How Andalite names work

[Aldrea Hammee]

Has anybody ever wondered what the significance of the three names are? I mean, it's obviously not a first/middle/last name signifier like humans have, since Ax and Elfangor are brothers and all three of their names are different. The same is true with Alloran and Arbat. But, I did notice this. Elfangor has the same middle name as his father, Sirinial. Ax has the same middle name as his mother, Esgarrouth. Maybe the middle names serve kind of a similar function as our last names do? They get carried on? Perhaps it's tradition that the first child carries on the father's middle name, and the second carries on the mother's.

Actually, there are several Andalites in the series that share names. For example, two Andalites have the last name Esgarrouth (Caysath-Winwall-Esgarrouth and Galuit-Enilon-Esgarrouth. One's on the Dome ship Elfangor, the other was in charge of the assault on Leera.) What is the significance of the last name, though? Is it maybe a grandparent's middle name? Are these Andalites distantly related to Ax's mom?

I think I have an overactive imagination.

[Darth Zakryn]

I've always wondered about that too. The most I can figure out is that there they're names from their society that mean something or that they have code signifiers that we have yet to identify.

[Semeir-Cooraf-Armaheen]

The words could be from their old Andalite language. Their names "sound" like they belong amidst words like therant trees and derrishoul trees, and shorm, torf, etc.

Andalite names are fun to make up, though! I could come up with some off the top of my head easily.

[Phoenix004]

As you already said, their middle names appear to work in a similar fashion to our surnames. As far as I can tell, their first and last names have no family significance. The thing with Esgarrouth could just be a coincidence.

[Semeir-Cooraf-Armaheen]

The names could have spiritual significance the way many names today are those of saints or religious figures (Ie Jacob, Mary, Agnes, Abraham, Michael, Timothy, Francis, etc). The names could be the names of ancestors or heroes from way back in history.

I started a game about this http://animorphsforum.com/forum/index.php?topic=6895.0

[Dameg]

Elfangor has the same middle name as his father, Sirinial. Ax has the same middle name as his mother, Esgarrouth. Maybe the middle names serve kind of a similar function as our last names do? They get carried on? Perhaps it's tradition that the first child carries on the father's middle name, and the second carries on the mother's.

I thought the same ^^
But except that, I don't know. Maybe Esgarrouth is a very usual name like Smith in the US or Martin in France... Maybe it's a place, a hero, a god... We can't really now ^^' The last name could be from the place or the "month" they're born...

[TobiasMasonPark]

     I read something on Wiki, about the Ellimist. Having never read the Ellimist Chronicles, I can't say if this is a reliable fact or not. Apparently, the Ellimist, at some point during the Chronicles, merged his consciousness with an Andalite and had a family. According to that wiki page--and another about minor Andalites-- the Ellimist had a few children that he named after various natural elements--Tree, Grass, Sky, etc-- and other Andalite herds used similar names.

     So, if we assume that the old-Andalites kept this tradition of using the same names, then we may actually have an explanation for why these Andalites share the name Esgarrouth.

     Or, for the reasons above; heroes, etc.