Conan — The hero of the Conan stories, a gigantic Cimmerian adventurer. A common Celtic name (e.g., A. Conan Doyle and the Dukes Conan of medieval Brittany), from Conann, a king of the Fomorians (Fomór, pron. "fuh-WORE" or Fomhóraigh) in Irish mythology, in which Conann was killed in battle with the Nemedians (q.v.). Howard also wrote stores of medieval Ireland, unconnected with the Hyborian Age series, with heroes named Conan or Conn (q.v.).
Conawaga — In BB, MB, a province of the Wester-marck, the borderland between the Pictish Wilderness and Bossonia. From Caughnawaga (or less probably, Conewago), New York.
Conn — In the stories from WM to CI, the nickname of Conan's elder son, later King Conan II. A legendary ancient king of Tara, Ireland, claimed as ancestor by various Irish and Scottish dynasties.
Constantius — In WB, a Kothic adventurer. The name of three Roman emperors of +IV.
Corinthia — In JG, IG, a southeasterly Hyborian nation. From Corinth (Korinthos), a rich city in Classical Greece. Possibly suggested to Howard by the Biblical book of Corinthians.
Couthen — In CA CI, a county of Aquilonia.
Coyoga — In BB, a province of the Westermarck, the borderland between Hctiand and Bossonia. From Lake Cayuga, New York.
Crassides — In CA, captain of the guard at the gate of Khanyria. From Crassus, a common Roman cognomen, + the Greek patronymic suffix -ides.
Cratos — In CB, a physician of Kordava. From Kratos, a Greek mythological figure.
Crom — In all the Conan stories, the chief Cimmerian god and Conan's favorite oath. Usually translated from the Irish as "bent," as in Crom Cruaich, "the bloody bent one," a famous Irish pagan idol. An alternative translation of Crom Cruaich is 'lord of the mound."
Ctesphon — In TT, PS, the king of Stygia. From Ctesiphon, an ancient ruined city in Iraq, near Baghdad, which flourished in Parthian and Sassanid times.
Cush — See Kush.
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Dagon, Dagonia — In DI, Dagonia is an ancient kingdom on the Vilayet Sea, and Dagon, its ruined capital on the isle of Xapur. In JG, Dagon is a god of Zembabwei. Dagon was a fish-god of the Philistines and Phoenicians.
Dagoth — In SC, a hill in Koth. Probably from Dagon (q.v.) + Koth (q.v.).
Dagozai — In PC, a Himelian or Ghulistani tribe. Probably from Dagon (q.v.) + the Pakhtun (Pashtun, Pathan) tribal ending -zai (from zoe, "son") as such modern Pakhtun tribes as the Ghilzai and Yusufzai.
Damballah — In WM, RZ, another name for Set. The serpent god of Haitian Voodoo, of Dahomean (West African) origin.
Danu — In BN, a deity invoked by Diviatix. A Celtic mother goddess, also Dana.
Darfar — In SZ, RN, a land of Negro cannibals. Howard derived this name from the region of Darfur in north-central Africa. Darfur is an Arabic name, meaning "abode (dâr) of the Fur," the dominant Negroid people of the area. In changing the name to Darfar, Howard unwittingly changed the Arabic meaning to "abode of mice"! The original Darfur is now the westernmost part of the Sudanese Republic.
Dathan — In SD, an official of the king of Eruk. A biblical name (Num. 16:1).
Dayuki — In RE, a Hyrkanian chief. From Dayaukku or Deioces, a Median ruler of -VIII.
Dekanawatha — In BN, RZ a Pictish chief. From the historical Iroquois leaders Hiawatha and Dekanawida.
Demetrio — In GB, a Nemedian magistrate; in CC, an Argossean sea captain. Italian for Demetrios, a common Greek name, from Demeter, goddess of agriculture.
Derketa — In RN, a Kushite goddess. From Derketo (q.v.).
Derketo — In QC, BC, SS, &c, a Shemitish and Stygian goddess, also worshiped in Zembabwei. A Greek name for the Syrian fertility goddess 'Atar'ata. (Cf. Ishtar.)
Devi — In PC, CA, the title of the sister of the king of Vendhya. Hindi for "goddess."
Dexitheus — In TT, CI, a priest of Mitra. From Greek names like Dexippos and Dorotheus.
Diana — In SD, a Nemedian slave girl in Jumballa. Originally an Italian goddess of light, mountains, and woods, early identified or merged with the Greek Artemis.
Dion — In PS, an Aquilonian noble. A common Greek name, borne by, among others, a tyrant of Syracuse in -IV.
Dionus — In GB, a Nemedian prefect of police. From Dion (q.v.) and possibly also Dianus, an old spelling of the Roman god Janus.
Dirk — In BB, Dirk Strom's son is the commandant of Fort Kwanyara. "Dirk" is the Dutch and Danish form of the old Gothic name Theodoric or Theiudareiks (German Dietrich, English Derek, French Thierry).
Diviatix — In BN, RZ, a Ligurean Druid. From the Gaulish chieftains in Caesar's army, Diviciacus and Dumnorix.
Dongola — In DT, a Negro tribe mentioned in the synopsis but not in the unfinished rough draft. From a town and province of that name in the Sudan, on the Nile. The people are the Dongolavi.
Drago — See Brant.
Drujistan — In FK, a place in the Ilbars Mountains. Persian for "land of demons."
Duali — In CA, a Zuagir tribe. Possibly from Dooala, a place somewhere in Africa.
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Edric — In MB, an Aquilonian scout. A Saxon king of Kent in +VII.
Egil — In LD, an As. A common Nordic name, e.g., of a Swedish king of the legendary Yngling dynasty, before 4-VI, and of Egil Skallagrimsson, an Icelandic poet of +IX.
Eiglophian Mts. — In LW, a range south of Asgard. From Clark Ashton Smith's story, "The Seven Geases."
Emilius — In CC, EmiKus Scavonus is an Aquilonian noble. From Æmilius, a Roman gentile name (cf. Amilius, Scavonus).
Enaro, Enaros — In GB, a Nemedian charioteer; in the King Kull story "By this Axe I Rule!" (later rewritten as PS), Enaros is the commander of the Black Legion. Both probably from Inaros, the Greek name for a Libyan rebel against Persian rale in Egypt, -V, mentioned by Herodotus; the original Egyptian name was probably An-ha-heru-ra-u.
Enosh — In BT, the chief of Akhlat. A Biblical name, a variant of Enos (Gen. 5:9).
Epemitreus — In PS, CI, a long-dead sage. From Epimetheus, in Greek legend Pandora's husband.
Epeus — In DT, a former king of Aquilonia. Probably from Epeius or Epeios, in Greek legend the builder of the Trojan horse.
Epona — In BN, a deity invoked by Diviatix. The Gaulish goddess of horses.
Erlik — In SZ, CA, a Turanian god. The name of a god of the underworld of the Altai Tatars. Howard possibly got his Erlik from Robert W. Chambers's novel The Slayer of Souls, which exploits this deity. Howard also brought "priests of Erlik" into a fantasy with a modern setting, "Black Hound of Death" (Weird Tales, Nov. 1936).
Erlikites — In FK, worshipers of Erlik (q.v.).
Eruk — In QC, SD, a Shemitish city-state. From ancient Uruk, Erech, or Orchoe in Babylonia (modern Warka, Iraq).
Escelan — In RN, a man of Xuchod. Probably from the same source as Ascalante (q.v.).
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Fabio — In GT, an Argossean sailor in the crew of the Hawk. An Italian name, from the Roman gentile name Fabius.
Farouz — In HS, a name assumed by Mazdak. From the common Persian name Peroch, Peroz, Firuz, &c.
Femesh Valley — In CA, site of a battle fought by Conan in Vendhya.
Feng — In CM, a duke of Kusan. A common Chinese surname, rhyming with "hung."
Ferdrugo — In CS, CB, BN, the king of Zingara. From Federigo, Spanish for Frederick.
Flavius — In MB, an Aquilonian officer. A Roman gentile name.
Fronto — In SD, an Ophirean thief. A common Roman cognomen.
Frosol — In SK, a feudal county in Ophir.
Fulk — In WM, an Aquilonian. A name borne by several medieval French notables (French, Foulques).
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Galacus — In TT, a Kothic pirate. Latin for "Gali-cian.
Galannus — See Servius. Probably from either the Roman emperor Galienus or Gallandus, a Carcean pirate in E. R. Eddison's The Worm Ouroboros.
Galbro — In TT, a Zingaran seneschal. Possibly from Gabriello, Italian for "Gabriel."
Gallah —
In SD, the lower, Negroid caste of Jumballa. From the Galla, an Erythriotic-Negroid people of Abyssinia (Ethiopia) and Kenya.
Galparan, Galporan — In CC, a place in western Aquilonia. The former spelling is Howard's; the latter appears only on Kyle's end-paper maps in the Gnome Press editions of the Conan stories.
Galter — See Jon. An English occupational surname, meaning "clay-digger."
Galzai — In PC, CA, a Himelian or Ghulistani tribe. From the Ghilzai, a modern Afghan-Pakhtun tribe.
Gamburu — In CB, the capital of the Amazons. From various African place names, e.g., Gambaga (Ghana) and Omaruru (Namibia).
Garma — In PS, a road.
Garogh (=Teyanoga) — In first draft of BB; discarded. Probably from Caroga (also Lake and Creek), Fulton County, New York.
Garus — In SK, an adherent of Queen Marala of Ophir.
Gath (=Aphaka) — In first draft of BC; discarded. A town in western Judea.
Gault — In BB, Gault Hagar's son is the narrator. "Gault" is an old English word for stiff clay, also used in the form "Gait" as a surname.
Gazal — In DT, a city in the desert of northern Darfar. From the Bahr al-Ghazal (Arabic for "the gazelle river"), an eastward-flowing river, which joins the White Nile at Lake No.
Gebal — See Djebal. Possibly either from the Arabic jabal, "mountain," or from the town of Gebal (Jebeil or Jubayl), Lebanon, Classical Byblos, Phoenician Gubla.
Gebellez — In TT, a Zingaran. The name was Geb-brelo in the original manuscript (probably from the same source as Galbro ,q.v.), but I changed it because it was too much like Galbro, another character in the same story.
Ghanara, Ghanata — In SZ, CB, CC, adjectives designating a desert south of Stygia and its people. From Ghana, a medieval empire in the western Sudan. The name has been revived for the Dominion of the Commonwealth formerly called the Gold Coast.
Ghandar Chen — In CA, a spy of King Yezdigerd of Turan in Tarantia. From the Swedish name Gunder (that of a Swedish world champion runner in the 1940s) + "Chen" from "Shan" or "Shah" (qq.v.).
Gharat — In CA, a ruined temple in the Zuagir desert From "carat" the unit of weight.
Ghaznavi — In DI, a Turanian councillor. From Ghaz-navid, an adjective designating the dynasty founded by the +XI Afghan conqueror Mahmud of Ghazna, which in turn is the city called Gazaka in ancient times.
Ghemur — In CA, a Vendhyan conspirator. From "lemur," a member of the Lemuroidea, a suborder of primitive primates (bush-baby, galago, loris, &c).
Ghor — In PC, a place in Afghulistan. From Ghor or Ghur, a medieval Afghan kingdom. (Ghor is also the name of the Dead Sea Valley in Palestine, but Howard probably got the name from the other source.)
Ghorbal — In first draft of CC, the demesne of a Nemedian lord at the execution of Albiona; discarded. Probably from the same sources as Ghor and Khorbul (qq.v.).
Ghori — In DI, a fort near Khawarizm. A subprovince of modem Afghanistan. The adjective "Ghorid" designates the medieval dynasties of Ghor (q.v.).
Ghoufags — In PS, a Hyrkanian mountain tribe.
Ghulistan — In PC, CA, a region of the Himelian Mts. A combination of Arabic ghûl, "ghoul," + Persian istân, estân, "country"; hence 'land of ghouls." (In Persian, Ghulistan would mean "land of roses," but I do not think that is what Howard had in mind.)
Ghurran (=Tauran) — In first draft of BR; discarded. Probably from Ghurian, Afghanistan.
Gilzan — In DI, a Shemitish torturer. Probably from the same source as Galzai (q.v.).
Gitara — In PC, Yasmina's maid. From gitana, Spanish for "Gypsy woman." Like "Gypsy," the word is a corruption of that for "Egyptian," although the real Gypsies originally came from India. (Cf. Zingara.)
Gleg — In RE, a Zaporoskan robber lord. An old Russian name.
Glyco — In MB, an Aquilonian officer. From Glykon, the name of several Greek writers.
Gobir — In DT, a Ghanata brigand. The name of a medieval Negro kingdom in the western Sudan.
Godrigo — In CB, a Zingaran philosopher. From the Spanish name Rodrigo.
Golamira — In PS, CI, a magical mountain.
Gomani — In CB, a Kushite slave. A minor +XIX African long and his kingdom, on the border of Tanzania and Mozambique.
Gonzago — In GT, captain of the Hawk, a Barachan pirate ship. From Gonzaga, an Italian princely family, lords and eventually dukes of Milan, +XIII to +XVIII.
Gonzalvio — In CI, Trocero's son. From the Spanish name Gonsalvo, e.g. Gonzalo or Gonsalvo de C6rdoba, a Spanish general of +XV.
Goralian Hills — In CC, a region in western AquiIonia. Possibly from the Goralians or Gorales, mountaineers of southern Poland.
Goram Singh — In CI, a Vendhyan pirate in the Barachas. An Indian name; Singh (Hindi for "lion") is regularly used as a surname by adherents of the Sikh religion.
Gorm — In FD, an As (see Æsir); in LD, a bard of the Æsir; in BB, Otho Gorm's son is a forest ranger of Schohira (see Strom); in "The Hyborian Age," a Pictish chief after Conan's time. The first king of Denmark, in +X.
Gorthangpo — In CS, a Meruvian. A pseudo-Tibetan name.
Gorulga — In JG, a Keshian priest. Possibly from the Goruol River, a tributary of the Niger.
Gotarza — In FK, the captain of Kobad Shah's royal guard. An ancient Persian name (also Gotarzes, Godarz, Guderz, &c).
Graaskal Mts. — In CA, a range on the borders of Hyperborea. Possibly from the Norwegian gra sk&l, "gray bowl."
Gromel — In PS, a Bossonian corrnnanding Conan's Black Legion.
Grondar — In FK and the Kull stories, a pre-Catastrophic kingdom, coeval with Valusia.
Guarralid — In BN, a Zingaran dukedom. From Spanish place names like Guadarrema and Valladolid.
Guilaime — In WM, CI, an Aquilonian baron. From Guillaume, French for William.
Gullah — In FK, BR, the Pictish gorilla-god. One of a group of American Negroes living along the coast of Georgia and speaking a distinctive Afro-American dialect.
Gunderland, Gundermen — In TE, GB, RH, &c, the northernmost province of Aquilonia and its people. Probably from Gunther (Gundicar) or Gunderic, +V, kings of the Burgundians.
Gurasha — In PC, a valley in Afghulistan.
Gwahlur — In JG, IG, the Teeth of Gwahlur are the treasure of Alkmeenon. From Gwalior, India.
Gwarunga — In JG, a Keshian priest. Possibly from Garua, West Africa.
Gwawela — In BR, a Pictish village. Gwalia is an old name for Wales, and there is a Gwala, Egypt, but such derivations seem unlikely.
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Hadrathus — In CC, a priest of Asura. Possibly from the Roman name Hadrianus, an emperor of +II. Hagar See Gault. A Germanic personal name, also Hager.
Hakhamani — In FK, an informer for Kobad Shah. The original Persian for Achaemenes, legendary founder of the Achaemenid dynasty.
Hakon — In BB, Hakon Strom's son is a commander of rangers in Schohira. "Hakon" is from the Norse name, Haakon or Hákon; e.g., Hakon the Dane in the Völsungá Saga. For "Strom," see Dirk, Strom.
Haloga — In LD, the stronghold of Queen Vammatar in Hyperborea. From Halogaland, in the Heimskringla, a place in Lapland.
Hamar Kur — In CA, a Turanian offieer. From the Norwegian city Hamar, and "Kur" from Kurdistan.
Han — In RZ, a deity of the serpent-men of Valusia.
Hanuman — In SZ, FK, a monkey-god of Zamboula. The Indian monkey-god.
Hanumar — In GB, a Nemedian city. Probably from Hanuman (q.v.).
Hatupep — In CI, a merchant of Ptahuacan. A synthetic Egypto-Mayan name.
Hattusas — In FK, a Zamorian serving under Conan. The capital of the Hittite kingdom, near modem Boğazköi (renamed Boöazkale).
Heimdul — In FD, a Van or Vanaheimer. From HeimdalL in Norse myth, the guardian of the gates of Valhalla.
Hildico — In HN, a Brythunian slave girl in Yaralet. From Hilda or Ildico, the last of the many wives of Attila the Hun.
Himelian Mts. — In PC, CA, a
range north or northwest of Vendhya. From the Himalayas or Himalayan Mountains.
Hormaz — In CS, a Turanian officer. From Hormazd or Ahura Mazda, the good god of the dualistic Zoroastrian universe.
Horsa — In FD, an As (see Æsir). A half-legendary Saxon chief who, with his brother Hengist or Hengest, led the Saxon invasion of Britain in the middle of +V.
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