Skip to main content

What are the Pros and Cons of long names?

#What are the Pros and Cons of long names?

#Info

I'm developing names for places/characters/races/etc. in my world. One example are a particular political sect. The sect are a group within a different species that are named (the species in general) "Sun's children" (lit. translation.) and the city they are in is called "(Earth's) Shadow" (lit translation.) Combined, the political group of this species in this place are "Sun's children of Earth's Shadow". The actual name (not the translation) is the tonguetwister "Exopeildelivurathneyateyafilen," more accurately "Exopeildelivur-thneya Tey-filen," since adding an "a" acts as an apostrophe and "s" That is to say, "Tey-filen" means "Tey-children" and "Teyafilen" means "Tey's Children." "Exopeildelivur-thneya" translates to "Exopeildelivur Shadow" and "Exopeildelivurathneya" t "Exopeildelivur's shadow."

Now, I'm keeping this name. But I wanted a list of the pros and cons of long names like this--never mind the obscurity/tangled syllables like Exopeildelivurathneyateyafilen, it could include names like "Bobjohnmarkdaniel Coopersmithbrown" as a random example.

#Question

What are the pros/cons of long, long names?

##Update

Wow! I hadn't expected such a response. To note all your notes: Some of the names I build are unusual, but only 5-8 of them reach the length of ExoathTeyfilen, as I've decided to shorten Exopeildelivurathneyateyafilen (per recommendations). Thankfully, there aren't that many such names and they're not used much. And, no, there isn't a "ExopeildelivurathneyaTeyfoooolen." All of the long names I'm planning are completely different. And I provide the translations/meanings/histories of the words via "humorous footnotes."

I've gotten so, so many great answers, and I'll never be able to pick just one ...

FoxElemental
  • 663
  • 1
  • 5
  • 18