Rising Thunder ARC naming error?

Not sure where to mention this, but in the chapter where the heads of state are 'paired up' with treecats, there is this sentence:

"In fact, all of the new guardians - from Pritchart’s Sharp Claw to Theisman’s Springs From Above - had personalities which were remarkably compatible with their human charges."

I thought that name sounded familiar, so I checked my own list of treecat names and then looked at the Honorverse Wiki page to be sure. That name - Sharp Claw - is already used - unless, of course, more than one treecat can have the same name.

From the Wiki page:
"Monroe or Sharp Claw among his own kind, was a Sphinxian treecat of the Moon Water Clan and one of the few known to have bonded with two subsequent human partners. "

It has always come across to me that treecat names are unique, but then again, they are also supposed to be descriptive. So, not sure if this is a naming glitch, or if two (or more) treecats can share the same name?

Bohica wrote:Not sure where to mention this, but in the chapter where the heads of state are 'paired up' with treecats, there is this sentence:

"In fact, all of the new guardians - from Pritchart’s Sharp Claw to Theisman’s Springs From Above - had personalities which were remarkably compatible with their human charges."

I thought that name sounded familiar, so I checked my own list of treecat names and then looked at the Honorverse Wiki page to be sure. That name - Sharp Claw - is already used - unless, of course, more than one treecat can have the same name.

From the Wiki page:
"Monroe or Sharp Claw among his own kind, was a Sphinxian treecat of the Moon Water Clan and one of the few known to have bonded with two subsequent human partners. "

It has always come across to me that treecat names are unique, but then again, they are also supposed to be descriptive. So, not sure if this is a naming glitch, or if two (or more) treecats can share the same name?

The treecats probably have hundreds of names that are common. Just like humans do, how many John's, Mary's, James's Julies's etc. etc. due you think there are.

IIRC Genghis and Farragut share the same treecat name of Far Climber.

saber964 wrote:

Bohica wrote:Not sure where to mention this, but in the chapter where the heads of state are 'paired up' with treecats, there is this sentence:

"In fact, all of the new guardians - from Pritchart’s Sharp Claw to Theisman’s Springs From Above - had personalities which were remarkably compatible with their human charges."

I thought that name sounded familiar, so I checked my own list of treecat names and then looked at the Honorverse Wiki page to be sure. That name - Sharp Claw - is already used - unless, of course, more than one treecat can have the same name.

From the Wiki page:
"Monroe or Sharp Claw among his own kind, was a Sphinxian treecat of the Moon Water Clan and one of the few known to have bonded with two subsequent human partners. "

It has always come across to me that treecat names are unique, but then again, they are also supposed to be descriptive. So, not sure if this is a naming glitch, or if two (or more) treecats can share the same name?

The treecats probably have hundreds of names that are common. Just like humans do, how many John's, Mary's, James's Julies's etc. etc. due you think there are.

IIRC Genghis and Farragut share the same treecat name of Far Climber.

First, I double checked the final release ebook and it had the same sentences (so this wasn't just an ARC thing)

Second, I tend to agree that the 'cats must reuse or share their descriptive names (as well as having them sometimes change over the course of their lives)

Third, the evidence that Genghis is also known as "Far Climber" is pretty tenuous. Searching through the ebooks I never saw a real name for Genghis given directly. However "Far Climber" only appears in a couple of spots - once is in the list of 5 notable treecats in House of Steel, where it clearly identifies Miranda LaFollet's 'cat, Farragut, as (a?) Far climber. The other spot is in A Rising Thunder during Speaks from Silence's speach, where she simply uses that treecat name without the matching human one

A Rising Thunder wrote:we do not choose to be kittens forever. If you would guard us, then we will guard you, and if we die as Far Climber did, as Climbs Quickly almost did, as Laughs Brightly has almost died for you and you for him, then we will die. But we will not hide. We will not be children.

Now I could see where someone might have guessed that that referred to Genghis dying from the nano-attack delivered binary poison, rather that Farragut dying with Miranda in the aircar during Oyster Bay - and prior to House of Steel we didn't have any way to be sure. But now I think it's more likely that she was referring to Farragut and that we simply don't know the treecat name for Genghis.

Jonathan_S wrote:I tend to agree that the 'cats must reuse or share their descriptive names (as well as having them sometimes change over the course of their lives)

That does make sense. As I said, I just got the impression that each treecat name was unique. However, when you have many clans, spread out over a whole planet, the chances that a fairly common descriptive name (like 'Sharp Claw') will be used by more than one clan are very likely.

Jonathan_S wrote:The evidence that Genghis is also known as "Far Climber" is pretty tenuous. Searching through the ebooks I never saw a real name for Genghis given directly.

I had started a list of treecat names and the names of the humans they were bonded with - or not bonded. Then I started re-reading the whole series.

This time I have tried to keep track of all the names as I came across them. I've had to add a new category - "paired" treecats, as opposed to "bonded" treecats - with this book.

It was in the process of doing this that I came across the above mentioned double naming. I have never come across anything more for Genghis than just the human name for him.

Jonathan_S wrote:Now I could see where someone might have guessed that that referred to Genghis dying from the nano-attack delivered binary poison, rather that Farragut dying with Miranda in the aircar during Oyster Bay - and prior to House of Steel we didn't have any way to be sure. But now I think it's more likely that she was referring to Farragut and that we simply don't know the treecat name for Genghis.

My first thought on reading that passage was that she was referring to Farragut too. Genghis had an important role in the story, but his was basically just a cameo appearance. Farragut, on the other hand, was a regular character and his death was much more recent, so it just seemed to me that she was talking about him.