Name Changes?

[Aiwendil]

Okay, I've been reunited with my books.

The change from ‘ros’ to ‘ron’ was not in light of the change of ‘ros’ from Sindarin to Bëorian (Well, not fully so) but the Sindarin meaning of ‘Ros’ as “spray; spindrift” which had been fixed by Tolkien to mean in Sindarin ‘spray/spindrift’ and hence it would have nothing to do with Maedros’s name and the element of “ros” which is meant to be a reference to his reddish-brown hair.

My understanding is this. Originally there were to be two separate Eldarin stems, one meaning "reddish-brown" and the other meaning "spray/spindrift". The change proposed in "Ros" is that there is only one stem, meaning "spray", and that this is Beorian. But this had to be dropped because of "Cair Andros".

So as I see it the change of "Maedhros" to "Maedron" does depend on the change in "The Problem of Ros".

If we decide to use "Maedron" we are essentially electing to keep half of the change. But my impression is that the whole idea was rejected.

Nonetheless it's an interesting question and I'm eager to hear what others have to say.

Certainly, but aren’t you a firm advocate against personal opinions in regards to a Re-published Silmarillion. (I.E it shouldn’t be what you “like” better”).

Quite so. My point was just that, whether we call him "Amarthan" or "Amrod", we are in no case violating the "true" or canonical pseudo-history. It's more a matter of style than of canon. Of course that doesn't mean we can ignore it. You're right that the sons of Feanor tended to Sindarinize their mother-names, but in a sense, "Amrod" is a Sindarinization of his mother-name. For "Ambarto" was the mother-name he was actually known by prior to his death, "Umbarto" being the true but unused form.

That note is really quite mystifying, though - what could be meant by "when encountered at all"? Does it mean that the Noldor called him "Amarthan" after his death? Or does it mean that texts call him "Amarthan"?

Do you know roughly when that note was written?

All this may be somewhat moot, though; there will not be so very many occasions to refer to Amrod other than at his birth and at his death, in both of which cases his names will play a central role (and hence they will not necessitate a simple Amrod/Amarthan decision).