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[creidieki]

The sons inherit their father's name anywhere in civilized history (unless I'm unaware of a few instances)

The http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matronymic and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patronymic articles give helpful histories of societies with each system.  Patronymic surnames do seem more common, but by no means exclusive.

The matronym article says that in the "old Finnish system", women inherited names from their mothers, while men inherited from their fathers.  (I *believe* this is talking about surnames; the matronym article isn't very clear about when it's talking about surnames and when it's talking about given names).

The article also says that in the middle ages, children were traditionally given a matronymic name when the mother died during childbirth.  (Again, I think it's talking about last names).

There's a copy of the 1932 book "The Story of Surnames" by Bowman at Google Books.  I'd be happy to read and summarize it (perhaps along with some more modern book) if Toady plans to work in this area.

[Granite26]

There's a lot of good information already laid out in the suggestions forum... you just need to do a search...

[Sutremaine]

As it's written in scripture.

Dwarven scripture?

[Vester]

For the man is not of the woman: but the woman of the man. Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man. As it's written in scripture.

I take offense at that.

[Granite26]

For the man is not of the woman: but the woman of the man. Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man. As it's written in scripture.

I take offense at that.

Is it REALLY worth the effort?

[Vester]

For the man is not of the woman: but the woman of the man. Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man. As it's written in scripture.

I take offense at that.

Is it REALLY worth the effort?

Well, not now that I think about it. 

But here's my point. The game has dwarves in it and he wants it to correspond to a historical norm? Odd.

[Starver]

But here's my point. The game has dwarves in it and he wants it to correspond to a historical norm? Odd.

I know I previously mentioned taking the parents' Word-names to create the Wordword-name (and more) but as dwarfs pretty much are all about proficiency, I think I would tend, if using any historical norm, to go for a "smith'sson" type of thing.  And because I tend towards the Pratchettesque POV regarding equality, then from either parent, and maybe even further extend this so that the "son" part (to which the alternative is "dot[ir]", or not?) should be a gender neutral term (after quickly peeking at the raws, "chilat" is the Dwarven word for child, so some prefix/suffix based on that?).

Of course, as is pointed out, Dwarfish things should be... Dwarfish.  And what's more dwarfish than giving random word-based names at birth, irrespective of parantage? 

Now, if personality traits ever get moulded bythe environment (more or less likely to want to help others, perhaps) , and perhaps even operational skills get increased through tutorship/observation, we could go through a cycle of a "child name" which, upon reaching the nominative age of majority, gets replaced (or enhanced) by one that suits their state at ascension.  (Assuming you don't argue the ", Carpenter" bit isn't essentially that!)

[HammerHand]

Starver, in that last paragraph it sounds like you are suggesting a form of "Deed Name" or "Rite of Passage" naming style, wherein when a Dwarf meets a certain age or criteria (such as forging their first hammer, passing some Dwarfish test of adulthood, being dubbed a Journeyman by the Master they're apprenticed to, or whatever you might think of), their name changes to reflect their newly-gained station and/or path in life.

For instance, as a child grows they have whatever name is given to them, be it some random amalgam of Dwarven words or one of their parents' names (or whatever), but then when they become an adult they gain a new one - perhaps just as random, or perhaps based on the change just made in their life, or perhaps based on their personality.  Dwarf Fortress being what it is, I'm guessing it would be fairly random, but a player can hope.

To  be honest, I heartily approve, as when I write Dwarves, this is very much the naming system they use, and they track their geneology either by rote, or by striving to earn the same names their parents did, not by idly taking those names just because that's how it's done.

But those are "my Dwarves" and not necessarily "DF Dwarves."  But to have the "Deed Name" system in the game would be impressive and awesome - even if the Dwarves of my Fortress aren't the ones that use them.

[Vester]

Starver, in that last paragraph it sounds like you are suggesting a form of "Deed Name" or "Rite of Passage" naming style, wherein when a Dwarf meets a certain age or criteria (such as forging their first hammer, passing some Dwarfish test of adulthood, being dubbed a Journeyman by the Master they're apprenticed to, or whatever you might think of), their name changes to reflect their newly-gained station and/or path in life.

For instance, as a child grows they have whatever name is given to them, be it some random amalgam of Dwarven words or one of their parents' names (or whatever), but then when they become an adult they gain a new one - perhaps just as random, or perhaps based on the change just made in their life, or perhaps based on their personality.  Dwarf Fortress being what it is, I'm guessing it would be fairly random, but a player can hope.

To  be honest, I heartily approve, as when I write Dwarves, this is very much the naming system they use, and they track their geneology either by rote, or by striving to earn the same names their parents did, not by idly taking those names just because that's how it's done.

But those are "my Dwarves" and not necessarily "DF Dwarves."  But to have the "Deed Name" system in the game would be impressive and awesome - even if the Dwarves of my Fortress aren't the ones that use them.

Technically that system's already in place.

You know, "Urist McChampion the Urist of Urist". It would be cool if dwarves could earn title surnames in a different way, though, one that didn't involve murderdeathkill.

[Murphy]

It would be such a pity if we have to give up DF's total equality of genders. It's so fun as it is, don't you think so?
Alas, I do not know if that's intentional, or there will be gender roles someday... too lazy to look in the dev lists though.

[Rockdtben]

I'm just thinking of all the evil little things that would come out of this. Inner Dwarf hate for certain bloodlines. Certain bloodlines tied to rebellion, Public hanging. god damn its deadly.

[HammerHand]

Technically that system's already in place.

You know, "Urist McChampion the Urist of Urist". It would be cool if dwarves could earn title surnames in a different way, though, one that didn't involve murderdeathkill.

... Point taken, but I was talking about a new last name, whereas the current system seems to add more of a title in addition to the existing name.

Still, titles are good, too.

[greatleapforward]

I take offense at that.

Oh shit, Richards, look out! You're in trouble now!

[Blargityblarg]

For titles, a more robust system would also be good- i.e you could get a title for making an artifact or becoming legendary, and it'd have appropriate [CULL_SYMBOL:WHATEVER] so that killcount titles are war-related, artifact and legendary titles are craft- or armour- or weapon- or et cetera-related.

Personally, I think a last name made up of the first name of each parent would suffice- what order isn't really important, so son of Mafol and Kogan is called 'randomdorfname Mafolkogan'. For immigrants and embarkers, names can remain random, of course.

[5asdffdsa5]

i think that when they get married it should randomly decide if the husband should take the wife's name or vise versa