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The Miqo'te naming conventions of Final Fantasy XIV are intricate, and vary between the Seekers of the Sun and Keepers of the Moon, though both make heavy use of apostrophes and aitches ("h"s), and provide easy ways to decipher each individual's lineage.
Seekers of the Sun
Male
Most males have simple, one or two syllable names. The extra H's seen in names such as "Bhee," "Kuzh," and "Pahsh" represent a slight hissing/spitting sound that is made when the name is pronounced by the cat-like Miqo'te. Many of the other races in Eorzea cannot accurately reproduce this sound, so the H's end up going silent when read (Bee, Kooz, Pash).
The first name is always preceded by a letter representing their tribe. In the mass exodus which occurred during the Fifth Umbral Era, 26 Seeker of the Sun tribes crossed the seas (which had frozen solid as a result of the Calamity) to Eorzea in search of food and warmer climates. The names of these tribes contained many sounds which were difficult to represent with the existing Eorzean alphabet; but the fact that there were the same exact number of tribes as letters in the Eorzean alphabet was taken as a sign that they were destined to make the new realm their home, and so assigned each tribe with a letter/sound that was closest to its name. Over time, this resulted in the changing of the pronunciation to more closely resemble the pronunciation of the Eorzean letter than that of the original word.
The tribe names are originally based on traditional beastkin, scalekin, or cloudkin totems, which are said to protect the tribe.
- A: Antelope (pronunciation: short Ah)
- B: Boar (short Bee)
- C: Coeurl (short Ka)
- D: Dodo (short Deh)
- E: Eft (short Eh)
- F: Bear (short F)
- G: Gryphon (short, hard Goo)
- H: Gigantoad (short Hah)
- I: Bufflalo (short Ee)
- J: Jackal (short Jah)
- K: Hipparion (short Koo)
- L: Viper (short Lee)
- M: Marmot (short Meh)
- N: Aldgoat (short N)
- O: Mole (short Oh)
- P: Basilisk (short Peh)
- Q: Puk (short Key)
- R: Raptor (short Ruh)
- S: Zu (short Soo)
- T: Condor (short Tuh)
- U: Drake (Ooh)
- V: Vulture (short Vah)
- W: Wolf (short Wah)
- X: Lynx (short She)
- Y: Jaguar (short Yah)
- Z: Ziz (short Zoh)
Males do not take family names, as they are each considered the 'origins' of new families. In place of a family name, they are given a title that denotes their tribe, and their position within it. For a male Seeker of the Sun, there are only two positions available—breeding males (nunh – pronounced 'noon') and all others (tia – pronounced 'tea-ah'). All males are born as tia. At any time in their lives, a tia can challenge the tribe nunh to battle. If the tia is victorious, he takes the nunh's place as tribe breeding male (until he is challenged and defeated), and the nunh becomes a tia once again (if he survives the ordeal). This is done to ensure that the tribes offspring are of the finest stock. Depending on its size, a tribe may have multiple nunh (a ratio of one nunh per ten to fifty females is average).
There is only one other way a tia can become a nunh, and that is to leave his tribe, and start his own. This, requires several females to accomplish, and most female Seekers of the Sun are rarely impressed by a male who cannot defeat a nunh. As all letters of the alphabet are already taken by the 26 original tribes, any new tribes founded by tia are named with a second letter, such as "Ma" (e.g. "Ma'shtola"). These tribes tend to die out due to the aforementioned lack of women.
Nunh status does not equate to leadership within a tribe, and in fact, very few nunh ever become leaders.
Pronunciation-wise, other than the tribe pronunciations listed above, names follow common English phonics. Though followed by an apostrophe, the tribe sound is usually flows into the name.
O'raha would be pronounced "o-RA-ha" not "OH-raha".
- O'raha Tia
- O'bhen Tia
- U'odh Nunh
- K'tyaka Nunh
Female
A female first name will always begin with the letter representing her tribe, followed by an apostrophe, and then her given name. Her last name is the first name of the tribe's breeding male who sired her.
R'Sushmo Rhiki
Sushmo of the Raptors, sired by R'rhiki Nunh (breeding male of the Raptors)
The apostrophe pronunciation rule applies here, as well. The first name Y'shtola would be pronounced "yash-TOE-lah" not "ya-shtoe-lah".
- N'bolata Raha
- A'zumyn Bhen
- H'amneko Odh
- J'nangho Tyaka
In colloquial speech among close friends and companions, sometimes the tribe letter will be dropped from the first name.
F'lhaminn -> Lhammin
Keepers of the Moon
Female
Unlike the Seekers of the Sun, the Keepers of the Moon is a highly matriarchal society, with family names passed down from the mother, not the father. It is said that some of these surnames have survived since the First Astral Era.
The Keepers of the Moon lead more solitary lives, rarely forming communities of more than two or three families. Therefore, a tribal letter is not assigned to the names.
The matriarchal strength is further displayed by the fact that female first names are short, one/two syllable constructions that closely resemble names used by male Seekers of the Sun.
Silent H's are also present in the names.
- Okhi Nbolo
- Cemi Jinjahl
- Gota Jaab
- Sizha Epocan
Male
More evidence of how important the mother is to the Keepers of the Moon can be seen when looking at the names given to males. In addition to taking the mother's surname, males also take the mother's forename, adding a suffix (separated by an apostrophe) to the end to designate the order in which they were born.
- First son: 'a
- Second son: 'to
- Third son: 'li
- Fourth son: 'sae
- Fifth son: 'ra
- Sixth son: 'ir
- Seventh son: 'wo
- Eighth son: 'ya
- Ninth son: 'zi
- Tenth son: 'tan
- Okhi’a Nbolo
- Cemi’to Jinjahl
- Gota’li Jaab
- Sizha’sae Epocan
Though there are ten suffixes listed above, rarely do even the largest Keeper of the Moon families have more than two or three sons. This is not by choice. Nature merely sees to it that more females are born to this race.
Mixed Tribe
Fans have established that a child with a Seeker of the Sun father and Keeper of the Moon mother would be difficult to name due to conflicting rules. The names of both parents are impossible to reflect in a daughter apart from directly passing either parent's forename down as a forename, although one can at least include the tribal prefix. However, for a male one can take the tribal prefix from the father and both names of the mother, and hopefully circumstances will allow one to disregard the numbering suffix of the first name.
Example Parents: K'tyaka Nunh and Okhi Nbolo
- Male Child:
- K'okhi Nbolo cleanly combines the father's tribal prefix with the mother's full name.
- K'okhi'a Nbolo includes the numerical suffix (see above).
- K'okhi Tia adheres to Seeker of the Sun traditions and limits the maternal influence.
Female Child:
- Kname Nbolo (where "name" is a placeholder for the individual name) uses the father's tribal prefix and the mother's surname.
- K'tyaka Nbolo uses the father's forename and adheres more closely to Keeper of the Moon traditions, but with the inclusion of the tribal prefix.
- K'okhi Tyaka uses the mother's forename and adheres more closely to Seeker of the Sun traditions.
As the Seekers of the Sun are diurnal (night sleepers) and the Keepers of the Moon are nocturnal (day sleepers), the parents of such a child would be a rare. It is also likely that these parents could easily opt to use the rules of either tribe (or neither, if they so choose). Likewise, if the child is orphaned before they could be named, he or she will likely take a name based on the people (Miqo'te or otherwise) that raise them. The parents and child may be also be shunned by both tribes, depending on their stance on inter-tribal breeding.
It should be noted that the game's character creator is not expected to allow for mixed tribes at launch.
Mystel
The First's version of Miqo'te, the Mystel, follow a differing naming system that hyphens two words together to make a name. Male first names are 3-4 letters long, and their second names are 4-5 letters long; the reverse is true for female names. It is unknown what the relation between names is.
Male examples:
- Mei-Tatch
- Fae-Hann
- Chei-Ladd
- Zao-Mosch
- Vrio-Reeq
- Bie-Zumm
- Kee-Satt
Female examples:
- Riqi-Mao
- Hanji-Fae
- Renda-Sue
- Nunsi-Lue
- Moshei-Lea
- Mosha-Moa
- Zumie-Shai
Some names come in masculine and feminine versions, such as:
- Quesh/Queshi
- Rend/Renda
- Bostt/Bosta
- Chorr/Chora
- Tatch/Tatcha
- Zumm/Zumie
- Tistt/Tista
- Hann/Hanji or Hangi
Names returning from Final Fantasy XI
A number of Miqo'te surnames of both tribes are taken directly from specific Mithra NPCs in Final Fantasy XI:
- Aliapoh
- Epocan
- Jaab
- Jakkya
- Jinjahl
- Lihzeh
- Lyehga
- Mewrilah
- Mhakaracca
- Molkot
- Moshroca
- Moui
- Nelhah
- Nbolo
- Polaali
- Rabntah