1. All names, words,
phrases, and languages used in a Society name must either be from period
(i.e., have been used before 1600) or accepted by the College of Arms as
consistent with period naming practices.
2. All words, word order, spelling
and grammar must be correct for the languages used.
3. Names that were created after
1600 may be submitted and judged on a case-by-case basis. Such names should
follow period linguistic traditions. They may not be strings of random
phonemes, nor may they break any of the other rules.
4. Society names may be submitted
by themselves to the College. They need not be accompanied by the submission
of a device or badge. However, a device or badge submission must include
a Society name to which it can be registered. Society names may be changed
by resubmitting the new name as a name change, which must then pass through
the same process as a new name.
5. Society names may not conflict
with other registered Society names or with important names in the mundane
world, past or present, or in myth or fiction. This includes claims of
relationship as well as direct conflict.
6. The Society name of an individual
must consist of a given name and at least one byname. Documented diminutives
of given names are acceptable as given names.
7. A Society name for an individual
may not use more than three languages, whose cultures had substantial contact
in period. No one element (a single word or phrase) of a name may combine
languages. Prepositions and adjectives must be of the same language as
the noun they accompany.
8. Any member may use elements
of his/her legal name as the corresponding elements of his/her Society
name, without the necessity of period documentation. Such name elements
may not be intrusively modern, nor used in such a way as to violate any
other rule concerning names. A member’s Society name may not be identical
to his/her mundane name.
9. A Society name may not include
titles, honors, membership in orders, or surnames that would imply that
one is a member of a royal family or is of royal birth, no matter if it
is a part of his/her mundane name.
10. A member may not claim to
be of divine, non-human, or extra-terrestrial origin or descent.
11. Names that would prove offensive
to a significant segment of the SCA, or of the population as a whole, may
not be used. This is true even when the offense is unintentional.
12. The College of Arms deals
with each member’s mundane identity, and not his/her persona. All honors
earned by or granted to a member belong to the member and not to the persona.
The College of Arms requires a single Society name for each member, under
which all honors will be listed in the Order of Precedence and under which
all submissions will be filed.
13. If a submitted name is not
acceptable but an accompanying device or badge is acceptable, a holding
name may be devised by the College so that the device or badge may be registered.
Later, when the non-acceptable name has been proven or changed by the submitter,
he/she may file for a name change and the holding name will be dropped.
14. Once a submitter’s name
has been registered, it may not be unregistered, even should problems later
be found with the name. Permission to use any problematic elements of the
name in later submissions, by the submitter or his immediate relatives,
may be granted on a case-by-case basis.
