Speculation on Gondorian names
Hi all,
Recently, the history of the Dunedain and Gondor in particular have drawn my interest, and ive been wanting to create some fictional names/characters of Gondor of my own for fun. Id really appreciate if you shared your opinion, knowledge, ideas and advice on the matter.
Most of all, im interested in the etymology and linguistic origin of the names. From what I understand, names of Kings of Gondor come mostly from Quenya. This seems likely, considering that the Faithful Numenoreans who came to Middle Earth seemed to favour Elven languages, and apparently many Gondorians spoke Elvish alongside Westeron. There are some exceptions to Quenya names, such as names of the princes of Dol Amroth possibly coming from Adûnaic. Is all this true? If so, is the same true for the standard population of Gondor, which (again, as far as I understand) is ethnically a mix of Dunedain and pre-numenorean-settlement natives of the area? Essentially what im asking is what language royal/common names are in, as theyre evidently not Westron.
Now one method I intend to use to make my own names/characters is to reuse already available names (e.g. Cirion, Eärnur, Narmacil, Beregond). However, most are names of kings, so the question arises of whether common citizens might use these royal names themselves.
Thanks in advance for your time replying or even just reading, I really appreciate there being a community like this where one can find well thought-out, based-on-lore responses to silly questions such as this :)