House Names

One’s family name, or House Name, carries importance in the Dominion.

The House Name is assigned at birth, and is determined by a combination of genetics and administrative application.

In general, issue from a couple, who both Accept their child, takes the House Name of the lower-classed parent, as determined by the Mer ID.

Where one parent Accepts the child (see Procreation) and the other does not, the child is given the Accepting parent’s house name.

If neither parent Accepts the child, it will be raised by the Dominion and given a new House Name. 

  

Class Precedence

1. F = Forerunner
2. H = Hybrid
3. G = Geneered
4. U = Unclassified

  

The rule is enumerated in the following table.

  

In the event both parents are the same class, which is probably the most typical situation, the Generational Rules are used to determine the child’s house name.

  

Special Rule for the Overlord

The Overlord is always considered of higher class than the other parent.  Thus the children of the Overlord always take the other parent’s house name by default.  Children have to be Adopted into the Overlord’s House to carry the Overlord’s House Name and be a Name Heir.

Overlords are generally keen to preserve their legacy and so Adoption is often a formality where the child meets eligibility criteria.  However, there have been instances where Overlords have not Adopted their children.  (Note the difference between Acceptance and Adoption; it is not unknown for Overlords not to Accept their children either.)

The exception to the above is the case where the Child’s other parent is the Overlord’s Spouse and has been adopted into the Overlord’s House, in which case the child automatically has Overlord’s house name on acceptance by either parent.

Historically however, Overlords rarely marry or adopt their consorts into their House.

  

Generational Rules

The generational rules calculate a score for each parent by referring to their grandparents’ class and assigning points for each grandparent.

  

Grandparent Name Scores

• F = 4 points
• H = 2 points
• G = 1 point
• U = 0 points

  

The child will take the House name of the parent with the lowest score.  In the event of a tie, the child has a hyphenated House name. 

   

Generational Name Scoring Table 

Hyphenated Names

In the case of tied scores the child will have a hyphenated name.  When hyphenating, the mother’s name is listed first.

One of the ways to get a hyphenated name is to have two Unclassified parents.  One of the ways a person can be unclassified is if they are immigrants to the Dominion.  While the Dominion does not get a lot of immigration, it can happen.  In these cases the immigrants may have their own traditions or laws about naming children.  Immigrants generally get the house names they nominate at the time their immigration is processed, but any children born after their Dominion Citizenship is granted will be named under Dominion law in the eyes of the Dominion.

   

Example, Unclassified Immigrants 

Alice and Bob Newcomer and their child Carol Newcomer immigrate to the Dominion.

Alice and Bob’s naming tradition is from a primitive society where physical strength was important, consequently males dominated and women were considered as property.  Hence Alice took Bob’s name when they were married.  As their child, Carol took her Father’s name.

Newcomer is their family name, and is nominated as the house name of all three people when their immigrations are processed.

When settled in the Dominion, Alice and Bob have another child, Dave.  Under Dominion law their personal preferences and traditions have no standing and the naming protocols are applied.  As members of an external society without any generational history, Alice and Bob are considered Unclassified.  As the child of a pair of Unclassified parents, Dave is an Unclassified person and receives a hyphenated house name comprising his mother’s then his father’s house names.  His name is Dave Newcomer-Newcomer. 

Incidentally, Carol is considered Unclassified because she is a foreign immigrant, not because Alice and Bob are both her Unclassified parents.

  

Ridiculous Hyphenation  

Hypothetically, Dave then meets fellow migrant child Eve Synonym-Synonym.  Eve is in the same situation as Dave, an Unclassified child of Unclassified parents.  Eve and Dave have a child, Fox, together. 

Under the pure naming rules this child would be called Fox Synonym-Synonym-Newcomer-Newcomer.

This can become particularly problematic with H-H and G-G relationships, where it is not uncommon to have several generations of pure H-H or G-G classes.  Consider the following people, all Hybrids with Hybrid parents, who will go on to become the ancestors of a child, Victoria:

  

Example Names

• Victoria Gamma-Lambda
• Victoria Beta-Zeta-Lambda
• Victoria Zeta
• Victoria Delta-Alpha-Theta-Kappa
• Victoria Delta-Theta

 

Dave and Eve can take any of the options and name their child Fox Synonym-Newcomer.

The second option (eg Victoria Gamma-Zeta) is probably the most frequently used, although the practice of taking only the mother’s first matrilineal (eg Victoria Gamma) is somewhat common.

That said, there is no requirement to take the shortening options, and Whiskey Gamma-Delta-Beta-Alpha-Zeta-Theta-Lambda-Kappa-Mu-Nu-Xi-Omicron-Pi-Rho-Sigma-Tau is an entirely possible name for Victoria and Oscar’s offspring.  This sort of massive hyphenation mostly occurs among certain Forerunner families.

   

House Adoption

All of the above defines the default rules for determining the House Name of a child.  However, House Names can be changed by a process called House Adoption.  This is a process whereby an applicant can be granted the House name of the higher-class parent.

The applicant may be:

• One or both of the parents, on behalf of the child, prior to name registration.
• The child, any time after reaching majority.
• The Dominion, on behalf of a child who is a ward of the state undergoing a child adoption process.
• A partner in a marriage, seeking to be adopted into their spouse’s house (NB:  this is an instance where the wording of the law is such that a higher-class person may choose to take on a lower-class person’s House Name.)

  

The adoption approver is the person who is the parent of the higher-class parent who holds the name the applicant is seeking to take, or, that person’s Name Heir.  Consider the following example: 

  

Example, House Adoption

Felicity Foreman, a Forerunner, and Harry Hibberd, a Hybrid, have a child called Nomen.  Under the naming protocols, Nomen’s house name would be Hibberd.  However, Felicity and Harry decide to apply to have Nomen named Nomen Foreman. Felicity’s parents are Appro Foreman and Noah Pinion.

As the holder of the house name Felicity and Harry are seeking for Nomen, it is Appro’s decision whether or not to adopt Nomen into the Foreman house. 

  

New House Names

New House Names are created in one of the following ways:

• Hyphenation:  Use of the hyphenation shortening options creates a new hyphenated combination.
• Immigration:  An unclassified person with a name previously unknown in the Dominion becomes a Mer.
• Geneering:  A new geneering line is developed and produces ‘lab children’ from the new genetic blueprint, all such children from the same product line are given the same new house name.
• Disownership:  If a person is disowned, usually as a result of being found guilty of a crime, they may be given a new name.   
• Non-Acceptance:  A newborn is not Accepted by either biological parent and is given a new house name by the Dominion.

Marriage

The Dominion has a legal concept of Marriage, but that concept does not include taking on a spouse’s name. 

When Al Alpha marries Betty Beta they retain their names.  Betty does not become Betty Alpha, nor Al become Al Beta, nor do they become Betty and Al Beta-Alpha.   

Marriage can be a justification for House Adoption, but does not of itself involve a name change. 

The essential function of marriage is to have the spouses that are a party to the marriage treated as a single legal entity for certain functions under Dominion law.

   

Name Heirs

The Name Heir rule is important in the Dominion, it determines things such as who holds the approval power for House Adoption, inheritance of a deceased estate, and who is in line to be Overlord. 

Name Heirs are a form of absolute primogeniture.

A person’s Name Heir is determined according to the following rules, applied in order:

1. The living current spouses of the person, who also carry the person’s House Name, determined in date order of Name Registration or Name Adoption
2. The living or dead children of the person, who carry the person’s House Name, determined in date order of Name Registration or Name Adoption 
3. The living or dead siblings of the person who carry the person’s House Name, determined in date order of Name Registration or Name Adoption
4. The living former spouses of the person, who carry the person’s House Name, determined in date order of Name Registration or Name Adoption
5. The living or dead parents of the person, who carry the person’s House Name, determined in date order of Name Registration or Name Adoption

  

The rules are deliberately designed such that in many cases the Name Heir is a person who is already dead.  Depending on the function for which the Name Heir is being determined eligibility criteria for that function usually apply.  Most eligibility criteria include ‘being alive’; if a person is permanently unable to meet the eligibility criteria then the search for the Name Heir begins from the perspective of the dead Name Heir.

This does mean that a lot of the Dominion’s laws and regulations contain the phrase ‘is a living person’, because not including it can have unexpected repercussions when it intersects with the Name Heir rules, which are one of the fundamental parts of the Codex.

   

Designated Heirs

The edict of an Overlord or Underlord overrides the laws. The order of the Nomenclator, or their delegate, overrides the laws, except with regard to the Overlords, Underlords and their families.

For certain functions, a person may designate a person (or in some cases, multiple people) who is not their Ought Name Heir (Name Heir under the rules) to be their Designated Name Heir.  For example, a Will is a legal document registered with the Nomination Bureau that overrides the Ought Name Heir and specifies one or more Designated Name Heirs for the function of inheriting a person’s estate on their death.

  

Definition of ‘Current’

In some circumstances ‘current’ has specific definitions. 

For example:

• For determining an application for Name Adoption it is the date of the application. 
• For determining the next Overlord, it is the date of the current Overlord’s death. 

Regency

Regency is a concept that applies when eligibility criteria for a function are non-permanent with regard to the Name Heir as determined by the rules.  This is usually not being of Majority age (7kCy), but can include things such as temporary physical, mental or legal incapacity.

A Regent is a person who carries out the relevant function of the Heir until the Heir is eligible to take on the function in question.

Regency is determined under the same rules as Name Heredity.  However, the Dominion legal concept of Regency differs from Name Heredity in two ways:

• Regency may be declined by the prospective Regent
  • If declined by a prospective Regent the rules continue to be applied from the perspective of the ineligible Heir, not the prospective Regent  
• Regency only holds while the condition preventing eligibility to the Heir is in place

NB:  Like many words and concepts, the Dominion has lost the original etymology of Regency; it now means this. 

  

House Disownership 

House Disownership is when a person’s current House Name is removed.  This can occur for a number of reasons. 

If the person has previously been House Adopted, they may under certain circumstances, be Disowned by the house and revert to their previous name or the name determined by application of the naming rules (sometimes referred to as a persons ‘Ought Name’.)

Disownership can also be a result of committing some crimes.  It is possible to be Disowned from one’s Ought Name as well as House Adopted name.  In these cases, the Nomenclator assigns a new House name, although sometimes not until a person has completed their punishment, leaving the person Unnamed (which is a specific legal status.)

In recent times these new names can be distinguished by containing the letters ‘new’ or ‘novo’ somewhere in the name and each new name is unique.  However, earlier practice was often to base the new name on the crime and so today there are descendants of those people with house names such as ‘Murderer’, ”Embezzler’, ‘Usurer’, ‘Molester’, ‘Thief’, ‘Adulterer’ and ‘Fraudster’.

    

The Nomenclator

The Nomenclator is a senior member of the Bureaucracy who has responsibility for managing the portfolio of laws relating to people’s names.  The Nomencaltor has several prescribed functions within the Codex.

The Nomenclator is the head of the Nomination Bureau, which administers these functions throughout the Dominion.  All name changes are registered with the Bureau.