Naming My Hamster

As you know, I have had my new furry friend for a couple days now and I hadn't given him a name yet.  This has been bothering and so I have decided to research names and provide a list to present to my husband.  If you didn't know, I am very fond of the Lord of the Rings triology and am currently re-reading the books.  I am about halfway done with The Return of the King.  I actually love anything relating to Middle Earth in any form, including Peter Jackson's movies.  (Side note, I am SO excited to see The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies!!)  My husband shares this love with me which is why he originally suggested Tauriel for the other hamster.  Last night, when I was telling him that I want to find a really good name for this new hamster, he suggested that I look through the LOTR Appendixes as well as search online at the LOTR wiki site for names that aren't as popular.  I didn't hesitate at all this morning to start looking at names.  I wanted to find a name that was similar to Tauriel as a way to keep the memory of her alive.  So I searched through all the names that started with "T".  There was quite a list.  I got rid of quite a few names just because I didn't like them.  I started writing down the names I did like as well as any information that I found interesting to go with the name such as the race, other titles, meanings, and background info on the people.  By tracking all this extra info to go with the names, I was realizing that I was interested in a specific type of person to name my little guy after.  I was drawn to the elven names for the kingly quality and elegant beauty of elven men.  This hamster is a golden creme color and his hair will grow long, so I thought such a name would be fitting.  I got my list narrowed down to five names that weren't all elven but were still quite fitting.

I am terrible at making decisions no matter how big or small, but I was able to decide that I want my husband's input on the final name.  When he got home from work today, I presented him my list of five names and we discussed each of them.  It helped to say them out loud and hear how they sound.  We were able to narrow that list down to two or three.  (I kept going back to one that he didn't like much.)  He told me that he liked the idea of having a name that would be fairly unknown.  I agreed that this sounded like a good idea.  It occured to me that since this little guy is gonna be a star, I wanted to make sure that if his name were searched, that it would lead to finding this blog or something related to LOTR and not something super obscure or inappropriate.  I did a quick google search on each of the two names we were down to and the choice became pretty clear to me at once.

So, after all the waiting, searching, and debate, I decided on Tarcil.  According to LOTR wiki, Tarcil was a man born in TA 280 to Arantar and his unnamed wife.  As a descendant of Isildur, he ascended the throne of Arnor in TA 435 on the death of his father.  His reign was without event for eighty years and he died in TA 515 and was succeeded by his son Tarondor.  He was two-hundred and thirty-three years of age.  The name Tarcil also appears in The History of The Lord of the Rings as another nickname for Aragorn: its meaning is apparently "High Man", a synonym for Dúnadan.  I didn't end up picking an elven name, but I love the background and meaning that surrounds this name.  So that is the story of how I named my hamster, Tarcil.  :)

Tarcil is waving "Hi!"