pre-christian Armenian names

[Kendji]

I'm pondering adding an armenian namelist for a mod I'm developing, I'm not sure if I can do it if it really is as simple as just adding a name group and a bunch of names. However, the reason why I'm making this thread, is I would like a list 10 men and 10 female names. When I google I get names that seem fairly modern (christian Armenia or newer) or I simply can't distinguish their age.

Are there somewhere a Armenian pre-christian name list? And not just one name here or there.

[Colfer]

I asked our favourite language model, absolutely no idea on the authenticity.

Male Names

Aram - A legendary ancestor of the Armenians.
Artavazd - A common name among the Armenian nobility, meaning "given by the gods."
Tigran - A royal name, associated with several kings of Armenia.
Vahagn - The name of the Armenian god of fire, war, and courage.
Ara - Named after Ara the Beautiful, a legendary Armenian king.
Hayk - The legendary patriarch of the Armenian people, sometimes considered the founder of Armenia.
Ashot - A name of ancient Armenian kings, meaning "prince" or "happy."
Sanasar - A mythical hero from Armenian folklore.
Vartan - A name of Persian origin, used by several Armenian historical figures.
Gagik - A name found among Armenian royalty.

Female Names

Anahit - Named after the goddess of fertility, healing, wisdom, and water.
Nane - The Armenian goddess of war and wisdom.
Astghik - The goddess of love and beauty in Armenian mythology.
Shushanik - Derived from "Shushan," meaning lily.
Tirikanush - A name meaning "sweet" or "dear."
Parandzem - A historical figure, the wife of an Armenian king, known for her bravery.
Shamiram - The Armenian version of the Assyrian queen Semiramis.
Vard - Means "rose" in Armenian.
Zaruhi - Meaning "golden dawn" or "morning star."
Gayane - A name associated with a pre-Christian Armenian saint.

[Kendji]

I also essentially found the same, some places said Tigran is a loan from somewhere etc. so don't know how good thay are. If anyone has better names I'll use those, but for now go with these :)

Edit: Hmm, I might not be able to do this without editing the start pos, which modding is broken, since Bob can't generate Startpos on Linux via proton. Sniff
Edit2: Adding them to the Urartian name list for now. :)

[NoSoyLeón]

Could I recommend looking for writing from old Armenian? There's an Armenian translation if the Alexander romance of pseudo-calisthenes I've read, there must be a large body of literature.

Here is how I would search:

Search1:
Wikipedia: history of Armenia

->pre-christian times
->names of historical figures.

Because when we lose all other names, whose named do we know? The kings who mints the coin and a copper merchant.

Than, and this is important, look at the sources cited and find any and all you can for free if possible in any language you understand. Good scholarly sources can be a pain in the brain but might also preserve the names you're looking for with high fidelity.

Myths, legends, etc. May also be a great source.

Additionally, if there's difficulty in transliterating these names, myths and legends in translation can give you good, ready- made anglicisations. For example I write "Socrates" when really his name looks nothing like that in Greek because it has a different alphabet and lexicography. Since other nerds have already standardized the way to spell his name in English, I (and all the English speaking world) just use that way. So looking for myths, legends, folklore can be great ways to generate names

[NoSoyLeón]

This may be unpopular but I had chatgpt generate a bunch of topics that can start you on your hopefully more careful search for names. Just use it as a starting point for Google. Have fun doing some amateur linguistic anthropology - I wish I had time to hyperfixate on this, but I don't. I do hope you share your results if you get any

https://chatgpt.com/share/6a278ab7-a4f4-4739-8476-6edb8b717ce3

The discussion or Urartu as a source for early history should be particularly intriguing. Written with cuneiform, so perfect for our game, so bad for most languages of the time haha.

[Toblm]

Pre-Christian and the Armenian language is something of a contradiction.
The oldest forms of Armenian date some ~300 years after Christianity. Classical Armenian is also call Liturgical Armenian for a reason, due to its close links to Christianity.

Depending on the time period you are after looking into Proto-Armenian could be an option, or you may actually be looking for a different language entirely.

[NoSoyLeón]

Originally posted by Colfer:

I was going to say wow, this looks right, but I think we did the same thing. I got some variations in spelling however, like "Ara" instead of "Aram." Hopefully between these OP can at least search with more confidence

I will not many come from myth that may actually come from Mesopotamia...so not truly Armenian names - but what is it for a name to be a nationality? Before everyone was Peter or Paul, they were Adam/Aram and Sam/Shamiram (/s). It mostly speaks to the cultural power that Mesopotamia represented

[NoSoyLeón]

Originally posted by Toblm:

+1

[Kendji]

Well, I've search wikipedia, the problem isn't having the names, as originally stated rather to distinguish them as authentically pre-christian and armenian.

There are Urartian king names, names od poasible vassals etc. But I have no clue which is Hurrian-related Urartian and which is Indo-European Armenian in origin. Like king Aramu, the name sounds Armenian, but other don't etc.

Originally posted by Toblm:

Pre-Christian and Armenian is something of a contradiction.
The oldest forms of Armenian date some ~300 years after Christianity. Classical Armenian is also call Liturgical Armenian for a reason, due to its close links to Christianity.

Depending on the time period you are after looking into Proto-Armenian could be an option, or you may actually be looking for a different language entirely.

Yes, as early as possible, this is the bronze age.

[Toblm]

Originally posted by Kendji:

Originally posted by Toblm:

Pre-Christian and Armenian is something of a contradiction.
The oldest forms of Armenian date some ~300 years after Christianity. Classical Armenian is also call Liturgical Armenian for a reason, due to its close links to Christianity.

Depending on the time period you are after looking into Proto-Armenian could be an option, or you may actually be looking for a different language entirely.

Yes, as early as possible, this is the bronze age.

I wasnt sure if you were running with an Iron age (or later) mod for the map.
Urartian is likely your best bet for the period. It be worth looking at neighboring languages for under attested foreign names that occasionally show up in lists. Luwian, Hittite, Hattic, Hurro-Urartian, Akkadian, Aramaic, maybe even Persian and Parthian could be worth a look though, but that's going to take time.

[Kendji]

For context this is what I intend it for. I might not be able to implement the names as originally thought but I'm exploring different options. The mod has an Hayassa-Azzi, which is why I'm looking into this and asking for help.
I'm not out to promote the mod, rather to figure this name thing out. Depending on how this goes I might try the same for other cultures later on.

[Toblm]

Originally posted by Kendji:

For context this is what I intend it for. I might not be able to implement the names as originally thought but I'm exploring different options. The mod has an Hayassa-Azzi, which is why I'm looking into this and asking for help.
I'm not out to promote the mod, rather to figure this name thing out. Depending on how this goes I might try the same for other cultures later on.

You may have picked the most difficult region to accurately name list to start off on.

[NoSoyLeón]

Okay looking for sources I googled "Hratchia Adjarian’s etymological dictionary of Armenian" couldn't find that but the first result for me was a PDF called
Etymological dictionary of the Armenian Language by hratch t martirosyan. Assuming I didn't just download a massive virus, this could be very useful reference for your study and mod in general.

[NoSoyLeón]

The best reference I could recommend for related languages of import that could help you deductively is "A Grammar of the Hittite Language" both volumes of which can be found free if you look. If you add it to your Amazon cart, usually you will be recommended very useful resources by advertisement retargeting. Gotta use that algorithm to your advantage lol

[Kendji]

I'm looking at Hratchia Adjarian’s etymological dictionary of Armenian atm. Alot of the stuff is christian related and I would have to construct potential names. Also, when it comes to Hittite, I also ready have a book 'the Elements of Hittite' and have gathered an small vocabulary myself. Though the languages are quite different and in-game Hayasa-Azzi is by default in the Hittite name group, so their guys are named after Hittites. Was hoping for something a bit easier tbh. :) Anyhow, I need to look into all the material.

[NoSoyLeón]

Good luck to ya. I can only give you advice as someone else who had an innocent inquiry about some ancient languages, and you probably know this by now, it's just never simple. I am just going to give some advice in general

Gpt: don't trust for actual dead languages. But do find a PDF like any we discussed, "print" a range of pages you find complicated that you want simplified (the fewer the better - be precise) into a new PDF, then ask a gpt to analyze it according to a format, repeatedly feeding the PDF if necessary. Gpt is actually pretty good at summarizing like this, then you can go in with due consideration. Or use it to isolate word parts and compare with other sources. It can be useful to keep them language specific i.e. a convo in each browser and compare after processing

I truly believe you're in an area beyond the point of googling alone. Many answers you would find, if you found em, could lead you many uncertain directions.

My final idea is that if the Armenians lived in a world with linguistic influences from semitic as well as their own and other p.i.e. languages as their root and basic structure, still, many of those names might have names that would take on biblical forms in later times. Just because it appears Christian might not be extremely meaningful if there were Canaanites with some sort of name like Elizabeth/Isabella since those root words describe religious characters who exist within and predate the Old testament. (Fair warning it gets unhinged after this) If you ever read some of the more linguistic side of Tolkien you can see him deriving names for hobbits that to my unfamiliar eyes look more like Armenian than any relatively more modern p.i.e language I have laid eyes on. This seems like a stupid argument but I think there's something telling to Tolkiens attempt to standardize some mythological figures of p.i.e. and semitic languages (such as the main deity, iluvater = il (semitic = god w/ cognates in el, elohim, and Allah) and vater (pater in romance, vater in germanic p.i.e) and why he Armenianized the hobbit language. The point of saying this is that any reconstruction of an unrecorded language like proto Armenian would be to some extent a creative endeavor like this