmer have one-word names that are very similar to Bosmer names. I have no idea why. Perhaps they are exiles, have renounced their family, adhere to some old Chimer practice, who knows. They appear in both Morrowind and Obivion.



It was mentioned above that House Dunmer use [Family name] [First name] form. I think this is an archaic thing. It's rarely seen in-game, even among all those Hlaalu family characters (King Hlaalu Helseth being a notable exception, and one that I think supports the idea it's an archaic, formal styling). In addition, Ancestral tombs match up with the second of NPC's two names, not first ones.

To the third type of dunmeri names - I find they're most often unaffiliated wizards, sorcerers, and necromancers - like Shashev in ald'ruhn.

Orc names have at least one passing resemblance to Japanese. The names Magrub gro-Orum or Urag gro-Shub, for example, contain the prefix "gro" (females would use "gra") precedes their surname. The similar sounding though usually proceeding a Japanese surname is "no". It means "of" and occurs in names like so: Minamoto no Yo[censored]sune, Sen no Rikyu.

Otherwise Orc names seem like sounds you might while your head is submerged in water.

EDIT: Oh. My. FSM. They censored Minamoto no Yo[censored]sune. I can't believe it.

EDIT2: enustihsoY on otomaniM

Such tradition is widely common to many other cultures IRL.

Orsimeri names sound to me much as reference to Tolkien. Grishnak gro-Durbatuluk etc.

In Morrowind they often are, in Oblivion they're just average Dunmer. For example Bongond and Narhil (both very Bosmerish names btw) are two Dunmer who run the Chorrol stables.

Ehh... it's more complex than that I think.

You have the Nerevar Indorils and the Llerusa Hlaalu's, but also the Hlaalu Endrno Arethi's.

It seems to me that your house name goes after your first name, BUT if your house is part of a Great house than the great house than the great house goes first.

This is open to debate though.

eg. Indoril Nerevar Mora.

For some reason, you always know if some name is a dunmer name. Even if it's just one word. I don't know why.

I think Orcish surnames are usually the name of the parent of the same gender. Like if male orc Garzonk had a son with female orc Sharog and they named him Azuk, it would be Azuk gro-Garzonk (Azuk, son of Garzonk). If they then had a daughter named Borba, it would be Borba gra-Sharog (Borba, daughter of Sharog). Something like that.

I agree. The one Orc that I ever created was named Shagrat gro-Ungol, blatantly ripped off from one of my favorite Lord of the Rings orcs, and I always thought it sounded very 'authentic' even for the Elder Scrolls setting.


You're absolutely right. The same way that a Norwegian man named Jon, whose father was named Haakon would be Jon Haakonsson (I believe). Though in my mind I always thought of 'Gro' as being equivalent to 'Of' or 'From'. So in your example the orc's name could be read as 'Azuk from [the loins of] Garzonk'. Or at least, that's how I rationalized it to make the name I mentioned for my Orc make sense, because then if the father or mother is unknown he can simply use his birthplace in lieu of a parent's name.

You know for a Daedric Prince whose realm consist of all knowledge forbidden or otherwise, you seem to be asking a lot of questions

Khajiit naming sounds like an odd take on an earthly language. It could be west Asian. When that one khajiit speaks ta'agra to Cyrus in Redguard, it almost sounds Russian. But that's just me

It's the matter of traditions.
Morag Sithil, see how the Indovals have been tainted. They reverse their surnames, man-fashion. "Ros Indoval." "Luvalis Indoval."


But his daughter would be Haakonsdottir.


It is actually Russian.