Question re: the twins and naming conventions

[firestar]

How normal is it for one twin to have a one character given name and the other a two character one?

This question brought to you by binge reading too many no powers!AU fics where Ye Zun isn't the big bad and the two are just regular twins. (In as much as they can be, given... well, them being themselves) There doesn't seem to be a lot of consensus on how to name Ye Zun in those, and it's something that's also just... mainly worked around and not mentioned at all.

(Help. I'm the whitest white girl and have no context for this whatsoever and enquiring minds want to know. >.>)

Comments

[naye]

I mean, that makes add much sense as anything! But technically the Zun 尊 part of his name is the title? (A definition I've gotten is "revered".) "Ye" 夜 on the other hand means "night".

[strangefen]

*shrug* I am totally willing to admit to translation fail on my part

[firestar]

Hence all the 'revere the night' thing he has going on the brainwashing front, I assume.

[naye]

Exactly! It's. Quite Extra.

Oh Ye Zun.

[firestar]

Extra might as well be his name, the way he goes about everything. XD

[strangefen]

Oh cool! I hadn't made that connection.

[extrapenguin]

Yup! "Ye Zun" is more ... "Night Lord", kinda sorta, and not what I'd class as an actual name. It's a title/nickname, given to him either by the rebels or some other source. Given that in the flashback, the twins only ever address each other as gege/didi, I'd be willing to believe that Ye Zun has forgotten his original name. As has Shen Wei, maybe.

Shen Wei's surname must be original, but he says people call him Wéi 嵬 because he comes from the mountain. Based on that, Ye Zun must also come from the mountain, and thus I shall unify him with his brother and call him 嶪 (conveniently also pronounced yè) should I ever need to rename him.

[firestar]

Well, it has been 10,000 years. And I doubt the rebels cared what his name was and called him whatever they felt like which, you know, probably not a name he'd want to keep.

Oooh, interesting. I wonder if that's why Chinese language fic tends to go with Shen Ye, as per a comment up top. Hmmm.

[extrapenguin]

Actually, we hear the rebel boss call him Ye Zun, we hear Shen Wei call him Ye Zun, and we hear lots of other people call him Ye Zun! Though I don't recall if he ever stood up and declared that he was Ye Zun. (That'd actually be an interesting aspect to consider re: Ye Zun's identity and hypothetical lingering brainwashing from the original rebel leader. Hmm. So much to bite into!)

(Also, that 嶪 is one half of 岌嶪, which means "high and steep / towering / perilous", similar to Shen Wei's Wei!)

Well, "Shen Zun" makes no sense as a name – it'd be "Lord Shen" or "The Honored Shen" or something to that effect. "Shen Ye" with Ye Zun's ye would actually be a passable name. Somewhat relatedly, my biggest bugbear is when fic refers to Ye Zun as "Zun" only. Please. That's not his name! (And I also hate it when people refer to Shen Wei as just Wei or just Shen, and when people refer to Zhao Yunlan as just Zhao. Argh.)

[firestar]

Oh, there's so much to delve into with Ye Zun. The benfits (?) of not really getting a lot of backstory. XD

(Symmetry!)

There's a writer on AO3 that uses Wei and Lan and every time I see it I twitch, because even I know that's not right and I can't deal. Throw an honorific in front of it at least, if you don't want to use full names for whatever reason. *headdesks*

[extrapenguin]

Ye Zun is a very nice character! Not much backstory, but it's all very fraught, and we know he has a dysfunctional relationship with his brother!

There's a writer on AO3 that uses Wei and Lan and every time I see it I twitch, because even I know that's not right and I can't deal. Throw an honorific in front of it at least, if you don't want to use full names for whatever reason. *headdesks*
Yeah it's ... Chinese reference is minimum two syllables. Some of those get translated (eg 沈教授 -> Professor Shen), some don't (沈巍 -> Shen Wei; 小巍 -> xiao-Wei), but ... none of this "Lan" business. I actually keep at first reading it as fic for another fandom entirely, where there were characters whose surnames were Wei and Lan.

[firestar]

Not much backstory is a blessing as well as a frustration. You can make up anything, as long as it works for the character. XD

*nods* And usually full names, right? Unless you're close or using an honorific like lao, xiao, ge etc?

[extrapenguin]

And usually full names, right? Unless you're close or using an honorific like lao, xiao, ge etc?
Yup! You can also refer to this Twitter thread. Lao, xiao, and -ge aren't honorifics as such (xiao is a diminutive), but, uh, sorta yeah.

[firestar]

*favourites thread* That's going to be super useful, thank you. <3

Heh, I've had a long day, honorifcs was the only word I could come up with. >.>

[extrapenguin]

No problem – we've all had that kind of day every now and then. Hopefully the thread will be useful!

[firestar]

It is so far! When I'm not dying over ZYL being so fucking Extra. XD

[firestar]

omg. Reading through that and just. Facepalming over book Yunlan. Good brother, indeed, oh my god.