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Q&A What are the Pros and Cons of long names?

Background: I'm developing names for places/characters/races/etc. in my world. One example are a particular political sect. The sect are a group within a different species that are named (the spec...

8 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by FoxElemental‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T08:55:09Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/36420
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar FoxElemental‭ · 2019-12-08T08:55:09Z (almost 5 years ago)
### Background:

I'm developing names for places/characters/races/etc. in my world. One example are a particular political sect. The sect are a group _within_ a different species that are named (the species in general) "Sun's children" (lit. translation.) and the city they are in is called "(Earth's) Shadow" (lit translation.) Combined, the political group of this species in this place are "Sun's children of Earth's Shadow".

The actual name (not the translation) is the tonguetwister "Exopeildelivurathneyateyafilen," more accurately "Exopeildelivur-thneya Tey-filen," since adding an "_a_" acts as an apostrophe plus an "_s_". "Tey-filen" means "Tey-children" and "Teyafilen" means "Tey's Children." "Exopeildelivur-thneya" translates to "Exopeildelivur Shadow" and "Exopeildelivurathneya" translates to "Exopeildelivur's shadow."

Now, I'm keeping this name. But I wanted a list of the pros and cons of long names like this--never mind the obscurity/tangled syllables like Exopeildelivurathneyateyafilen, it could include names like "Bobjohnmarkdaniel Coopersmithbrown" as a random example.

### Question

What are the pros/cons of very long names?

### Update

To note all your notes on frequency: Many of the names I build are unusual, but only a handful of them reach the length of ExoathTeyfilen, as I've decided to shorten Exopeildelivurathneyateyafilen (per recommendations). Thankfully, there aren't that many such names and they're not used much. And, no, there isn't a "Exopeildelivurathn **u** yaTey **foolen**." All of the long names I'm planning are completely different. And I provide the translations/meanings/histories of the words via enlightening, often humorous footnotes.

I've gotten so, so many great answers, and I'll never be able to pick just one ... **so I started a canonical bounty for it!** Please provide a complete list and see the bounty message below.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2018-05-24T21:18:40Z (over 6 years ago)
Original score: 36