Vekirati Hierarchy and Naming Traditions

The personal naming traditions of Vekirai (which have found considerable popularity throughout Nangkap ) are a post-Amalorian development, closely related to Baireki naming traditions and likely carried between the port cities by trade.
Vekirati naming reflects the importance of the system of Filial Hierarchy which is also prevalent in Bairok and Cyiros. Vekirati society is highly hierarchical and patriarchal. Broadly, all Vekirati people fall into one of the following ranks:

1. Sage - the Sages rule Vekirai (and the wider Empire of Nangkap) and represent the highest rank (which was historical reserved for the royal family). The Sages are treated as one family and do not take surnames in keeping with the tradition of the former Kings of Vekirai who they superseded.
2. Priest - members of the priesthood of the Polyarchist faith rank highly, devout followers of the faith may rank them above the class of Lord although this is sometimes controversial. It is also controversial where non-Polyarchist clergy rank. Priests take a family surname as well as titles of reverance.
3. Lord - the aristocratic class is made up of Peers of the Parliament of Vekirai and Mandarins and Governors appointed to government positions by the sages, and their families.
4. Landed Freeman - Men who own property, businesses, ships, land, etc., and their families are ranked just below Lords.
5. Tenant Freemen - Men who own no significant property or any land or businesses are ranked below those who do.
6. Slaves - Attitudes to slavery vary in Vekirai and in wider Nangkap; many see it as an unfortunate but necessary part of a stable society, and some Lords campaign for its criminalisation. Either way, slaves rank beneath tenant freeman. They are usually named by the family they serve, e.g. a slave owned by the House of Morian might be surnamed Moriat ('belonging to the Morian family').
7. Classless - People who are unemployed but free and classless. Being free is not enough to be a tenant freeman who must earn a wage and/or rent property. The classless rank below slaves even and have little protection under the law. People in this class are almost always forced to seek work or even try to sell themselves into slavery.

This hierarchy is strictly coded in Vekirati law. It is possible to change class only in specific circumstances. In most cases, one's class is simply that of one's father (or mother in matrilineal families). People rarely rise to a higher rank:  a classless man might be employed or enslaved, a slave could be freed and employed, a tenant freeman could buy property, a landed freeman might convince the parliament to give him a title. In the Polyarchist temples, membership of the priesthood is generally hereditary although occasionally people of other classes train their way into the priesthood. The sages fill their ranks by public exam although only the wealthy can afford sufficient tuition to pass.
It is not uncommon for people to fall to a lower class: a Sage might be expelled from the order for breaching its regulations, a Priest might be expelled from the temple by his superiors, a Lord might have his title stripped by the parliament when he falls from the favour of his peers, a landed freeman might lose his property by gambling or poor investment, a tenant freeman might lose his job or be made a slave to avoid becoming classless, a slave may be set free with no opportunity of other employment.
Additionally, a woman almost always joins the class of her husband. There are exceptions to this rule which result in matriarchal families. The most common example is in the case of Polyarchist priestesses who cannot get married but can have sex and have children. Although they are unmarried women, they are the heads of their own households. There are also rare cases where powerful women of the Lord class may marry a man on condition that he agrees to be subject to a matrilineal family (this is written into a clause in the marriage contract). The existence of such marriages was established under Queen Regent Hyama.
Within the classes, a finer grade of heirarchy (the filial hierarchy) exists within families. This is explained in the context of naming conventions below. There is considerable ambiguity how far the familial bond reaches, for example, it is not clear always how closely related you must be to a Peer of the Parliament of Vekirai to be in the Lord Class. In many cases, Vekirati law and tradition suggests the limit of such a familial connection is to 12 family members, i.e. including the Peer himself, the 12 highest ranking members of his family are of the Lord class by the grace of his title. Only members of the clergy and their direct descendants are of the Priest class however and one can only be of the Sage class in one's own right (Sages are supposedly celibate).

First Names

Vekirati first names are usually the first names of a particularly impressive relative and are meant to give children something to aspire to. These names tend not to be thought of as having any particular meaning although many are derived from words in Ancient Amalorian, Old Iasi, Old Cyirosi or T'ani, the extinct languages of the realms around Vekirai.

Men's Surnames

Vekirati surnames are the names of semi-mythical ancestors of a family. Often families tell a story about the ancestor. In some cases, where the family is not known, a new surname might be created. It is also common in Vekirati societies for nobles to adopt in order to secure succession of their lands and titles.
Vekirati surnames take a particle before the name which indicates their position in the traditional filial hierarchy. The particle is an indicator of the holder's place in the family. For example, 'gan' (literally meaning 'first') is an abbreviation of 'first amongst the sons of'. Famously, the first King of Vekirai was named Luria Gan Irao at the time of his rise to the throne. Men in the family generally take such numerical titles. The order is determined principally by how favoured they are by the Ganron ('the first son') of the family rather than about heritage. It is at the discretion of the Gan how he numbers his male relatives, although the generally accepted ordering system is to do so by age.
Foreigners in Vekirai are often given names beginning 'vol' meaning 'from' (such as Lord Bariat Vol Oster . They would then be treated as the ancestor of their line. This means that the first son of Lord Mestad Vol Ostadun would be surnamed 'Gan Mestad'. In this case, the Volron outranks the Ganron in filial hierarchy.
Occasionally orphans, those of disputed heritage or foreigners are surnamed 'Gan Romsel-et' meaning 'first of his own line'. The younger brother of Suram Gan Romsel-et is Miat Gan Suram, although Suram outranks his brother in filial hierarchy (that is Ganron-et outranks the Ganron). Although the particle 'gan' is short for 'first of the sons of', brothers of the Ganron-et still take the particle 'gan'; the sense of the word meaning 'son' can be considered as a metaphor.
At the most extreme, the numerical system stops at 12 (the highest monosyllabic ordinal number in Vekirati) and subsequent men are called 'va' meaning 'of' and short for 'of the sons of'. A man may by his family ties be a relative of two Ganrons. He is, by default, part of his father's house, though he may change house with the consent of the Ganron of that house. Usually men take the highest filial rank offered to them. Adoptions in this system are fairly common especially to facilitate smooth inheritance of property.
It also occurs on occasion that a man who is a distant relative of his Ganron but wealthy and successful in his own right may choose to start a new house and rename himself using the 'Gan Romsel-et' form. 
The system of filial hierarchy is strictly enforced in law. The system of strict age-based hierarchy means that, by default, brothers rank before sons. The Ganron may (and very often does) reorder his family by his own preferences though, and this forms the basis for inheritance law in Vekirai and much of Nangkap.

Women's Surnames

Women's names take a very different naming system with most women surnamed 'va' followed by the house name (simply 'of' the house). Married women join the house of their husband and are sometimes 'min' short for 'minrad' meaning 'married' itself an abbreviation of the phase 'married into the house of'.
A few families follow a matrilineal numbering system. This system began during the reign of Queen Regent Hyama who gave women in Vekirai limited rights to hold political office or own property.
Women do form part of the filial hierarchy in any case. Except in the rare matrilineal families, all men in the family rank before all women in the family except for wives who rank immediately beneath their husband in terms of social standing (although not for purposes of inheritance). This can mean that older women who were the wives of high ranking men in the family, may technically outrank even the Ganron after their husband dies. 
Matrilineal families are rare but may occur when women hold wealth or titles in their own right. Many matrilineal households are headed by priestesses. Cleric have high social status in Vekirati society and therefore often cannot be outranked by their male partners. Women, in such families, can also be given numerical familial titles which take the suffix 'manon' meaning 'daughter' such that in the family of Balana Gan Mirianal, the High Priestess of the Sorrowful God, Balana is the Ganmanon of the family (the first amongst the daughters of Mirianol).

Number Particles

For convenience the number particles and other common Vekirati surname particles are listed here.

Particle	Use/Meaning
Gan	'1st', 'first of the sons of', the head of the family
Ron	'2nd', 'second of the sons of', the favourite of the head of the family
Lan	'3rd'
Nas	'4th'
Vid	'5th'
Lok	'6th'
Pav	'7th'
Ben	'8th'
Mal	'9th'
Sim	'10th'
Hos	'11th'
Fal	'12th'
Vol	'from', for foreigners, the Volron is the head of their own house
Va	'of', for women in patrilineal families or for distant relatives of the Ganron
Min	'married', short for 'minrad', for women married into the family