Names in Middle-Earth, Quick Guide

[SiSL]

So imagining there might be some people who are interested in knowing some basics of names of places they visit like "WTH is Nan Warthen? Ost guruth?" etc. So I compiled some of most used naming references from various sources like Silmarillion and Lord of the Rings dictionaries. Those are used in Quenya & Sindarin names... Note: Some names in game and this list can be fictional beyond the books but only ingame.

A

• Adan: Man (plural, Edain eg. Dúnedain)
• aduial: evening, twilight (Parth Aduial)
• Aelin: Lake, Pool (eg. Aelin-uial)
• agar: blood (Garth Agarwen)
• Amon: Hill (Amon Sûl ‘Weathertop’) plural. Emyn
• Amlug: dragon (Nan Amlug West/East)
• An(d) : Long (Anduin, Anfalas)
• Ang: iron (Angmar)
• Annon: Gate or passage (Sirannon)
• Annûn: sunset, west (Tyl Annun)
• Ar(a) : Royal, noble, Pristine (Argonath, Arnor)
• Ascar: rushing, violent (Tol Ascarnen)

B

• Balch: cruel (Imlad Balchorth)
• Bar: Home, settlement (Dimbar, Eldemar)
• Barad : Tower (Barad-dûr)
• Beleg: Powerful, Strong (eg. Belegost, Beleg)
• Brui: loud, noisy (Bruinen)

C

• Calen/galen: green
• Car : Red (Carnen, Carchost)
• Celeb: Silver (Celeborn, Celebrant)
• Celon: River (Celondim)
• Cirith: Mountain Pass (Cirith Ungol, Cirith Imladris)

D

• Dae: Shadow (Dor Deadeloth)
• Dagor: War
• Dîn: Silent (Amon Din, Dor-Dinen)
• Dol: Top of the Hill, Headland (Dol Guldur)
• Dor: Land, Country (Eriador, Gondor)
• Draug: Wolf (Drauglin, Drauglad)
• Duin: (long) river (Anduin)
• Dú: Night
• Dûr: Dark (Barad-dûr)
• Dún: West (Dúnedain)

E

• Ëar: Sea
• Echad: Camp (Echad Garthadir)
• Ëdain: Race of Man
• Edhel: Elf
• El: Star
• Ered: Mountain Range (Ered Luin)
• Ereg: Thorn (Eregion, Region)
• Estel: Hope (Esteldin)

F

• Falas: Lands by the Sea (Anfalas, Belfalas)
• Fin: Hair (Glorfindel)
• For: North (Fornost, Forochel)

G

• Garth: Fortress (Urugarth)
• Gul: Magic, Sorcery (Dol Guldur, Minas Morgul)
• Girith: Shuddering, Horror (Nen Girith)
• Glan: border (Glan Vraig)
• Glir: Sing / Song (Glirost)
• Gond: Stone, Rock (Gondolin, Gondor)
• Gurth: Death (Gurthang)
• gwind: (pale) blue (Gwindeth)

H

• Har: South (Haradwaith, Harad)
• Haudh: Mound (Haudh-en-Arwen)
• Heleg: Ice (Helegrod)
• Hith: Mist
• Hoth: Herd, Hord (Almost always for evil) (eg. Loss(ho)oth – Forochel’s Snowmen)

I

• iath: Fence (Doriath, Osgiliath)
• imlad: valley (Imlad Balchorth, Imladris)

K

• Kal (Gal-): Shining (Gil Galad, Galadriel)

L

• Lad: Plain, valley
• Laer: song or summer
• Lin: pool (Lin Giliath)
• Lith: Ash (Fauglith, Ered Lithui)
• Loeg: pools of a marsh (Harloeg)
• Lond: Harbour
• Loth: Flower (Lothlorien)
• Luin/Lun: blue (Ered Luin)

M

• Maur: Gloom (Agamaur)
• Men: Road, way (Men Erain)
• Menel: heaven(s) (Menelband)
• Minas: Tower (Minas Tirith, Minas Morgul, Annuminas)
• Mith: Gray (Mithrandir, Mithril)
• Mor: Black (Mordor, Minas Morgul, Morgoth)

N

• Nan: Valley (Nan Warthren, Nan Curunir)
• Nár: Fire (Narsil, Narchost)
• Naug: Dwarf
• Nen: Water (Lake Nenuial, Nen Girith)
• Nor: Land , Country (Arnor)

O

• Orod: Mountain (plural Ered) (Orodruin, Ered Luin)
• Orn: Tree (Fangorn, Celeborn)
• Ost: Fortress, (Os(t)gilliath, Ost Guruth)

P

• Per: Half (Peredhil)

R

• Ram: Wall (Andram, Rammas Echor)
• Ras: Horn (landscape) (Barad Nimras, Caradhras – Crimson Horn
• Rant: (on rivers) direction (Celebrant)
• Rath: course/pass (Rath Teraig)
• Rhûn: east (Sea of Rhûn)
• Ril: Shining, Glooming (Mithril, Anduril)
• Rim: Horde, Army in large number (Golodhrim, Rohirrim)
• Roch: Horse (Rochan – Rohan, land of Horses)
• Rond: Arched Roof (Domed Cave)

S

• Sarn: (small) Stone (Sarnur, Sarn Ford)
• Sûl: Wind (Amon Sûl – Weathertop)

T

• Talath: Flat surface, plane, (wide) valley (Talath Gaun, Talath Dirnen)
• Taur: forest (Taur Gonwaith)
• Tham: hall, chamber
• Thang: Compulsion, duress, oppression (Durthang – A Fortress in mordor)
• Thoron: Eagle (Thorongil)
• Tol: Island (Tol Galen) (plural Tyl / Tyll)
• Tûm: Deep Valley (Tûm Fuin)
• Tyrn: Downs (Tyrn Gorthad - The Barrow Downs)
• Tyl: Islands

U

• Uial: Twilight (Emyn Uial)

W

• Wen: Maiden (Arwen, Eärwen, Morwen)

Forochel Special:

Thanks to Berephon, explained names in Forochel will be following and based on Finnish:

Talvi-Mûri: Winter Wall
Länsi-Mâ: West lands
Itä-Mâ : East Lands
Jä-Kuru: Ice-Canyon
Jä-Rannit: Ice-Shores

[SiSL]

Pronounciations:


E
Always given sound at end of words. Also always read as "e" in "get" word.

C
Always gives the sound "k". Celeborn always is read as "Keleborn".

CH
Read as "loch" in Welsh or "buch" in German. Not as ch in "church" in English. Rochan later turned into how it is read to "Rohan" as an example.

DH
Always read as "th" in word "Then" in English, not "th" in "Thin"

G
Always sounds like "g" in "Get" in English. Basically "Eregion" or "Region" is not pronounced as "Region" in English. "Ginlith"'s first "gin" is read as "gin" in "Begin" word in English, not as "gin" word.


AI
Pronounced as "eye" word in English. Edain or Dunedain's last parts are read as "dine" in English, not as "dane"

AU
Has sound of "ow" in "Town" word in English. Sauron's first sound is "sour" rother than "sore"

EI
Has sound of grey. Eiglin..

IE
Sounds as "piece" in English. Both i and e is vocaled.

UI
Has sound of "ruin" in English

AE - OE
Both a or o and e is vocalled. Similiar to OE in "toy"

EA and EO
Both e and a or o is vocalled like two seperate words.

Ú
Sounds like double o "oo" for example. Túrin can be said as "Toorin", not "Tyoorin"

ER, IR, UR
Sounds like er in "fern", ir in "fir", UR in "fur" in English.

[sirwillow]

Wow, great stuff!! I'd love to see this put somewhere where it won't get buried and lost in the forums, as I know I'm going to want to look back at it again a few times in the future.

[Laire]

Very good!

I would like to point out that the list below is mostly (if not completely) Sindarin. Sindarin is the dominent elven language in Middle-earth, while Quenya is much more archiac and was more in use in the First Age.

Though, one must wonder what in the world a place such as Ost Guruth is doing with a Sindarin name. I'd love to know the history behind that. Frankly put, I'd love to know the reason why most places in the Lone Lands have Sindarin names when there is a lack of rangers and elves around (the North Downs can be excused, since there are so many Rangers there).

I'll compile some more Sindarin words to fit some of the places ingame, to help add to this list.

[durandir]

If I remember correctly, the men of the west also used Sindarin, or a dialect of it, and the Lone Lands were at one time part of Arnor (later Arthedain/Rhudaur). The name may have persisted even after the people had left.

[Laire]

One mistake I noted in your post, OP: You said that "Dunedain" had the word "du", or "night" in it. That is not so; Dunedain translates to Men of the West, and uses the word "dun", or "west". I assume that 'du' is used in Ram Duath, though- someone correct me if I'm wrong.


Some Sindarin words found in names throughout the game or on the Middle-earth map, mostly (OP, if you want to add these to your post, feel free to):

aduial: evening, twilight (Parth Aduial)
agar: blood (Garth Agarwen)
amlug: dragon (Nan Amlug West/East)
ang: iron (Angmar)
annûn: sunset, west (Tyl Annun)
ascar: rushing, violent (Tol Ascarnen)
balch: cruel (Imlad Balchorth)
brui: loud, noisy (Bruinen)
calen/galen: green
celon: river (Celondim)
draug: wolf (Drauglad)
dûn: west (Dúnedain)
echad: camp (Echad Garthadir)
edhel: elf
fin: hair (Glorfindel)
forn: north (Fornost)
forod: north (Forodwaith)
garth: fortress (Urugarth)
glan: border (Glan Vraig)
glir/o: song/sing (Glirost)
(g)waith: people, folk; country (Forodwaith, Haradwaith)
gwind: (pale) blue (Gwindeth)
harad: south (Haradwaith)
heleg: ice (Helegrod)
imlad: valley (Imlad Balchorth, Imladris)
ion: son (Eldarion)
laer: song or summer
lin: pool (Lin Giliath)
loeg: pools of a marsh (Harloeg)
luin/lun: blue (Ered Luin)
mar: home
maur: gloom (Agamaur)
menel: heaven(s) (Menelband)
nor: land/country (Arnor)
ol/olor/lor: dream (Olorin, Lorien)
rath: course/pass (Rath Teraig)
rhûn: east (Sea of Rhûn)
taur: forest (Taur Gonwaith)
tham: hall, chamber
thoron: eagle (Thorongil)
uial: twilight (Emyn Uial)



Question for Sindarin experts: Would "teraig" be plural for "tarag"? I know the e follows Sindarin plural rules, but I'm not sure about the second syllable.

[SiSL]

..snip..

Thank you so much, I've added words to original post and fixed "dú"

[jaxe]

Bravo!!! This is *exactly* what I was going to try to compile - and you have read my mind ;-) Thanks for all the help!

Excellent!!

[bucks]

thanks i should defently use one of those names if I make a new character thanks alot

[SiSL]

Bravo!!! This is *exactly* what I was going to try to compile - and you have read my mind ;-) Thanks for all the help!

Excellent!!

That was long in my mind, even I do have some basic lore knowledge, I never went too far to memorize these things. So I have to do some basic guide after people were asking in OOC "what does Nan mean? What does Talath mean?" and kinda like that.

Thank you for your appreciation

[Feycat]

Excellent! Thank you so much for this post!

[Zyrxagor00]

I don't see either of the components of "Carn Dum" in those lists.

[Xpheyel]

Actually the etymology of Carn Dûm might be one of the harder ones. Dûm is a Dwarf word, as far as I know, as in Khazad-Dûm. Hall or city, something along those lines. Carn could still be "red", which would make it the "Red City" which is ominous enough.

EDIT: Also that seems to be what google says about it.

Though it would be odd if it was named in Dwarven. One would assume that Tolkien wouldn't mix two languages without some kind of reason (such as it was a Dwarven city that was conquered or abandoned and subsequently re-occupied by the Witch-King).

Amazingly I managed to guess the extended ASCII code for u-hat on the first try!

Another interesting thing would be some of the Black Speech words. Ghash is easy enough but "Narz" and "-fra" I can only find on the internets and I'm not sure about the veracity.

[SiSL]

I don't see either of the components of "Carn Dum" in those lists.

Encylopedia of Arda says following about Carn Dûm

Carn Dûm is very difficult to translate. Indeed, not only is there no attested meaning of the name, but we can't even be sure of the language it comes from! There are at least four possibilities.

The most obvious relies on the Elvish word car(a)n, meaning 'red'. From this, many have assumed that the entire name is Elvish, and presumably Sindarin. In support of this, the name Angmar, for the land where Carn Dûm stood, seems to be definitely Sindarin. On the other hand, there is no known connection between Carn Dûm and the colour red, and - a serious difficulty - dûm is almost certainly not an Elvish word.

Dûm isn't Elvish, but it is one of the very few words of Dwarvish vocabulary that we know for certain. In Khazad-dûm, it means 'halls, mansions', and this fits neatly for a mountain fortress or citadel. What's more, nearby Mount Gundabad has Dwarvish associations, so the possibility arises that Carn Dûm might have once been a city of the Dwarves, named in their language. There's no direct evidence to back this up, though, and carn doesn't seem to be a Dwarvish word.

The possibility that Carn Dûm comes from the Black Speech must also be considered, but we simply do not have sufficient information on this language to make a useful judgement.

A final possibility is that Carn Dûm comes from a Mannish language. Tolkien used real languages to represent the Mannish languages in his books, and especially Old English and Old Norse. Carn Dûm doesn't seem to belong to either of these, but there is another candidate: carn dúm are words from Gaelic that can be translated 'mountain fortress'. Did Tolkien intend this, or is it a spectacular coincidence?

To accept it as intentional, we'd need to assume an entire new 'Angmarian' language, based on Gaelic, that was wiped out with Angmar by the Gondorians and survived only in this one name. This seems unlikely in the extreme, but where Tolkien is concerned, anything is possible...

[MataTahu]

Awesome post -- good to see others out there who care about these things.
I need to direct several of my kinnies to the pronunciation section....

[kevdude]

This should definitely be stickied!

[SiSL]

Awesome post -- good to see others out there who care about these things.
I need to direct several of my kinnies to the pronunciation section....

Especially with upcoming Book 13, Forochel will be discussed a lot on pronounciation

[Zyrxagor00]

Encylopedia of Arda says following about Carn Dûm

Carn Dûm is very difficult to translate. Indeed, not only is there no attested meaning of the name, but we can't even be sure of the language it comes from! There are at least four possibilities.

The most obvious relies on the Elvish word car(a)n, meaning 'red'. From this, many have assumed that the entire name is Elvish, and presumably Sindarin. In support of this, the name Angmar, for the land where Carn Dûm stood, seems to be definitely Sindarin. On the other hand, there is no known connection between Carn Dûm and the colour red, and - a serious difficulty - dûm is almost certainly not an Elvish word.

Dûm isn't Elvish, but it is one of the very few words of Dwarvish vocabulary that we know for certain. In Khazad-dûm, it means 'halls, mansions', and this fits neatly for a mountain fortress or citadel. What's more, nearby Mount Gundabad has Dwarvish associations, so the possibility arises that Carn Dûm might have once been a city of the Dwarves, named in their language. There's no direct evidence to back this up, though, and carn doesn't seem to be a Dwarvish word.

The possibility that Carn Dûm comes from the Black Speech must also be considered, but we simply do not have sufficient information on this language to make a useful judgement.

A final possibility is that Carn Dûm comes from a Mannish language. Tolkien used real languages to represent the Mannish languages in his books, and especially Old English and Old Norse. Carn Dûm doesn't seem to belong to either of these, but there is another candidate: carn dúm are words from Gaelic that can be translated 'mountain fortress'. Did Tolkien intend this, or is it a spectacular coincidence?

To accept it as intentional, we'd need to assume an entire new 'Angmarian' language, based on Gaelic, that was wiped out with Angmar by the Gondorians and survived only in this one name. This seems unlikely in the extreme, but where Tolkien is concerned, anything is possible...

SISL, thank you VERY much for that information. I found your post to be fascinating in the extreme. Very nice. I would have to give serious consideration to that last bit about wiping an Angmarian language out. Very interesting possibility.

[Berephon]

Though, one must wonder what in the world a place such as Ost Guruth is doing with a Sindarin name. I'd love to know the history behind that. Frankly put, I'd love to know the reason why most places in the Lone Lands have Sindarin names when there is a lack of rangers and elves around (the North Downs can be excused, since there are so many Rangers there).

As someone else already mentioned, the Men of Westernesse used predominantly Sindarin for naming in Middle-earth. Rhudaur was a Westernesse kingdom, thus the use of Sindarin there. (These are assumed to be the original names of the fortresses, not "modern" terms.)

There is little to no Quenya used in our game, so assume Sindarin for any Elvish names.

[Berephon]

One mistake I noted in your post, OP: You said that "Dunedain" had the word "du", or "night" in it. That is not so; Dunedain translates to Men of the West, and uses the word "dun", or "west". I assume that 'du' is used in Ram Duath, though- someone correct me if I'm wrong.

Ram Dúath is Ram (Wall) + Dúath (Dark Shadow). Wall of Dark Shadows.

Your translation of Dúnedain is correct. Pluralized form of Dûn (West) + Adan (Man).

[Argenaut]

Berephon, correct me if I am wrong, but isn't the "i" customarily (or even always) pronounced as a long e in English? Esteldin then is pronounced EsTELdeen?

[SiSL]

Berephon, correct me if I am wrong, but isn't the "i" customarily (or even always) pronounced as a long e in English? Esteldin then is pronounced EsTELdeen?

Unless combined with other voyalles (as in second post of this thread), you are correct... "Esteldín" to be precise...

Almost all Sindarin is "Read-as-it-is-written" like old Latin, Turkish and some eastern languages of today. Each letter has its own voice with few exceptions due to tongue connexions.

[MataTahu]

Let's see if I can ninja a post from a dev...


Pretty sure Esteldin is Es-tell-deen as the name is Sindarin (Estel being a name for Aragorn given by his mother, meaning Hope, I think).

[SiSL]

Let's see if I can ninja a post from a dev...


Pretty sure Esteldin is Es-tell-deen as the name is Sindarin (Estel being a name for Aragorn given by his mother, meaning Hope, I think).

Yes, depends how you pronounce first "Es", it is more like pronouncing "S" letter by itself... While you pronounce "S" letter, you will have that "E" letter in fron of it.

"S"-tell-deen. But lorewise, I think Esteldín is a place that is created by Turbine to fulfill "Rangers camps of North"

[Berephon]

To accept it as intentional, we'd need to assume an entire new 'Angmarian' language, based on Gaelic, that was wiped out with Angmar by the Gondorians and survived only in this one name. This seems unlikely in the extreme, but where Tolkien is concerned, anything is possible...

As the Angmarim themselves appeared to be modeled after the Scots (which is why we use Scots-Gaelic for their naming), this is what we assumed...though it could also be a Black Speech term.