Work Text:
Ok so we all know the prevalence of suffixes in Dwarrow names and at first it seems fairly obvious how the suffix is chosen for a child’s name. It is easy to make the assumption that children are named with the same suffix as their father (just as most of us take our fathers last name) especially since Dís is the only Dwarrowdam we know by name and Fíli and Kíli are not named after her (but I will get back to that).
Most of the company are descendants of Durin and therefore have some form of -in suffix (Thorin, Balin, Dwalin, Oín, and Glóin). It is also worth noting that the suffix is slightly different even within the Durin line. Thorin (as a direct descendant of Durin) has the full -rin suffix as did his brother Fenrin. Balin, Dwalin, Oín, and Glóin are cousins to the line of Durin and have other letters in the suffix. In my opinion this is a way to show that they are still high up in nobility but that they are not at the top.
So far this all matches with the idea of fathers sharing suffixes with their children but then you may realize that the formal announcement of Thorin’s name is “son of Thrain, son of Thror”. Wait a minute, where did the -or suffix come from and where did it go? Shouldn’t Thrain have the -or suffix as the son of Thror? Based off of this information, my first headcanon is that Thror’s wife was the Durin and my second headcannon is that Dwarrow are named with the suffix of the most influential parent regardless of gender.
How does this all work out you may ask? Well headcannon is that most Dwarrow are named after their father because most Dwarrowdams marry up in status. Therefore the father passes on his suffix as the more influential parent. However, as a princess there is little to no way for Thror’s spouse to marry above her station. Especially if she was an only child and needed to stay on the throne of Erebor or needed direct heirs of Durin for the throne. So it is very likely that Thror’s spouse had the -in suffix and passed it on to her son Thrain.
Ok but why doesn’t Dís have the -rin suffix? Doesn’t it make more sense to assume that dwarrowdams get their suffixes from their mothers and Dwarrow from their fathers? That could be true but we also have to remember that opinion of the line of Durin was probably falling around the time of her birth. With the Dragon sickness it is likely that Thrain and his wife (I favor the name Frís for her) decided to give Dís the -ís suffix to spare her from the prejudice from being part of the line of Durin. As the youngest she also could have received the -ís suffix as a gift to her mother (the same way we might let a mother name the girls and a father name the boys or maybe more similar to a couple hyphenating their last names) but I think my first theory makes more sense especially as we start talking about the next generation.
When we talk about Fíli and Kíli with this context it becomes far more likely that they received the -íli suffix from their father not because he was male but because he was of higher standing. Think about it, Fíli and Kíli we’re born after the fall of Erebor and after the loss at Moria. The line of Durin probably had a very low public opinion at the time. Even though the -ís suffix is not -in it is still associated with the Durins due to Frís and Dís. So Dís spouse (I like to call him Víli) passed on his suffix as the one of higher standing (or possibly as a way to shelter the boys). Since Gimli also has the -li suffix instead of -in it is likely that the same thing happened between his parents (and also that his mother is related to Fíli and Kíli‘s father).
Anyway thank you for coming to my TED talk. I’m sorry if this doesn’t make much sense when I write it down I just really needed to get the idea out of my head. If you ever want to talk complicated dwarrow family naming with me (I have a bit more to say about the other Dwarrow in the company but I ran out of time) feel free to HMU in the comments!