How are peoples' names structured in your language? How do they usually introduce themselves?

The speakers of my conlang have always three names plus the honorific. The third name is almost never said, and the honorifics are first, and are almost always said.

The first name is just a first name. It represents something, usually a date or a goddess, or even a thing. It is given by the parents, and it's just as normal names.

The second name is more like a last name. It represents the family you are from, and usually represents natural things and characteristics. Important families usually have a two-words second name, and it's seen more prestigious than a one word one. The people that has them are usually called a four named person. It can be an insult too, but is usually used to express the high position of the person.

The third one is a secret name. And it is little more complex. Only the priest group and the parents can know this name, and usually neither the parents know it. It usually rimes with the second name, and has a personal meaning. It represents the person it's named, their souls, and changes at least two times in people's life. It is secret because the speakers think that if someone knows your third name that person could know your soul and everything about you, and it would give that person the power to control you. They could know all your secrets, and control you like a puppet.

When children are born, they take their parents' secret name until had grown enough to have their first ritual. In the ritual, they have their own third name, and it represents the personality of the child it's given. Later, when the child had a couple, there's another ritual with the same porpoise; represent the actual, changed, personality of the person, but in this case is the same name for both in the relation, so it represents two people. And there is a third ritual: when people have a child and have to give their name to them. Then, they would change their own name to another, because "to have children changes a women's soul". And the couple has the same third name, so both have to change it.

/r/conlangs Thread