jokes aside, i think itâs to do with to what degree the cavalierâs soul has been consumed and how that process is perceived by the lyctor.
textually, Mercymorn was the one to suggest the practice as it was âwhat Cytherea would have wantedâ.
names are incredibly important in these books, both meta-textually and in their sociocultural structure. surnames in the nine houses represent your house - your people - therefore the significance of changing your last name to that of the person whose soul is the furnace to your lyctorhood is meaningful, though it was a gift only given in death.
it makes sense that this, alongside their heavy discussions about their cavaliers, that fandom would apply this practice to Augustine and Mercymorn.
however, the outlier cases are all cases wherein the cavalier soul was not fully subsumed. Pyrrha, an accidental containment who never lost her agency of consciousness. Gideon, a deliberate containment, who lost agency but whose soul was even less tampered with than Pyrrhaâs.
John chose Gaius as his surname quite unsubtly - the masculine equivalent to âgaiaâ meaning âearthâ. (gaius also means âto rejoiceâ according to wikipedia but that doesnât particularly help me here.) he names himself after the earth but not after Alecto, as he condemned her and her name to be forgotten. having her name be included in his would be antithetical. instead, he names himself after her symbolically but not literally, in the same way that she is reduced to A.L, Annabel Lee or Annie Laurie. she is apart of him, she is the cause of his powers, but she is neither subsumed nor honoured.
because ultimately this practiceâs purpose is to honour the eaten, beloved dead. of course John would oppose it. he would rather their surnames instead signify their loyalty to him and that they leave the memories of their cavaliers behind.
in contrast, there is the additional layer that this is practice can signify ownership. the soul, the name, everything that person was is now yours to consume and use as you like. itâs inherently a huge power imbalance, one that carried over from life into death. is my best estimation to why Ianthe titles herself as Ianthe Naberius. we know she holds no particular regret or lost love for Babs - she would not care to commemorate or honour him. however we also know that she doesnât like being named as Johnâs, as revealed by her and Harrowâs secret rebellion to use their house indicative surnames when in private. perhaps in tandem this creates enough motivation for her to initiate this change, but as we never got direct insight into how it happened (i also havenât reread NTN in a hot minute), we donât know for sure.
âThe Unwanted Guestâ makes all of this even juicier with the revealed knowledge that consumed souls alter the soul of the host. Ianthe did not know this when she titled herself - probably none of the lyctors did, including John.
unknowingly, in the attempt to honour and/or own, they also reflect the way their identity - their very soul - has been changed. they now are the people theyâve eaten, in ways they donât fully realise.
now, with the perspective of the practice honouring and/or indicating ownership of the consumed dead, as well as a marker of the deadâs incorporation into their host, it makes complete sense that âHarrowhark Gideonâ and âGideon Pyrrhaâ never came to be in canon or fanon. their circumstances, interpersonal relationships, and degree of absorption prohibited it.
and finally, it is why i adore Camilla and Palamedesâ fusion - never seen before, true lyctorhood - naming themself Paul. there is no ownership, no honouring of dead, no power imbalance. the very name itself means âsmallâ or âhumbleâ. they are something entirely new! their creation does not behold them to any political body whatsoever! there is nothing mournful about Paul, because Paul was made from true choices and love.
Paul was made to be a new beginning, for themselves and others. there was no better way for them to be named.
