Finrod: 30-Day Character Study - Study Days by cuarthol

10. What's in a Name?

What's in a Name? Research the meaning of your character's name. Think about how that name fits the character but also what the name might more subtly imply about your character.

As with about half of the Silmarillion characters, the immediate first question is “which name??”

So let’s look at them all!

Findaráto was his father-name, and is in the Telerin language of his mother’s people.  Despite it being Telerin, it still references his Noldo heritage, including the Findë element derived from Finwë, a trait that all his kin share.  It means "[Golden-]Haired Champion", a reference to Finarfin’s house, and the ‘Aráto” element is shared with his next brother.  It’s a shame that Finarfin did not use the Telerin language to give his son a name that actually referenced his Telerin heritage.

This name is what is rendered not into the Sindarin language, but the elements Sindarized into Finrod.

Ingoldo was his mother-name, and is in the Quenya language of his father’s people, and a name he shares with his father (being Finarfin's mother-name as well).

It meant "the Ñoldo", 'one-eminent of the kindred' which is in simpler words 'the wise'.  This name is given in The Peoples of Middle-earth, and seems to be a reference to the earlier name given to Finrod, Inglor, at the time of Tolkien’s writing when Finrod referred rather to Finarfin, his father.

Nóm or Nómin was the name given to him by the people of Bëor, and is in the Taliska language.  Like Ingoldo, it means ‘the wise’.

And then there is Felagund, Sindarinized form of the Khuzdul name Felakgundu, given to him by the Dwarves, meaning Hewer of Caves. (There is a note that Tolkien might have revised this to be a name given in mockery by the Sons of Fëanor for his choice to delve caverns rather than build a city.)

Felagund appears to be the name that Finrod (and perhaps Tolkien himself) prefers.  He is referred to by Felangund more often than Finrod in the text of The Silmarillion, and it is Felagund that he ‘reverses’ into Dungalef (which isn’t a perfect reversal) when he stands before Sauron.

We know, of course, that authors will give characters names that mean something about the character, but I like to think that Finrod chose to adopt the name Felagund because it is one of the names that actually involves something Finrod loves and does, rather than being some version of what his lineage is or a claim of wisdom.

Perhaps, in a way, it was Finrod pushing back on the idea that he was wise, or at least pushing back on the claim of it.  The almost paradox of being more wise by denying wisdom seems to fit Finrod oddly well.  Perhaps it’s his way of trying to temper the arrogance he might otherwise fall into more readily.