Re Ansteopality

[Tim McDaniel]

A tangent follows ...

On Thu, 17 Oct 1996, dennis grace <amazing at mail.utexas.edu> wrote:
> Lyonel here.  On the matter of forming a principality here in the
> heart of Ansteorra (Steorranheorte perhaps?)

"And the period exemplar or format that the name follows is ...?"
That's one of the first questions that would be asked by the heralds
before registering the name -- and a registered name is required for a
principality to be formed.

One of the hardest tasks that a herald can face is retro-
documentation: "Here's a combination of syllables.  He made it up
without research, he's been using it as a name for years, and he won't
settle for anything else.  Can anyone find a language in which this is
a possible name?".  The task usually fails or gets suboptimal results
("Desert Wyndes" means "deserted streets", for example).

Please don't settle on a name, or even start discussing names, before
some basic research gets done.  Unfortunately, I'm not an onomastics
expert, but if anyone wants help (personal or branch name -- um,
"Gnomevale" might want to read his comments and suggested alternatives
with much the same meaning), contact Prof. Brian Scott, Fauze Lozenge
Herald, at scott at math.csuohio.edu.

-- 
Daniel de Lincoln
                             Tim McDaniel
                        Reply-To: tmcd at crl.com
    mcdaniel at mcdaniel.dallas.tx.us is wrong tool.  Never use this.