The Great "Name Sorting" List

So... I've decided to sort all the (untranslated) elf names according to their "constituents" - ie 'ah', 'ek' and so on. If you think I've forgotten any feel to tell me. However I'll only include those were we either know the meaning, or there are some clear speculation. Otherwise we'd be here until the time of 'Rebels'.
I'm including those elf-names which are probably pure consistence. However, I'm not including human or troll names.




'Ah' meaning 'light'.

Ahdri
Alekah
Ahnshen
Dre-Ahn
(Fahr)
Gahv
Jarrah
Kahvi
Leetah
Minyah
Rahnee the She Wolf
Rellah
Savah
Talmah
Toorah
Vurdah

Probably not very surprising this is mainly seen among the Sunfolk


'Dak' probably meaning 'wings'

Tyldak


'Ek' meaing 'rock.

Alekah
Aurek
Darshek
Ekuar
Halek
Jekko
Mekda
Osek
Rayek
Tekshu
Yurek


'Leet' meaning 'heal'

Leetah
Tyleet


'Ray' meaning 'child'

Rayek


'Shen' speculated to mean 'luck'

Ahnshen
Shashen
Shenshen
Shushen

'Ty/Tyl' meaning 'gift

Tyldak
Tyleet

There was something in one of the Gatherums (cannot find them at the moment) - a speculation? - that 'shen' means 'luck'.


'ty/tyl' meaning 'gift'.

Tyleet
Tyldak

'leet' meaning 'heal'.

Leetah
Tyleet

'ray' meaning 'child'.

Rayek

Thanks for that.

Here are some thoughts:

Is it ty or tyl that Means 'gift'? Or possibly both?
As I mentioned in the Oddest Theories thread I don't think the elf-language have very strict grammar rules, allowing parents to add, or remove, certain "letters" - or rather sounds - to and from their children's names. So... did Tyldak's parents a 't' between the Ty and the dak, or did Redlance and Nightfall remove either the 'l' in Tyl or in leet? Or did they just sorta "melt together" because 'Tylleet' is rather hard to say?

Adding on to the no strict grammar thing, I'm pretty sure 'leet' simply 'heal', but that it - depending on the context - can be both 'healer', 'to heal', 'healing' and so on, it's just that the elf language probably doesn't differentiate between various endings. Leetah's name is translated as 'Healing Light', but in reality in simply means 'Heal Light'. Likewise 'Tyleet' is translated as 'healer's gift', but is really just 'Gift Heal'. And 'Rayek' is translated to 'Child of the Rocks', but directly translated it's 'Child Rock'. 'Ahnshen' probably means 'Light Luck'.
As for 'Shenshen'; either it does mean 'Luck Luck', or it simply means 'Luck'. Perhaps Suntoucher and Toorah simply thought 'Shenshen' sounded better than just 'Shen'. Or maybe they didn't want her to be confused with Kami disguised as a human...


Lastly; if 'leet' means 'heal', then it's entirely possible that Mender's untranslated name is simply 'Leet'.

I definitely agree that some amount of letter-shuffling goes on to accommodate good sounds when it comes to naming--especially if elves don't have writing and don't know what 'letters' are! When you consider the lack of writing, I'm sure that doubled letters get dropped any time they would negatively affect pronunciation, since it's more a combination of spoken syllables than spelled out words. I'm sure we weren't meant to read anything into it, but I also think that's why Nightfall specifically told everyone what Tyleet means. If there are several ways to combined syllables and several similar-sounding words, it would make sense to clarify the intended meaning when you choose a particular name.

I would also add the syllable "al" to this list, although I don't really have any speculation on the meaning:

Alekah (again)
Almeck
Halek
Irralli
Kalil
Maalvi

And while looking down my name list for "al"s I also came across a handful of "tal"s and thought that might be its own word!

Talen
Talmah
Talno

Of course the 'tal' from 'Talen', 'Talmah', and 'Talno' could just be the 'Al' from the first mentioned group of names with a 't' added.
Who's Iralli?

That's true. Hard to say--when we pick out such short syllables, it's very difficult to tell if they're from the same starting point or just two words that happen to include a pair of letters in the same order.

And now that you ask, I'm embarrassed to say that I don't know who Iralli is/was! I have a document that I've been keeping for years, through several computers, that started out as a list of EQ names I got off someone's fansite. It claimed to be 100% canon, but I never spoke with the original list-maker to know how or where they got the info. I'm reading the Blood of Ten Chiefs short story collections right now and I've been delighted to find most of the names that were previously unknown to me, but that one I haven't run into yet. It could be a typo from the original site, it could be something I added by mistake, or it could be a mysterious background elf I don't remember/recognize. Unfortunately, it's hard to say at this point! Maybe it's best to skip that one.

Irralee is a character from the so called "Original Wavedancers", a young maiden at the edge of fertility.

Wavedancers was a 6-issue mini series released by Black Mermaid Productions in 1993/94 as part of the canon ElfQuest universe. Three six-issues-sequals were planned to follow.
After a major falling-out with WaRP Wavedancers was declared to be not canon (retconned as a nightmare of Reef, the Broken One). They agreed that neither WaRP nor BMP will ever republish those issues.

This is the whole cast:

WAVEDANCERS
Barmek
Burdakin
Hyfus
(Illora)
Inkbottom
Irralee
Jormak
Kadva
Kirith
Korillia
Lazik
Maron
Paffa
Raenafel
Rhialdor
(Shardon)
Shoresprout
Shoseabee
Sleia
Tentus
Tilaweed
Zadori

WAVEDANCERS deceased
Ausra (HO)
Livian (HO)
Sima (HO)
Desh (HO)
Ailsa
Brom
Neama

BOND DOLFIN
Seabreak

PRESERVER
No-Wing

HIGH ONE
Sydor (aka Rydos)

and our dear Winnowill

Hope this will help to sort out part of your name list, Cloudbuck.

Oh, that's fantastic! Thank you so much for the info! I knew that the whole Black Mermaid thing happened, but I've never laid eyes on any part of the story and never heard anyone describe what happened or who was there. I'm almost certain all of those names are on my list, so I think I'll give them their own section for future reference now that they're not canon. I keep a section for wolf names, too, since a lot of the BoTC wolves were never mentioned in other materials.

.... After going through to pull those from the list and add them to their own area, every last one was on it. Oddly, some were misspelled, which has generally not been a problem with this list, but almost all of them were names that stood out as odd in the context of the rest. It's great to have the mystery of those oddball names laid to rest for me!

One is glad to be of service.