Naming Conventions

All Mar have a first and last name. When a Mar is born, her parents choose a first name, and the last name is always the same as the mother's last name. While there are several dozen common first names among the Mar, no literal meaning is associated with most of these names. Mar keep their first names all their lives.

Last names are not so permanent. In fact, a Mar who never chooses a new name is often seen as a Mar who wishes to be exactly like her mother. For young men, this can actually result in a great deal of teasing. A Mar usually earns a nickname from friends or family and adopts that nickname in place of her mother's last name. Such nicknames describe something distinctive about the Mar — a place or event important to the Mar, a personality trait, a strong and often expressed opinion, a physical feature, and so forth. A Mar man who has not yet adopted a new name occasionally takes the last name of his wife to express his connection to her. Once a new last name has been chosen, however, Mar almost never change this name.

Mar almost always address a friend or kinsman by first name only. If two people present share the same first name, either or both might instead find themselves addressed by their last names. While there is no formal convention for this, people are more likely to call the closer friend by his first name, addressing both by last name if she is equally close to both of them.

When speaking of an absent person in the third person, Mar most often use both first and last names. However, directly addressing someone by first and last name is often perceived as an expression of either anger or contempt. This is accepted in some contexts — including when one Mar is confirming whether he has correctly ascertained the identity of another — so long as the tone of voice is distinctly civil and respectful.

Wizards are seldom addressed by their first names except by those closest to them. Instead they are addressed by the formal title "weard," followed by the wizard's last name. It is almost unheard of for a mundane to address a wizard without the title, and even wizards address most of their colleagues this way. Sven Takraf, for example, would normally be addressed as "Weard Takraf," and it would be considered presumptive for anyone to simply call him "Sven" unless he had, on a previous occasion, told them to do so. For a wizard to tell someone to address him by his first name is an expression of friendship and sincere trust — neither of which wizards give lightly.

Mar who hold a special office or title are often addressed by the title followed by the last name. These occasionally include mundane titles like "mayor," though most mundane communities are too small for a community leader to expect a formality of this sort. Among the wizards, however, titles such as "dux," "duxess," "chancellor," and "mardux" are used almost as often as the traditional "weard." Those few Mar who hold unique titles — including "mardux" and "Nightfire" — may be addressed by that title without the addition of the last name. Similarly, apprentices often refer to the wizard responsible for their education simply as "master," and even Mar who have been wizards for a long time occasionally use this extremely respectful form of address toward this instructor.

(Contributed by Weard Girdag Langat)

Copyright 2005-2007 Eric Zawadzki and Matthew Schick. All Rights Reserved.
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