I need some advice from you experiences experienced modders out there.
I'm having some difficulty with some name lists for my fledgling personal mod. I need some suggestions on what type of names to use for the smaller factions/possible factions.
I know that Croat and Serb names are close but not identical. I also know that the Danube Bulgars were Turkic; and so, at times, the names for them would be Turkic (Pecheneg then later Cuman) or Byzantine or later Slavic like the Croats and Serbs. By the time of the 2nd Bulgarian empire, the rulers were using Byzantine/Western forenames names like John; but the surname/house name was decidedly Cuman like Asen or Shishman. And yet, and most of the people were Slavic and the culture was mostly a mix of Slavic and Byztantine.
My question is which would you use? Should I resort to using different name lists for each era or just pick one for all three and stick with it, or even worse three lists for each group for each era?
And for the Volga-Bulgars. From about 922 or so they were Muslim; and most of the names of rulers from then on are heavily influenced by Arabic names. But they also use Turkic names, Mongol names and even some Jewish influenced names later after they gain independence from the Khazar Khanate. So you get oddly mixed names like Khisam Anbal ibn Selim Kolyn who ruled the Volga Bulgar Khanate from 1135-1162. Would it be worthwhile to attempt making a name list just for the Volga Bulgars, even though they might really only be used in the early and high eras, prior to the Mongol invasion?
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