: Another point i thought about: after thousands of years, names tend to
: change, as do language, which is not the case in tolkien's writings. If
: he would have wanted to make the thousands look more realistic, wouldn't
: he need to change language as well, instead of doing this simple reuse of
: names?

Yes, you are quite correct. Sort of. I've often wondered myself why there seemed to be so little change in language in Middle-earth.

In fact the Elven languages changed a great deal. They were constantly evolving. But there were two forces at work which helped to preserve Sindarin (and the Sindarin name set) in Gondor.

One force was the traditional mindset of the Numenoreans. For comparison, let us look at Latin today. Many people would say it's a "dead language" -- it is no longer spoken by a living population. The classical Latin of Ovid and Caesar is not used any more, that's true. But the language didn't die it. It evolved. It became French, Spanish, Romanian, Italian, and many other Romance languages. And yet we have at least two groups of scholars (religious and secular) who have preserved classical Latin in several forms through the past two thousand years despite the natural evolutionary process which has occurred.

We don't exactly reuse old Latin names the way the Dunedain reused old Sindarin names, but anyone who's heard of Caesar's Palace, ordered a Little Caesar's pizza, been to a city named Augusta (I used to live in one), or encountered any of dozens or perhaps hundreds of other Latin names knows that we still use them. Of course, our legal professions still use Latin, too.

In this sense, Tolkien's preservation of Sindarin through the Numenorean cultures was very natural. It simply reflects what has happened in the real world with Latin (and doubtless other ancient languages).

The other force, however, I think was the Rings of Power themselves. After all, the Elves set out to stop change in Middle-earth. And if there's one thing about Middle-earth which everyone seems to notice, the cultures don't seem to change all that much.

Let's look at what Tolkien had to say about the Elves' intentions in Letter 154:

  Some reviewers have called the whole thing simple-minded, just
  a plain fight between Good and Evil, with all the good just
  good, and the bad just bad.  Pardonable, perhaps (though at
  least Boromir has been overlooked) in people in a hurry, and
  with only a fragment to read, and, of course, without the
  earlier written but unpublished Elvish histories.  But the
  Elves are NOT wholly good or in the right.  Not so much because
  they had flirted with Sauron; as because with or without his
  assistance they were 'embalmers'.  They wanted to have their
  cake and eat it: to live in the mortal historical Midlde-earth
  because they had become fond of it (and perhaps because they
  there had the advantages of a superior caste), and so tried
  to stop its change and history, stop its growth, keep it as
  a pleasaunce, even largely a desert, where they could be
  'artists' -- and they were overburdened with sadness and
  nostalgic regret.   In their way the Men of Gondor were
  similar: a withering people whose only 'hallows' were their
  tombs.  But in any case this is a tale about a war, and if
  war is allowed (at least as a topic and setting) it is not
  much good complaining that all the people on one side are
  those on the other.  Not that I have made even this issue
  quite so simple: there are Saruman, and Denethor, and
  Boromir; and there are treacheries and strife even among
  the Orcs.

In Letter 131 he described the common powers of the Rings so:

  The chief power (of all the rings alike) was the prevention
  or slowing of DECAY (i.e., 'change' viewed as a regrettable
  thing), the preservation of what is desired or loved, or its
  semblance -- this is more or less an Elvish motive....

Further on:

  The Third Age is concerned mainly with the Ring....The Ring
  is lost, for ever it is hoped; and the Three Rings of the
  Elves, wielded by secret guardians, are operative in
  preserving the memory of the beauty of old, maintaining
  enchanted enclaves of peace where Time seems to stand still
  and decay is restrained, a semblance of the bliss of the
  True West.

And in Letter 144:

  The High Elves met in this book are Exiles, returned back
  over Sea to Midlde-earth, after events which are the main
  matter of the SILMARILLION, part of one of the main kindreds
  of the ELDAR: the Noldor (Masters of Lore).  Or rather a
  last remnant of these.  For the SILMARILLION proper and the
  First Age ended with the destruction of the primeval Dark
  Power (of whom Sauron was a mere lieutenant), and the
  rehabilitation of the Exiles, who returned again over
  Sea.  Those who lingered were those who were enamoured of
  Middle-earth and yet desired the unchanging beauty of
  the Land of the Valar.  Hence the making of the Rings; for
  the Three Rings were precisely endowed with the power of
  preservation, not of birth.  Though unsullied, because they
  had not been made by Sauron, nor touched by him, they were
  nonetheless partly products of his instruction, and ultimately
  under the control of the One.  Thus, as you will see, when
  the One goes, the last defenders of High-elven lore and
  beauty are shorn of power to hold back time, and depart.

I've recently been of the opinion that the Rings' effective range was limited, but it may be that, like gravity (though I doubt Tolkien would have compared the Rings to gravity), their power may have diminished but not wholly vanished as the distance from the Ring increased. Hence, perhaps the Rings were helping to hold back change in Gondor in small ways.

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