Overly Long Name: Difference between revisions

* Long alien sounding names are a practical staple of [[Douglas Adams]]: any ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy]]'' novel is full of them.

* In novels by [[Iain M Banks|Iain M. Banks]], the interstellar non-empire called [[The Culture]] features long names, with references to significant places, symbolic references and group affiliations . For example, Balveda, from ''Consider Phlebas''; Juboal-Rabaroansa Perosteck Alseyn Balveda dam T'seif. She was born on the Rabaroan Orbital, Juboal star system, is currently affiliated with the T'seif estate, was named Perosteck Balveda by her parent(s) and chose Alseyn herself (it's a graceful but fierce avian raptor). By making names this unique, The Culture avoids any confusion. Many of the names Culture ships choose for themselves count as Overly Long Names in their own right, eg the ''GSV So Much for Subtlety'', the ''ROU All Through With This Niceness And Negotiation Stuff'', ''GSV Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival'', ''GCU Very Little [[Running Gag|Gravitas]] Indeed'' or ''ROU Frank Exchange Of Views'' (Psychopath Class).

** In Banks' non-culture novel ''[[Against a Dark Background]]'', the reverse of this trope - [[Small Name, Big Ego]], perhaps? - is brought into play; the aristocratic main character is named Sharrow. Just Sharrow. When a police officer asks for her ''full'' name, she responds... colourfully.

*** They have an interesting convention that the lower the social class, the more the names. Lampshaded when one character mentions that if Sharrow's cousin had been born with four names instead of one, he'd be a street thief. (This may be a reference to the habit British aristocrats have of using simply the name of their peerage - e.g. Toby Fitzwalter Vere de Vere, Lord Lovaduck, would sign his letters as simply "Lovaduck" without any of his given names, or even the title "Lord.")