When getting to grips with fictional settings, I always try to grok the way characters and places are named. These are just a couple of preliminary thoughts.
Howard's character names are a mix of historical names, modified historical names or new names inspired by them, and fantastic made-up names. While reading and rereading the Conan stories I'm reading other stories by Howard and, in part, thinking how elements (such as names) could be adapted to the Hyborian Age.
De Camp's article "Hyborian Names", published in Conan the Swordsman, is a handy compilation of character and place names (with a few omissions) from the Lancer/Ace Conan stories, though some of the derivations are speculative and/or unlikely.
Two of the main types of fantastic names are Pictish and Zamorian.
There are a lot more Pictish names in non-Conan stories: Brogar, Brule, Brulla, Gonar, Grogar, Grom, Grulk, Ka-nu, Kelka, Lion-fang, to name a lot of them, and Garogh from a Conan draft. Of the Conan-story Pict names, one is native American-styled (Teyanoga), and two are fantastic (Gorm -- though the Danish king may be an inspiration -- and Zogar Sag). Just as he used more medieval terminology when writing "The Scarlet Citadel", Howard's interest in American lore when he wrote "Wolves Beyond the Border" led him to use some American-style character and place names. I don't think this invalidates the fantastic-styled Pict names, and I think they could be interestingly merged to increase the narrow B-, G- range.
There are different ways to interpret the extant Zamorian names, Shevatas and Yara. I see a pattern with Yara, the Zarfhaanian name Kulra Thoom from "Delcardes' Cat", and Joka from "Rogues in the House", though I may be imagining it.
Howard's character names are a mix of historical names, modified historical names or new names inspired by them, and fantastic made-up names. While reading and rereading the Conan stories I'm reading other stories by Howard and, in part, thinking how elements (such as names) could be adapted to the Hyborian Age.
De Camp's article "Hyborian Names", published in Conan the Swordsman, is a handy compilation of character and place names (with a few omissions) from the Lancer/Ace Conan stories, though some of the derivations are speculative and/or unlikely.
Two of the main types of fantastic names are Pictish and Zamorian.
There are a lot more Pictish names in non-Conan stories: Brogar, Brule, Brulla, Gonar, Grogar, Grom, Grulk, Ka-nu, Kelka, Lion-fang, to name a lot of them, and Garogh from a Conan draft. Of the Conan-story Pict names, one is native American-styled (Teyanoga), and two are fantastic (Gorm -- though the Danish king may be an inspiration -- and Zogar Sag). Just as he used more medieval terminology when writing "The Scarlet Citadel", Howard's interest in American lore when he wrote "Wolves Beyond the Border" led him to use some American-style character and place names. I don't think this invalidates the fantastic-styled Pict names, and I think they could be interestingly merged to increase the narrow B-, G- range.
There are different ways to interpret the extant Zamorian names, Shevatas and Yara. I see a pattern with Yara, the Zarfhaanian name Kulra Thoom from "Delcardes' Cat", and Joka from "Rogues in the House", though I may be imagining it.
