Blood & name

Bastard names

Nine surnames for children born outside a marriage — each naming the corner of the map that bred them — and what it takes for a king to wash the stain away.

The nine surnames

SnowThe NorthCold and plain, as the North reckons most things — the most storied surname in the realm, and the most quietly borne.
SandDorneThe Dornish wear their bastardy more lightly than most, and a Sand may sit at a lord's table without shame.
StoneThe Vale of ArrynAs enduring and unyielding as the mountains that hem the Vale about.
FlowersThe ReachPrettiest of the nine, for the greenest and most courtly of kingdoms.
HillThe WesterlandsThe gold-rich Lannister country marks its base-born with its own rolling stone-strewn hills.
PykeThe Iron IslandsNamed for the isles' chief seat — though the ironborn's rock-and-salt reckonings blur the line a bastard is meant to draw.
RiversThe RiverlandsFor the waters that quarter the Trident's country — the surname of Bittersteel and Bloodraven both.
StormThe StormlandsWild and loud, for the tempest-lashed coast of the storm kings of old.
WatersThe crownlandsFor Blackwater Bay and the black tide beneath King's Landing — the surname nearest the Iron Throne itself.

What a bastard name means

A bastard, in the eyes of gods and men both, is a child born outside a marriage sanctified before the Seven or the old gods. The Faith holds them the fruit of lust and lies, and warns that base blood runs to treachery and pride — a slander the smallfolk repeat and the highborn half-believe.

A bastard may take neither his father's name nor his lands. Instead the realm brands him with one of nine regional surnames, so that a man's very name announces both his shame and the corner of the map that bred him. He might be raised in his father's hall or left in a hovel; either way, the name follows him to the grave.

Yet the line is thinner than the septons pretend. A highborn father often fosters his bastard beneath his own roof, and more than one has loved such a child better than his trueborn heirs — which is precisely the trouble, for a bastard raised too high learns to want what the law forbids him.

Legitimization & the Great Bastards

Only a king may wash a bastard clean. By royal decree a base-born child can be legitimized — granted the father's name, and with it a place in the line of inheritance. It is a gift few kings give lightly, for it unsettles every heir who stood ahead of the newly-made trueborn.

The realm's bitterest lesson came from Aegon IV, called the Unworthy, who on his deathbed in 184 AC legitimized every one of his many bastards at a stroke — the Great Bastards, as the histories name them. To Daemon he gave the Targaryen sword Blackfyre, and thereby a claim the boy took for a crown. Five generations of Blackfyre rebellions bled from that single dying whim, proof enough that a king should be careful whom he calls his son.

In the chronicleAegon the Unworthy The First Blackfyre Rebellion: the Redgrass Field Bittersteel forges the Golden Company

SourcesASOSF&BTWOIAF

Bastards of note

Daemon Blackfyre
born Waters
Aegon IV's best-loved bastard, gifted the sword Blackfyre and legitimized on the king's deathbed; his claim lit the First Blackfyre Rebellion, dead at the Redgrass Field.
In the chronicleThe First Blackfyre Rebellion: the Redgrass Field
Aegor “Bittersteel” Rivers
Rivers
A Great Bastard of Aegon IV who followed the black dragon into exile and founded the Golden Company, keeping the Blackfyre cause alive across the narrow sea.
In the chronicleBittersteel forges the Golden Company
Brynden “Bloodraven” Rivers
Rivers
Half-brother and lifelong foe to Bittersteel, the albino sorcerer-lord who served three kings as Hand and Master of Whisperers before he took the black.
In the chronicleThe Second Blackfyre Rebellion dies at a wedding

Names below touch the chronicle's living years. Unveil them only if you have read the tale thus far.

Jon Snow
Snow
Raised at Winterfell among Lord Eddard Stark's trueborn children — the bastard whose mother the honourable Ned would never name to any living soul. Where his blood truly runs is the chronicle's most closely guarded riddle.
In the chronicleThe 998th Lord Commander
Ramsay Snow
Snow
The cruel bastard of the Dreadfort, whose deeds the maesters set down only with a shudder — and whose late elevation to his father's name shows the darker face of legitimization.

These partings name deaths, endings, and roads not yet ridden in the books. Unveil them only if both roads are known to you — or if you do not fear to know.

What are the bastard names in Game of Thrones?

A highborn bastard is given one of nine surnames according to the region of their birth: Snow in the North, Sand in Dorne, Stone in the Vale, Flowers in the Reach, Hill in the Westerlands, Pyke in the Iron Islands, Rivers in the Riverlands, Storm in the Stormlands, and Waters in the crownlands.

Why is Jon Snow's surname Snow?

Snow is the bastard surname of the North, and Jon was raised at Winterfell as Lord Eddard Stark's base-born son. A bastard may take neither his father's name nor his lands, so the regional surname marks both his birthplace and his standing.

Can a bastard be legitimized in Game of Thrones?

Yes, but only by royal decree — a king alone can raise a bastard to trueborn status and grant them the father's name and a place in the line of inheritance. Aegon IV legitimized all his bastards on his deathbed in 184 AC, a single whim that sowed five generations of Blackfyre rebellions.

What does it mean to be a bastard in Westeros?

A bastard is a child born outside a sanctified marriage. The Faith brands them born of lust, and both smallfolk and lords half-believe the slander that base blood runs to treachery — so a bastard is barred from their father's name and inheritance, though a highborn father may still raise them within his own hall.