Thanks
something to keep in mind for this world, is that surnames weren't formalized until the 1700's in most areas. before that it was usually things like "son of" or "daughter of" that differentiated people.
The others involve references to the place the person is from (Woodbury--which means town (burough) in the wood), the person's work (Carpenter, Smith, etc), and a nickname for the person (Eric the Red, William Longshanks, John Lackland, etc).
If you do decide to use surnames, something you might want to consider is making the way the surnames are formed a cultural thing. Have people from one country or culture use one of the four ways listed above, and people from another country or culture use one of the other ways. And you can have the way you use actually mean something, if you like.
Let us not become overly fixed on the shortcomings of western culture in thinking about fantasy milieux, after all, most medieval western fantasies were set in the "fantastic" lands of the Middle and Far East.
One novel I read supplied surnames for characters when they were first introduced in the world, then again when they met new people, but otherwise the surnames were omitted.
I'm still not sure WHAT I want to do. Grrrr... More thought needed!
If your setting is the typical fantasy setting (Tolkien, Brooks, Eddings type worlds) surnames are optional. I don't think the reader will care, Gandalf doesn't have a surmname. If you have a more technologically advanced, for lack of a better word, world you might want to consider using surnames. In your case, you said that they were corresponding.
How?
If they sent letters, how would a letter addressed to someone named Robert get to him. I imagine that it would have to be addresses to his full name, something like Robert Robertson.
Most militaries these days use last names to address people. You could use this and give your minor characters in the military one name which would be a surname and your major characters 2 names. You only have to use the surname for your major characters a few times, just enough to let the reader know that they have one, and to answer the question of how the correspondence got to her.
Hope this helps to answer your question.
"People care more about the ones they love than they do themselves."
Having her introduce herself as Terise from [locality-name] in [nation-name] would be perfectly reasonable, particularly since you said they were corresponding.
No, our last name isn't Robertson. It'd be kinda scary if it was though... we have a three-year-old named Robert.
Shasta
[This message has been edited by DragynGide (edited March 03, 2003).]
As to the military, honestly we're so used to just calling each other by rank and last name (or just one or the other), most of us--even friends!-- don't know/remember first names. We actually truly just go by last name (at least in the USAF).
That's one of my concerns, because it would never ever be Rank First Name, so it feels odd referring to someone in my book as Capt Darius. Yet, in my mind that's who he is. Not sure I'll get used to tacking on a last name.
Grrrrrrrr....
SiliGurl,
I would have Terise call Capt Darius by his first name. I am assuming that there's a friendship/romance here. His subordinates and superiors would refer to him by his rank and last name. I have some friends from the Army the I referred to by first name, some were superiors, but only in private.
As always, it's only advice and you won't hurt my feeling by doing something different.
"People care more about the ones they love than they do themselves." RLR 10/02
quote:
If they sent letters, how would a letter addressed to someone named Robert get to him. I imagine that it would have to be addresses to his full name, something like Robert Robertson.
Most militaries these days use last names to address people.
quote:
Actually, most militaries use a service ID number (SS number for U.S. military) rather than the name at all.
That wouldn't apply to a fantasy military at all, of course (unless they happen to have computers and so forth).
In a fantasy military, you would probably identify an individual soldier by his name and unit--Robert Robertson with the Red Lions under Gregorian.
Apologies also to Survivor, for the misunderstanding.
Shasta