[ q u e n y a  l a p s e p a r m a ]

It seems that almost everyone who interested in Tolkien and particularly in his invented languages played with an idea to have his/her own name in an Elvish language. Some use names taken from Tolkien's books, while the others try to coin their own Elvish nickname. It seems to be a common habit. Sometimes people create their own poetic Elvish name and sometimes they try to translate the meaning of their real name into Elvish.
A few years ago Helge Fauskanger, the web master of Ardalambion, wrote an article called Now We Have All Got Elvish Names for a nice journal Tyalie Tyelleliéva. In this article he translated several common first names in Quenya (a High Elven language, a speech of the Noldor and Vanyar).
As the interest in Tolkien languages (in particular in Quenya) grew, more people wanted to have their names translated into Quenya. Some even started to talk about a Quenya babybook which would contain renderings of first names.
Inspired by these suggestions and by Helge's article, I decided to compile such a babybook which would contain some first names translated to Quenya. And so with help of the books The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names by E. G. Withycombe (ISBN 0-19-281213-0) and A Concise Dictionary of First Names by Patrick Hanks and Flavia Hodges (ISBN 0-19866190-8) I translated several dozens of names. People liked my work and began to suggest more names. They also brought my attention to the site www.behindthename.com which has a huge database of many first names with their meanings, etylomogy and origin. And so I added even more names and am still adding slowly more names.
It must be pointed out that some names were not added, because their meaning or origin is not known and therefore such names can hardly be translated to Quenya. Sometimes such names can be adopted to Quenya system of sounds. Tolkien himself adopted the name of Mary to Quenya as María. Beside this obstacle, there is another significant reason why some names were not added. Unfortunately, we know only a few hundreds of Quenya words, because many Tolkien's writings on his languages still remain unpublished. Sometimes we can find help in The Qenya Lexicon, the earliest Quenya dictionary, but the words from the Lexicon are usually obscure, because Tolkien kept changing the structure of his beloved Quenya and its early form (usually called Qenya) is somewhat different to the Quenya as recorded in, say, Namárie. Such words must be treated with caution (in the Babybook itself I indicate that a certain word in taken from QL (i.e. Qenya Lexicon)).
The Babybook does not contain all names and not even all variants of particular names. So for instance, if your name is, say, Carla, it may not be listed in the Babybook (and actually it is not). This name is evidently a feminine form of Carl. Try to find therefore other feminine forms of the name Carl (or of Charles) and you will find Carol, which is listed in the Babybook. Try also different spellings, for instance, if your name is Karol, do not hesitate and try other spellings.
Let me also note that similarly as with variants of the real names, not each and every possible variant of Quenya translations is listed. For example, the most common masculine endings are -o and -on which are more or less interchangeable, but only one variant may be mentioned.
From time to time a needed word is coined from existing sources (an adjective is derived from a noun, for example) and such words are asterisked. Details on most of these words can be found in the newwords wordlist.
As for the Babybook as such: the majority of entries here consist of the real first name, information about the sex (m. or f.), its origin (a country or language), its translation to English, particular Quenya words and finally a suggested translation. Sometimes some additional information is added.
It must be remembered that the Babybook may contain errors. You are therefore highly encouraged to submit your corrections as well as suggestions.

Unfortunately, I am currently unable to process your requests for translating your names that are not in the Lapseparma (I have not even been able to manage your numerous past requests, for which I apologize).


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