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Michebugio wrote:In 15 years of game mastering, I've never, never, NEVER seen a female dwarf character among my (many) players

In my 30-ish years of gaming I have seen more female dwarves than you can shake a stick at, and this includes in The One Ring.

Yusei wrote:But then again, we don't know of any female dwarf name besides Dis, I believe.

Since dwarves take their use-names from the tongues of the men around them, and since most dwarves named by Tolkien live in areas whose men have (translated) Germanic or Scandinavian names, it makes sense that any female dwarves going abroad would follow the same convention take female Germanic or Scandinavian names.

Tolkien tends to give the Scandinavian names to dwarves and the Germanic ones to men, which lends support to the idea that most use-names taken by dwarves have become dwarven names, and aren't used by men much anymore. Dwarven women might also be restricted to Scandinavian names.

Here's a huge list of Old Norse female names, including Dís.

Stormcrow wrote:

Yusei wrote:But then again, we don't know of any female dwarf name besides Dis, I believe.

Since dwarves take their use-names from the tongues of the men around them, and since most dwarves named by Tolkien live in areas whose men have (translated) Germanic or Scandinavian names, it makes sense that any female dwarves going abroad would follow the same convention take female Germanic or Scandinavian names.

Tolkien tends to give the Scandinavian names to dwarves and the Germanic ones to men, which lends support to the idea that most use-names taken by dwarves have become dwarven names, and aren't used by men much anymore. Dwarven women might also be restricted to Scandinavian names.

Here's a huge list of Old Norse female names, including Dís.

This makes a lot of sense.