Personal Names

A naming tradition says how a people build a name: which given names they use, and what they do about family names. The same given names make “Jon Sigurdsson” in one tradition and “Jon Ashmaw” in another.

A naming tradition and a culture are different things. Every villager has a naming tradition, but most villagers have no culture.

When a villager’s culture has a naming tradition, the villager is named by it, wherever they live.
Otherwise, the villager is named by their region, as in MCA.

A villager keeps their name. A change of culture later does not rename them.

Writing a Tradition

A culture can write its tradition in place, in naming:

{
  "schema": "townstead:culture/v1",
  "name": "Fisherfolk",
  "naming": {
    "given": "examplepack:fisherfolk",
    "family": { "type": "inherited", "list": "examplepack:fisherfolk" }
  }
}

Or several cultures can share a tradition file, with naming_tradition:

{
  "schema": "townstead:culture/v1",
  "name": "Fisherfolk",
  "naming_tradition": "examplepack:northern_coast"
}

Naming Tradition Files

data/<namespace>/naming_tradition/<name>.json

{
  "schema": "townstead:naming_tradition/v1",
  "given": "mca:iceland",
  "family": {
    "type": "patronymic",
    "affix": {
      "male": { "suffix": "sson" },
      "female": { "suffix": "sdottir" },
      "neutral": { "suffix": "sbur" }
    }
  }
}

A naming block in a culture file has the same fields, without schema.

Tradition Fields

Field	Required	Description
`schema`	Yes, in a file	Must be `townstead:naming_tradition/v1`.
`given`	Yes	Where given names come from: list references, or an object with names in place. See Given Names in Place.
`family`	No	The family-name rule. See Family Names. With no `family`, villagers have no family name.
`order`	No	`given_first` (“Jon Ashmaw”) or `family_first` (“Ashmaw Jon”). The default is `given_first`.

A tradition with no usable given names does not load.

Given Names in Place

Write given as an object to keep the names in the same file:

"given": {
  "male": ["Bram", "Corin"],
  "female": { "Marit": 3, "Neva": 1 },
  "neutral": ["Sesh"]
}

The format is the same as a given-name list.

Family Names

Field	Description
`type`	`none`, `inherited`, `patronymic` or `matronymic`.
`list`	For `inherited`: list references to family-name lists.
`names`	For `inherited`: family names in place, as an array or a weighted object. Replaces `list`.
`descent`	For `inherited`: which parent passes the name down. `father`, `mother` or `either`. The default is `either`.
`affix`	For `patronymic` and `matronymic`: what to put around the parent’s given name.

Type	The family name is
`none`	No family name.
`inherited`	The family name of a parent, following `descent`. A villager with no parent to take it from gets a new name from the lists.
`patronymic`	The given name of the villager’s father with the affix, such as “Sigurdsson”.
`matronymic`	The given name of the villager’s mother with the affix.

For descent, father takes the name from a parent who is not female, and mother from a female parent. either takes it from the first parent who has a family name.
An inherited rule with no list and no names uses the family-name list with the same ID as the villager’s given-name list. When no such list exists, the villager has no family name.
A patronymic or matronymic villager with no such parent has no family name.
An unknown type counts as none, and the log shows a warning.

Affixes

affix maps the villager’s own gender to a prefix, a suffix, or both:

"affix": {
  "male": { "prefix": "ibn " },
  "female": { "prefix": "bint " }
}

The keys are male, female and neutral.
When neutral is missing, a neutral villager uses the male affix. When the affix that applies is missing, the parent’s given name is used unchanged.
A patronymic or matronymic rule with no affix makes the log show a warning.

List References

given and list name lists in three forms.

One list:

"given": "examplepack:fisherfolk"

One group of lists, drawn from together. Each entry can have a rate, from more than 0. The default is 1:

"given": [
  { "list": "examplepack:fisherfolk", "rate": 3 },
  { "list": "mca:iceland", "rate": 1 }
]

Groups tried in order. When the array has any object with from, each entry is a group. Townstead uses the first group that it can use:

"given": [
  { "from": [{ "list": "examplepack:fisherfolk", "rate": 3 }, { "list": "elvenmod:sea_elves" }], "require": "all" },
  "examplepack:fisherfolk"
]

In this example, villagers get a mix of fisherfolk and sea elf names when the elven mod is installed, and only fisherfolk names when it is not. With "require": "all", a group is used only when every list in it is available. Without it, a group uses the lists that are available.

What a Reference Names

Reference	List
`mca:<bucket>`, such as `mca:japan`	A name bucket from MCA or MCA Capitals. Given names only: MCA has no family names.
`<namespace>:<path>` from a data pack	A `given_name` file for `given`, or a `family_name` file for a family `list`.
`mcacapitals:<bucket>`	MCA Capitals family names, when MCA Capitals is installed.

A given-name list and a family-name list can have the same ID. examplepack:fisherfolk can be the fisherfolk’s given names in given_name/ and their family names in family_name/.

Given-Name Lists

data/<namespace>/given_name/<name>.json

{
  "schema": "townstead:given_name/v1",
  "male": ["Bram", "Corin", "Oskel"],
  "female": { "Marit": 3, "Neva": 1 },
  "neutral": ["Sesh"]
}

Field	Description
`male`, `female`, `neutral`	Names for each gender. An array gives every name the same weight. An object maps each name to a weight.

Weights follow MCA’s curve: a weight counts as its square root. A name with weight 4 is twice as likely as a name with weight 1, not four times.
A missing gender uses another list: male uses female, then neutral. female uses male, then neutral. neutral uses male.
A file needs at least one of the three lists.

Family-Name Lists

data/<namespace>/family_name/<name>.json

{
  "schema": "townstead:family_name/v1",
  "names": ["Netley", "Saltmarsh", "Tidewell"]
}

names is an array, or an object with weights. Family names have no gender.

Traditions That Townstead Ships

Townstead ships a naming tradition for most MCA name buckets, with the ID mca:<bucket>, such as mca:iceland or mca:germany. Each one uses the bucket’s given names and adds family names in that country’s style: mca:iceland uses patronymics, and mca:germany passes down surnames from the father. A bucket with no tradition file uses its given names and has no family names.

You can name these traditions in naming_tradition, or replace one with a file at the same path.