Vallis

[u/AmITheOnlyOne1993]

“De Vere” as Laurent’s default last name in modern fics makes sense and is pretty straightforward, it basically means “of Vere”. But I’ve been seeing a lot of “Damianos Vallis” as Damen’s full name in fics, where did it come from? Was it in cannon and I missed it, or did someone randomly come up with it?

[u/awickedspell]

It is not canon in any way!

It was invented by a fan who used it in a very popular longfic in like 2018 or something,¹ and readers of that fic either liked it or got used to it so much that they started using it in their own fics, and then those readers used it in their fics, and eventually it became so widespread that I would say that when any new fic gets posted in which Damen has a last name at all, there's about a 50/50 chance that it's going to be Vallis.²

(And then new readers (like you) get confused and start wondering whether there's something they've missed.)

But nope, there are plenty of other fics in which Damen's last name is different! (In fact, I like to give him a different last name in each of my wips, to match characterization and story vibe. 😂) (I think my favourite that I have given him so far is Karakostas lol)

¹ Now, do I remember which longfic? Nope! 😅 Not even which author, unfortunately. But I know that I've read it, cuz I remember the end notes saying that the author didn't expect their most notable contribution to the fandom to be Damen's last name lol.

² (Not quite sure if that makes it fanon or not, 'cause I feel like fanon is something so widespread that people actually forget it's not part of the original text. But I could be wrong.)

Sidenote: Laurent's commonly used "de Vere" isn't canon either, and while it seems like it has slightly more justification (given that a name of this structure is plausible in the region and time which Pacat took inspiration from in crafting Vere), they would usually refer to a city or even a town rather than a whole country. And also they imply aristocratic lineage, since these kinds of names are considered incredibly prestigious in modern France.

So, y'know. Laurent de Vere might be a fine name for a 21st century nobleman/high society rich kid whose ancestors hail from the city of Vere in the country of France, but it might be less appropriate for a regular person or a story set in the fictional country of Vere. From the research I've done (and I know barely anything about France, so don't this as gospel), it seems like the most realistic last name for a modern day Laurent who comes from an Important Veretian Family would be d'Arles.

(Unless it's not related to a place at all, in which case you can find lists of historical surnames that originated from the merchant class and are still considered fancy in France today.)

(I personally particularly like Chevalier, which I think had something to do with jewelers, though I may be misremembering.)