Naming the Changelings

[Altair_the_Vexed]

Trying to move away from Tolkien's fantasy races, I decided to have a world where there are only humans - and strange spirits sprung out of the isolated places of the land: the mountains, the deep forests, the swamps and the moors. These spirits exist in an unreachable Otherworld - in D&D terms, it'd be a parallel plane, like the Ethereal. They visit our world sometimes, for their own inscrutable reasons.

From there - mainly because players do so love to play something other than human - I had an idea for effectively substituting each of Tolkien's folk with a feared, rare half-breed between the humans and the spirits.
So this would mean we'll have half-breeds without a homeland, without a culture of their own. No societies of dwarves or elves or halflings - instead we've got troubled individuals, hiding their weird heritage.

I guess I just like the atmosphere this idea creates: it's grim and plays on social ignorance and superstitious fears!

So, in my setting, the playable species will be Human, or a Changeling - one of the half-human children of a human and a spirit: one of the Deep Spirits, the Hearth Sprites, the High Fey, or the Unseelie Fey.
The Changelings are near-human in appearance, but with some strange distinguishing features - they're uncanny and disturbing, but not so bizarre that they can't try to hide their nature among ordinary folk.

"Changeling" is the collective term for any one of these half-human offspring - fitting in with folklore about the faeries stealing babies and replacing them with their own ugly children - but what I'd like to have is a name for each type, as they'll be quite distinct from each other.

So here I am asking if anyone can come up with names for them. Thanks in advance!

• Deep Spirits - the cave-dwelling, mine-dwelling dark folk: their Changeling offspiring are dark, squat, hairy, tough. They can feel the tremors of a scurrying rat through the stone work.
  
  Placeholder name: Earthborn
• Hearth Sprites - the unseen helpers, the stealers of cutlery and cupcakes: their Changeling children are slight, small and shy. They never seem to grow up, and can hide almost in plain sight.
  
  Placeholder name: Hearthkin
• High Fey - the forest folk, musical, mischievous: their Changeling children are pale, tall, and uncanny. They can sense the mood of natural animals around them as if it were their own.
  
  Placeholder name: Feyborn
• Unseelie Fey - the dreadful, terrifying folk, lurking in hollow hills: their Changeling brats are ugly, mean and spiteful. They can pierce the courage of the bravest with a glance.
  
  Placeholder name: ???

So - What are these these Changelings all called?

^{(Please don't just say "Dwarves, Halflings, Elves, Goblins")}

[Evoker]

Duergar
Hearthling
Courtling
Dark-Sprite

[Xuc Xac]

Kobold
Brownie
Leshy
Bogey

[brian 333]

Tommy-knockers
Tante
Fairies, Sprites
Sidhe (pronounced SHEE)

[Xuc Xac]

Sidhe (pronounced SHEE)

More like "shee thyuh" as in "if you were a sword I wasn't using, I would sheathe ya". "Sí" is pronunciation like "shee".

[Altair_the_Vexed]

Duergar
Hearthling
Courtling
Dark-Sprite

Kobold
Brownie
Leshy
Bogey

Tommy-knockers
Tante
Fairies, Sprites
Sidhe (pronounced SHEE)

Thanks people - but these seem to be a little off the mark for me. I quite like Hearthling - but it's a little close to "halfling" in sound, so you know what players will do with a name like that.

It seems that I haven't made my OP quite clear, or something, because nearly all your suggestions are traditional names that I'd want to use for the otherworldly spirits themselves, not their half-human offspring.

The Changelings I have in mind are near-human in appearance, but with some strange distinguishing features (squat and hairy, childlike adults, pale and tall, or plain ugly) - they're uncanny and disturbing, but not so bizarre that they can't try to hide their nature among ordinary folk.

Maybe I should have given my own initial ideas for names - Earthborn, Hearthkin, Feyborn ... ??? I've not even come up with a placeholder for the Unseelie one.

[TheStranger]

If I'm understanding you right, it seems like you want the changelings to be more like feytouched humans, not separate races - is that right? And, from the sound of your original post, not very highly thought of. My question is, what are the names for? Most common people would use various slurs to describe them, but scholars might want more precise names. For OOC use, I'd remind players of the human half, with names like half-fey: earthborn. That would help players remember that there's no separate racial identity, and the only difference between the four types is which set of racial modifiers you get.

Also, how well are fey/changelings understood in your setting? How may types of spirits are there? Only four, or are those groupings that encompass many discrete types of spirits? Are there any types of fey that kind of blur the line between the four types? Is there any difference between the children of two different types of deep spirits? All of those things could affect how people in the setting refer to them - the more clearly defined the types of spirits are and how well that information is known, the more clearly people will distinguish between their offspring, rather than just using "changeling" as a catch-all.

As an aside, I imagine changeling babies are made in the usual manner? In the case of a human mother, it's easy to see how that plays out - lots of real-world babies have been born with questions about who the father is. But how does it work with a human father/fey mother? Does a dryad just show up, hand the man an infant, and leave? Are they more "conventional" changelings, swapped in place of human babies? Or are all changelings born to human mothers?

This has the potential to be a *very* dark setting with regard to female sexuality and how unmarried women who get pregnant are treated, depending on exactly how unwelcome changelings are. Married women carrying a changeling baby obviously have it easier, as long as nobody finds out. Ordinary humans who just happen to to be squat/hairy/petite/pale/ugly could also have a bad time of it.

[Altair_the_Vexed]

If I'm understanding you right, it seems like you want the changelings to be more like feytouched humans, not separate races - is that right? And, from the sound of your original post, not very highly thought of. My question is, what are the names for? Most common people would use various slurs to describe them, but scholars might want more precise names. For OOC use, I'd remind players of the human half, with names like half-fey: earthborn. That would help players remember that there's no separate racial identity, and the only difference between the four types is which set of racial modifiers you get.

Yes, I'm thinking that these names are to be used as something of a slur. Maybe yes, we'd need some helpful distinguishing term for OOC use, and maybe even a collection of nastier pejorative terms for common IC use.

Also, how well are fey/changelings understood in your setting? How may types of spirits are there? Only four, or are those groupings that encompass many discrete types of spirits? Are there any types of fey that kind of blur the line between the four types? Is there any difference between the children of two different types of deep spirits? All of those things could affect how people in the setting refer to them - the more clearly defined the types of spirits are and how well that information is known, the more clearly people will distinguish between their offspring, rather than just using "changeling" as a catch-all.

As an aside, I imagine changeling babies are made in the usual manner? In the case of a human mother, it's easy to see how that plays out - lots of real-world babies have been born with questions about who the father is. But how does it work with a human father/fey mother? Does a dryad just show up, hand the man an infant, and leave? Are they more "conventional" changelings, swapped in place of human babies? Or are all changelings born to human mothers?

Understood? Hardly at all. This is to be a pseudo-European medieval setting, with all the poor science that entails. The types of otherworlders that produce changelings will only be four - possibly I might introduce others at a later date, but I want to stick with just those four for now. They're discrete types, with no overlap - but I could provide a sort of pick-n-mix set of options at character creation for each type, to reflect the otherworldly genetic lottery.

With a human mother, the changeling child is carried and born in the normal way. With a human father, the changeling child would arrive as a foundling, bundled up on a doorstep - sometimes of the father's home, sometimes of some unrelated family.

This has the potential to be a *very* dark setting with regard to female sexuality and how unmarried women who get pregnant are treated, depending on exactly how unwelcome changelings are. Married women carrying a changeling baby obviously have it easier, as long as nobody finds out. Ordinary humans who just happen to to be squat/hairy/petite/pale/ugly could also have a bad time of it.

Oh yes, that's exactly one of the conclusions I'm after - also, the whole fantasy racism thing. I'm taking my cue from the various superhero settings where mutants, inhumans, outsiders, or whatever are feared and shunned by the population - used as a parallel / parable for our real-world prejudices. I want to reflect society's grim fears, and let the players overcome them through fantasy action.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Deep Spirits - the cave-dwelling, mine-dwelling dark folk: their Changeling offspiring are dark, squat, hairy, tough. They can feel the tremors of a scurrying rat through the stone work.

Deep changelings sound an awful lot like dwarves, for a setting which is trying to move away from the Tolkien standard.
Anyways, the spirits remind me of knockers/buccas, so let's go with that. Probably bucca, since that doesn't have a slang term associated with it. The changelings...um...well, they presumably feel at home underground, so maybe troglodytes or cavemen or something?

[*]Hearth Sprites - the unseen helpers, the stealers of cutlery and cupcakes: their Changeling children are slight, small and shy. They never seem to grow up, and can hide almost in plain sight.

The spirits are brownies, cut, print, easy. Their changeling children are children, forever. Possibly something like elderkind (elder + German for "child")? Probably not that exactly, but something with a similar etymology.

High Fey - the forest folk, musical, mischievous: their Changeling children are pale, tall, and uncanny. They can sense the mood of natural animals around them as if it were their own.

See my comment on deep changelings.
Anyways, these sound like the Fair Folk archetype, so we might as well call them that. Their changelings might be called something like fairchildren, which would have the side effect of making sure everyone remembered which kind they belong to. Though it also implies they look fair, ie pretty, which they don't.

[*]Unseelie Fey - the dreadful, terrifying folk, lurking in hollow hills: their Changeling brats are ugly, mean and spiteful. They can pierce the courage of the bravest with a glance.

Are there actual demons in this cosmology, or are there just humans, spirits, and those in between? Because if demonology is off the table, calling them demons and cambions seems viable.

Yes, I'm thinking that these names are to be used as something of a slur.

In that case...
"Dwarf" always sounded more like a slur to me. It'll do for deep changelings. Or "trogs," for being cave-dwellers.
Something about hearth changelings being cowardly sycophants...servers or vassals or contracted form s of those or something?
The high-fey changelings are creepy, so just call them creeps. Maybe deadkin, since they're all pale?
"Demons" works pretty dang well as a slur. Or maybe "the Damned," if you want to get fancy.

[Altair_the_Vexed]

Deep changelings sound an awful lot like dwarves, for a setting which is trying to move away from the Tolkien standard....

See my comment on deep changelings.
...

Are there actual demons in this cosmology, or are there just humans, spirits, and those in between? Because if demonology is off the table, calling them demons and cambions seems viable.

...

Yes, they do seem like Dwarves and Elves (and Hearthkin seem a bit like halflings maybe) - that is intentional.
But the thing to keep in mind is that a real changeling (as opposed to someone bullied because they look a bit weird) will be about one per ten thousand population. There'd be a few in a city, one in a large town, one among several villages, and so on.
They're not common enough to form a community, like Tolkien's Dwarves Elves and Hobbits. So instead of having a culture, homeland, history, language, a family of fellow Elves (or Dwarves, or whatever), peers to interact with, and all that entails - the changelings are each on their own.

There will be demons and angels in the cosmology, aside from the otherworldly spirits, so I'll avoid using those terms.

Thanks for al lthe suggestions - I'm particularly liking Elderkind - but I think I'd contract it down to Eldkin.

I'll start a list of suggested slurs, cause we humans are horribly inventive at insulting the things we're afraid of.

[Fire Tarrasque]

What about "Those damn pale skinned unnatural accursed Hell-born abominations?"

[Altair_the_Vexed]

What about "Those damn pale skinned unnatural accursed Hell-born abominations?"

A bit long for everyday use...

[PiperThePaladin]

Let's see...

Deep Spirits: Mouldwarp/moldwarp is an Old English word for a mole, which I think is a fabulous name

Hearth Sprites: Everchildren, Knee-kin

High Fey: Moonshades, Ule, Ulan plural (Old English for owl, Old English is fun)

Unseelie Fey: (Maybe something related to hexing, curses, or the evil eye? Seems in line with evil superstitions.) Fell Eyes, Fellkind, Hag, Witch

If these were my races, I think I'd pick Mouldwarp, Knee-kin, Ulan, and Hags. I like your changelings, they have a very dark ages, superstitious feel to them. :)

[Altair_the_Vexed]

Let's see...

Deep Spirits: Mouldwarp/moldwarp is an Old English word for a mole, which I think is a fabulous name

Hearth Sprites: Everchildren, Knee-kin

High Fey: Moonshades, Ule, Ulan plural (Old English for owl, Old English is fun)

Unseelie Fey: (Maybe something related to hexing, curses, or the evil eye? Seems in line with evil superstitions.) Fell Eyes, Fellkind, Hag, Witch

If these were my races, I think I'd pick Mouldwarp, Knee-kin, Ulan, and Hags. I like your changelings, they have a very dark ages, superstitious feel to them. :)

Thanks! Superstition and ignorance is going to be a big part of the flavour of my setting - nice to know it's coming across!
There's some good food for thought there - I like the idea of plundering Old English.

[Sizzlefoot]

Deep changelings sound an awful lot like dwarves, for a setting which is trying to move away from the Tolkien standard.
Anyways, the spirits remind me of knockers/buccas, so let's go with that. Probably bucca, since that doesn't have a slang term associated with it. The changelings...um...well, they presumably feel at home underground, so maybe troglodytes or cavemen or something?

Huh. I always thought the bucca were the sort of halfling-ish brownie types. Maybe I'm confusing them with bwcas.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Huh. I always thought the bucca were the sort of halfling-ish brownie types. Maybe I'm confusing them with bwcas.

Or the same phonemes were assembled into names for different legendary beings. Or the same name was eventually assigned to multiple types of legendary beings. Or the same legendary being has multiple versions in different times or cultures. Mythology is weird like that.

[DuctTapeKatar]

Well, if these feykin are basically just half-breeds, then what really counts toward making them stand out isn't their names but what they actually do in society. If they are insular and outcast, then it makes sense that, even if they don't have any long-standing kingdoms of their own, they would create pocket societies akin to witch covens and thieves guilds.

Though you can set up official names for them, I think the real trick would be to hide the different types behind multiple names, or even have it all so vague that the players' can't track what is what, making it seem like every feykin is a completely different individual. This would add a bit of mysticism to them.

Personally, I'd name them based off of other details in the setting. Deep-kin come from the spirits from the earth, and earth in the old tongue is "Ulg", so they are called "Ulgbolds". The only problem with this is that it relies heavily on setting up your world beforehand, and my contribution would be redundant with the amount of good content posted before me.


My suggestion for insults:

"Spark-eyes," in reference to their colorful irises.

"Pick-Fingers" since their hands are so slim.

"Beast-lover" since a redneck villager thinks that the only way you're getting a girlfriend or boyfriend is by casting "speak with animals." Takes one to know one, I guess.

"Cinderella" for the feykin of the hearth, since it originated from how the fairy-tale princess of the same name had to sleep in the hearth at night.

"Dhampir" because nothing hurts more than being compared to something that sparkles in sunlight.

"Unnamed" for those without any parents to grant one.

[jqavins]

I haven't read the whole thread yet, but here are some quick ideas:

Deep Spirits - the cave-dwelling, mine-dwelling dark folk: their Changeling offspiring are dark, squat, hairy, tough. They can feel the tremors of a scurrying rat through the stone work.

Diggers

Hearth Sprites - the unseen helpers, the stealers of cutlery and cupcakes: their Changeling children are slight, small and shy. They never seem to grow up, and can hide almost in plain sight.

(working on it)

High Fey - the forest folk, musical, mischievous: their Changeling children are pale, tall, and uncanny. They can sense the mood of natural animals around them as if it were their own.

Trees.

Unseelie Fey - the dreadful, terrifying folk, lurking in hollow hills: their Changeling brats are ugly, mean and spiteful. They can pierce the courage of the bravest with a glance.

Brutes

These simple, ordinary words used to describe the changelings fit, I think, what you've said about the terms being derogatory. Think of the ethnic slurs used in the real world; many of them use ordinary words to describe people's characteristics in a derogatory way. (Examples might be against the rules.)

[GreatWyrmGold]

Personally, I'd name them based off of other details in the setting. Deep-kin come from the spirits from the earth, and earth in the old tongue is "Ulg", so they are called "Ulgbolds". The only problem with this is that it relies heavily on setting up your world beforehand, and my contribution would be redundant with the amount of good content posted before me.

Also, it would be a pretty solid brick wall for anyone new to the setting. Most people will have some idea what "deepkin," "earthborn," "dwarves," or even "buccas" are without needing much prodding. "Ulgbolds," though? I remember the first time I read a Dragonlance novel and tried to figure out what a "kender" was. (It didn't help that the Dragonlance Legends trilogy seemed to assume you had already read the Dragonlance Chronicles trilogy, but that's wandering off-topic.) Or when I first read Eragon, and assumed urgals were basically satyrs. (I must have recently watched Disney's Hercules when I first read the books, because I've never been able to shake the image of them basically being big versions of Phil. But I'm getting even farther off-topic.)
You can absolutely introduce races with names that only make sense in the context of your world, but picking names which connect back to real-world folklore (or which are derived from English/Latin/whatever words) allows people to get a vague sense of them instantly, letting you focus on the details instead of having to paint the whole picture.