Calling all Ethopians out there...or anyone whos been there.

CalGrave

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 27, 2007
Messages
112
Reaction score
4
Location
California
Hello. For my WIP I need to come up with some Ethiopian names specifically for royalty. While the emperorship is abolished in reality, in the story it is reinstated. The man who becomes emperor claims to be the descendant of Menelik II himself and names himself after him. He has a brother and sister and I'd like some suggestions on what names might be appropriate for them as well as what the emperors original name might be. I was planning to nab some names off of babynames.com but I wanted to be careful about their names since they are so important.

And while we're on the subject If anyone's ever taken a trip from Dire Dawa to Addis Ababa by road can you give me as much detail about what I might see along the way?

I'd appreciate any help you could give me.
 
Last edited:

ideagirl

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 1, 2005
Messages
1,039
Reaction score
143
Google is your friend, as to both your questions. Not babynames.com--the names they have for XYZ nationality are just a random grab-bag of names; you'll never be able to differentiate between names that might be used among royalty and regular names. I mean, look at the English baby names:
http://babynames.com/english_baby_names.php
How would a foreigner with little to no knowledge of England have any way of knowing that "Aggie" and "Alan" are not names you would ever find among royalty, whereas Elizabeth, Charles and Henry are?

And I'm sure someone has traveled that road, written about it, and had their writing put on the web. Bust out your google-fu and see what you can find.
 

CalGrave

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 27, 2007
Messages
112
Reaction score
4
Location
California
Hmm I was going to use the name Saloman/Solomon for other purposes but it is an option.

And I Ideagirl, good point about Baby Names, while I was content on using it for throw away characters, I knew I couldn't mess around with such important characters. And I've been googlefooing for the last year, and I've bought several books on Ethiopia travel. But most dedicate themselves to the major cities and tourist attractions, they don't talk about what's in between since it's mostly small villages and nothing. Thinking about it, since the story takes place in the far future, nothing is stopping me of stirring in a dash of fiction about its appearance, but I would really prefer some authentic first hand experience.
 

CalGrave

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 27, 2007
Messages
112
Reaction score
4
Location
California
Of course!

No. Thanks though, I've been viewing older Ethiopian royal names through the Wiki article for some time, but having a list on one page gives me a fresh perspective.
 

CalGrave

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 27, 2007
Messages
112
Reaction score
4
Location
California
I would really appreciate it, you'd be my new best friend.
Really, the last name is what's most important to me. Eventually all of them take a new aliases.
 
Last edited:

IceCreamEmpress

Hapless Virago
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 2, 2007
Messages
6,449
Reaction score
1,321
I have not been to Ethiopia, but one thing I do when I'm trying to find distinctive and typical last names for a given country is look at their parliament's website. The website for the Ethiopian parliament is here.
 

CalGrave

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 27, 2007
Messages
112
Reaction score
4
Location
California
Normally I wouldn't bump but it it was still bothering me after all of this time, I've learned HOW Ethiopians names work but I was hesitant to make names. I didn't want to name anyone the equivalent of Smith Bob Jack or something like that. But your post has inspired me, I think I'll stick to naming major characters after historical figures, there's a reason why George and Abraham are famous names and it would fit the backgrounds of these characters. Now it's picking the names of throw away characters that will be the problem.