It wouldn't necessarily get longer with rank. Consider Niven's Kzinti, where the progression is

Soc 0-8: Your name is your job title -- "Speaker to Animals" (= diplomat to alien races).

Soc 9-B: You are granted a personal name which is combined with your job name -- "Chuft-Captain".

Soc C+: Your personal name is used without a job qualifier -- "Chmee".

On Sat, Sep 5, 2015 at 2:58 AM, Brett Kruger <xxxxxx@yahoo.com.au> wrote:

On 4/09/2015 11:11 AM, Freelance Traveller wrote:

Earlier postings in this series have discussed naming practices, but all
of them carried the implicit assumption that a name was fixed for all
time. This turns out, in fact, to not be the case. Names can be changed
for a number of reasons, sometimes by the person being renamed,
sometimes by others, sometimes posthumously.

[snip]

It has been previously noted that Chinese immigrants often take Western
"use names" as their legal 'given' names.

I don't know if there is any real life parallel but one of the cultures in MTU get to add a name as their social status goes up;

So, social 8-9, one word name - Bob
Social 10-11, two word name - Billy Bob
Social 12-13, three word name - Brian Billy Bob
Social 14-15, four word name - Ben Brian Billy Bob

Also your social status dictates which name you are "allowed" to address that person by, i.e.
At social 8-9 you address the above person as Ben, at social 10-11 you are allowed to address the above person as Brian, at social 12-13 you are allowed to address the above person as Billy, and at social 14-15 (an equal so to speak) you are allowed to address the above person as Bob - with the exception of direct family members.

Brett.

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Craig Berry (http://google.com/+CraigBerry)
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