A moving moment, in hindsight.

[Huinesoron]

Originally Posted by William Cloud Hicklin

It is however also the case that, at six, they might not yet have received their mother-names from Elwing; and since among Elves the father-name given at birth was considered private (usually), Elrond and Elros could have been epesse, which frequently became an Elf's everyday name (Gil-Galad, Galadriel, Felagund etc)

Agreed that my theory would make them epessi, but it would still seem to indicate that they liked the giver - you wouldn't go around calling yourself "Dog-breath" just because a Son of Feanor yelled it at you once!

I'm not sure where the notion of Father-names being private comes from - can you expand on that? Obviously both Fingolfin and Finarfin used theirs, as did Curufin and Celebrimbor, and for that matter Fingon and Finrod (the dysfunctional House Finwe naming patterns at least make it easy to spot the father-names!). I'm also not sure there's any evidence of mother- and father-names being a thing at all outside of Valinor - the only example I can think of is Gil-Galad, and he was a scion of the royal Noldorin line.

(Also, Tolkien Gateway has it the other way round: it claims 'The father-name was a public name, announced in a ceremony called Essecarmë ("name-making").' But without access to LaCE at the moment, I'm not going to trust that implicitly.)

Originally Posted by Galin

I'm not sure the letter dated 1958 necessarily represents Tolkien's final scenario here, as the idea is connected to Elrond meaning *Elf of the Cave...

... and not long after, Elrond is said to mean "Star-dome" (1959-60, Quendi and Eldar).

In The Shibboleth of Feanor (1968 or later) it was said that the names Elros and Elrond: "were formed to recall the name of their mother Elwing" with Elros meaning "Starlit foam"

And in The Problem of ROS (1968 or later): "Now Elrond was a word for the firmament, the starry dome as it appeared like a roof to Arda; and it was given by Elwing in memory of the great Hall of the throne of Elwe in the midst of his stronghold Menegroth that was called the Menelrond,..."

And in letter 345 (1972) Elrond meant "The vault of stars"

If a meaning "Elf of the Cave" is out, as it appears at least, my total guess is that the story went out with it.

Not necessarily so, I admit; but anyway.

Good, because it's a stupid story. ^_^ I jest, I jest - but the idea that the twins were stolen away, abandoned in a cave, and then happened to be found by the leaders of the people who stole them away, who gave them names which they accepted forever despite being given by the people who burned their home... it really doesn't hang together too well.

Of course, if you wanted a proper 'both no and yes' answer... perhaps Maglor, searching for the missing children with memories of the previous set of twins dancing through his head, called out 'is there anyone [any elf] in the cave?', and the echoes meant that all the kids heard was 'el...rond...'; Elrond calls back, and the rest is history.

(In fairness, I should also point out that the consensus timeline of the First Age is a Frankensteined-together bodge, so the idea that the twins were 6 at the Third Kinslaying isn't necessarily reflected in either account of their names.)

hS