Henneth Annûn Story Archive

Esmeralda (Brandybuck) and Paladin Took have three older sisters unnamed in the appendices. Tolkien says that hobbit maid-children are generally named after flowers, though to my knowledge Esmeralda is not the name of a flower. Hobbit siblings frequently seem to have names that begin with the same letter. Names that are not flower names seem to be of Frankish origin. I don't know any flower names that start with E, other than Elanor, which I choose not to use for reasons which I hope are obvious.

These things having been said, I wish to name the three sisters thusly in my story: Eloisa, Edwina, and Ermentrude (Ellie, Eddie, and Emmie for short). If anybody has any objections or suggestions for improvement, I would love to hear from you!

Kate

 

Those sound reasonable to me.

When I made up names for those three sisters, I used a slightly different formula. In the Took family, parts of names are often reused and recombined. This mostly shows up with the men, as few women are named, but it is obviously the pattern with the three daughters of the Old Took - Belladonna, Donnamira, and Mirabella. So I used the same general convention for these women.

All are suffixed "mira" in honor of their two grand aunts, Donnamira and Mirabella.

The beginnings of their names echo their father, paternal grandmother, and then the other grand-aunt who was not named - Adal-, Rosa- and Bella-.

So, I named the three sisters Adalmira, Rosamira and Bellamira. Since they have not directly entered into any story, they have no nicknames, but the obvious ones are Addie, Rosa and Bella.

But, I think your names are just fine, too.

Ang

 

I read that hobbit lasses could be named after flowers or precious jewels - most likely the 'higher classes', like Esmeralda (name similar to 'Emerald'?)

i.e., Pearl Took, and Diamond of Long Cleeve, (and also Ruby Gamgee/Gardener)

 

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