Naming Practices and Language
Many people have asked me why are there so many Wookiees with "Chew" or "bacca" in their names ...
The topic of Wookiee naming customs is hard to explore without delving deep into biology, language and the history of Wookiee interaction with offworld sentients.
Since Wookiees have a natural lifespan far in excess of humans or most other known sentient species, it should be unsurprising that Wookiees have excellent memories. (The proverb, "The only thing that lasts longer than a Wookiee's memory of an offense against him, is a Wookiee's memory of a favor done for him" is more than mere hyperbole!) As a result, most of Wookiee history was handed down as oral tradition from the elders of the clan to the children, who might be over a dozen generations removed from their teachers. Furthermore, the complex tonal structure of Shyriiwook stood in the way of written language development. When written Shyriiwook finally did develop, it was an ideographic language, rather than an alphabetic one, originally incised with a sharp claw tip on bark, and later adapted to writing with ink.
When the first Corellian explorers arrived on Kashyyyk, even their sophisticated translation/protocol droids could not initially master the language. Fortunately, one of the early crews included a Jedi Master who was a Force linguist, and could not only pick up the meaning of the very different and subtle Shyriiwook vocalizations, but could even mimic them herself. She found that Wookiees had a natural gift for understanding others' languages, and that they could pick up Corellian and other languages fairly quickly, even though they could not vocalize them. Soon, she had the protocol droids properly programmed, and they, in turn, instructed the Corellian traders and captains to understand Shyriiwook.
However, there was still a problem in dealing with concepts which had no equivalent in Corellian -- such as the Wookiees' name for their own species, world and language. Obviously, since they can be pronounced by humans, "Wookiee", "Kashyyyk" and "Shyriiwook" are not originally Wookiee language words. To express these concepts, the Jedi coined terms from Old High Corellian (a form no longer in common use for centuries on Corellia), using elements which corresponded to the elements in the written Shyriiwook ideographs.
Which finally brings us to Wookiee names. Written Wookiee names are not so much written equivalents of the spoken name as they are personal seals or coats of arms. They may include elements from the father's "name", the mother's "name", as well as elements unique to that individual. Depending on the relative prestige of the mother's house and father's house, either one (or neither!) may be the dominant element in the child's name-symbol. Wookiee names as spoken by other species are derived from the Old High Corellian roots which correspond to the elements of the name-symbol.
The most famous Wookiee of the Imperial era, Chewbacca, is descended from two very widespread clans, and his deeds have so elevated their prestige that many Wookiee parents who have only tenous connections to those clans will incorporate one or the other of his name elements into their children's names, while many young Wookiees raised off-world who never had the opportunity to have a proper Naming ceremony, have adopted some of his name elements in his honor.
contributed by Dr. Vicarious