Did Gondorians call eachother by their Sindarin name?

[eothain of fenland]

I've always thought that the Gondorians spoke Sindarin, but after reading the appendices in the back of the third book, I found out that they primarily spoke Westron, the COmmon Speech. So, did they have Westron names? or would they speak the common tongue but call one another in their Sindarin name, much like we do in English? (not Sindarin of course)

Thanks

[Alfirin]

Originally Posted by eothain of fenland

I've always thought that the Gondorians spoke Sindarin, but after reading the appendices in the back of the third book, I found out that they primarily spoke Westron, the COmmon Speech. So, did they have Westron names? or would they speak the common tongue but call one another in their Sindarin name, much like we do in English? (not Sindarin of course)

Thanks

Well, given that the Gondorians were decended from the Numenorian remmnants, I image the vast majority of them did not even HAVE Sindarin names. Rememeber in the centuries immediately preceding the sinking of Numenor, during the "bad times", being caught knowing elvish (which Sindarin is) would result in imprisonment, or wore. Even given that those who founded Gondor and Arnor were "the faithful" (those who were on the opposite side from the nasty majority in power then) I tend to doubt that EVERY one of them had the requisate courage to walk around Numernor admitting they knew sindarin, or was the child of parents who did. Partiucalry as you went down the social ranks you'd find fewer and fewer sindarin named. I imagine Sindarin in Gondor was like Norman French (or further back Latin) in much of Europe, it was what you spoke in Court but not neccarily what the pesants spoke, and anyone who needed to exits in both worlds would need to be bilingual, or in Aragorn's case trilingual, since he speaks Quneya as well (Arwen's presumably trilingual as well, though she may not have learned Westron till she became Aragorn's Queen). Most people who did speak Sindarin would likey not have had a unique Sindarin name, but rather would have used a Sindarinization of whatever name they had in Westron, much as the learned in medival and rennsaince europe often latinicized thier names (or why we call the eminent people Columbus (insteat of Colombo) Carolinus Linneaus (as opposed to Kharl von Linne) Nicolas Copericus (instead of Mikołaj Kopernik) or Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Mozart's actual birthname was Johann Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, and he usully wrote his middle name out as Gottleib (the German equivalent of Amadeus) though he was known to use Amade (the french for the Same)

[Galin]

It's noted in the Appendices...

'... at the time of The War of the Ring, the Elven-tongue was known to only a small part of the peoples of Gondor, and spoken daily by fewer. These dwelt mostly in Minas Tirith and the townlands adjacent, and in the land of the tributary princes of Dol Amroth. Yet the names of nearly all places and persons in the realm of Gondor were of Elvish form and meaning. A few were of forgotten origin, and descended doubtless from the days before the ships of the Numenoreans sailed the Sea;...'

Appendix F