Areth names

Names of the Areth people consist generally of two or three parts: a āmios "family name", followed by the person's mnethos or given name, and finally the thetros, the name of the clan to which he belonged, although many people from rural areas and certain ethnic minorities would use their birthplace or the name of their race/tribe respectively as their thetros. The entire phrase is known as a person's illos "name, appellation", although it would by no means be the only name by which the person is known to his acquaintances.

Famous people in Areth society, e.g. writers or statesmen, tended to have, but not always did, a fourth ptheler "epithet" after their illos, which could be derived from a number of sources—his place of birth; a salient physical characteristic; an object of strong association; a pseudonym/nom-de-plume once used; any name of his own choosing—and this ptheler would normally be the name he was most commonly and popularly known by. Married females (see Family in Areth society#Marriage) normally adopt their husband's āmios in the genitive.

Use of names

It was considered normal in imperial, mediaeval and even early Republican times for an Areth person (particularly adult males) to be known by no fewer than six different names. The only thing that would remain constant was his āmios. Among the remainder of his illos, besides his real name (nonther), he would be known to elders in his family by his apuler, to his social elders (teachers, superiors, etc.) by his kailos, to his peers and social equals by his sūper, to his formal acquaintances by his ostemos, and to his social inferiors and juniors by his dōmner.

Popular name

The popular name was an appellation that famous Areth personages would bear, and was normally appended to the illos as a fourth element.

Classical declension

In terms of grammar, Areth names differ significantly from names in other inflecting languages. First, many, if not most, given names exhibit an abnormally high degree of irregularity in their declensions, to the extent that most names are unrecognisable from the nominative when declined, e.g. Pereos "Pereus", when used in the genitive case, takes the form Fini. Second, names do not necessarily follow standard declension patterns. Whereas in Latin names like Marcus and Cicerō corresponded closely to extant noun declensions (II and III, respectively), names in the classical language may mix and match case endings from multiple declensions.

The six most common given names, three male and three female, are declined below.

Nom.
Top.			steimeu	steimeiā	stanteu	stanteiā
Acc.	thelor	thelei	steimor	steimei	stantor	stantei
Gen.	thelus	thelius	steimus	steimeus	stantus	stantius
Dat.	theleīs	thelīei	steimeīs	steimīei	stanteīs	stantīei
Loc.	thelera	thelirē	steimera	steimerē	stantera	stantirē
Abl.	theleōn	theliēn	steimōn	steimēn	stanteōn	stantiēn
Ins.	thelet(is)	thelitū	steimet(is)	steimetū	stantet(is)	stantitū
Voc.	thelā	thelī	steimā	steimē	stantā	stantī
Ess./Con.	thele, thele-	theli, theli-	steima, steima-	steime, steime-	stante, stante-	stanti, stanti-

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