First, a mistake AEG makes for several languages: "del" means "of the". It would not be used the way we see described in the Castille sourcebook. Translate the name in your head: you're not likely to have a Marquis "of the" Salisbury, although you could conceivably have a Duke of the Great Lakes or similar.
Second, the mother's surname and father's surname are both carried, joined by "y" ("and"). The mother's surname is not subsumed into a "middle name" as it is in the U.S., nor is a married woman's.
Third, by the late 17th century, commoners' bynames should generally have changed to true patronymics (and matronymics), i.e., you'd carry your parents surnames rather than a place name.
Fourth, it's not "del Castillo" but "de Castilla".
Here are links for real-life Spanish names:
In our game we ended up compromising by using:
[given names] [mother's surname] y [father's surname]
(de [husband's paternal surname] for married women)
de [main holdings] for nobles or [city of origin] for commoners
Note that the names in this game are still cock-eyed from the Spanish perspective because the mother's family name is systematically placed first instead of after the father's family name. This is is so we don't have to rework all the campaign NPC names in depth. It's somewhat closer to Spanish custom while keeping the names of official characters fairly close to AEG's version.
Example: Doña Margarita Vasquez y Soldano de Orduño, the First Officer and later Captain of the Corazon de Castille. In the AEG sourcebooks, she's Margaretta Vasquez Soldano del Orduño.
Given names are often chosen to honour someone, most often a boy's godfather or a girl's godmother, plus one or more patron saint and a grandparent.
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Noble names and titles are poorly used for Eisen characters. In general, a landed noble should have "von" ("of") linking his name and his holding. There are a few examples of this in the game (e.g., "Reinhard von Wische"), but they are the exception. Someone like the Eisenfürst of Heilgründ, for example, should definitely be "Eisenfürst Stefan von Heilgründ". When a landed noble has a surname that differs from his holding's name, it would be added, e.g., "Baron Werner Hainzl von Tannen".
Here are links for real-life German names:
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Here are links for real-life Irish names:
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Here are links for real-life Scottish names:
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Like for "del" in the Castillan names, AEG's use of "du" to link given name and holding, byname, or surname is almost always incorrect. "Du" means "of the", which is applicable if the name is a descriptive place name (e.g., "of the Black Forest", "of the Eastern March"), but not in front of a proper name (e.g., there is no "Duchess of the York".) Besides, "du" is a merged form which replaced "de le", a masculine form, but when placed in front of a feminine name (and as in German/Eisen, French/Montaigne words have genders that are not necessarily logical), it becomes "de la". Hence, "Merron du Chatelaine" should actually be "Merron de la Châtelaine" (which still sounds weird for other reasons - it means "Merron of the Castle Lady"). On top of that, when in front of a word beginning with a vowel, the "u" of "du" is eluded, so it's not "Felix du Entour" but "Felix d'Entour".
In addition, most place names and family names provided for Montaigne are nonsensical at best. For example, "Surlign": the combination "gn" cannot end a word in French/Montaigne; it needs an "e" at the end to be even possible. And "Surligne", well, that has something to do with yellow highlighter pens. What they meant by that, I can't even guess.
Alas, correcting the disaster AEG makes of Montaigne names would be more work than I can handle. In the French version of the game, a major rewrite was performed on all proper names for Montaigne. In the chronicle you will find many names uncorrected (e.g., "Paul du Paix"). Don't take that to mean they were correct; in fact, the only correct uses of "du" I can think of in the list are "du Boisé", "du Four", and "Dubois" (NOT "Duboise"). I did change some of the most common and irritating, such as replacing "du Montaigne" and "du Rogné" with the more correct "de Montaigne" and "de Rogné".
Note that by the 16th century, bynames in France were no longer used literally; rather, they had become fixed, inherited surnames, passed on from father to son. Therefore, a man named Jehan de Charlemaison would have this surname not because he lived at Charlemaison, but rather because his father's surname was Charlemaison.
Here are links for real-life French names:
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I don't have a clue where AEG got the idea to use "v'" to denote the patronymic or toponymic (e.g., "Vassily v'Novgorov"). It makes no sense that I can fathom. It would be preferable to use "Vassily Novgorovich" ("son of Novgorov"), "Vassily Novgorovski" ("the Novgorovian"), or "Vassily Novgorovnin" ("Novgorovite").
Here are links for real-life Russian names:
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It's not clear what pattern to use for Vendel names. My best guess would be to pick a Scandinavian name as the "true" or original name, then find the closest Dutch name that would resemble it while dropping a few consonants. The "true" name makes for a good plot hook too - sooner or later a Vesten will call the character on it!
Example: "Ketilríð Ketilsdóttir" could become "Katryne Kesel".
Here are links for real-life Dutch names:
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Here are links for real-life Scandinavian names:
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The main thing I noticed in Vodacci names is that the nobles should be "di" something indicating their holdings, for example "Prince Giovanni Villanova di Villanova".
Here are links for real-life Italian names:
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Much as I love 7th Sea, it's pretty annoying how bad the "foreign" (read: non-Avalon) phrases and names are. I can correct some of it as we go, particularly phrases in Montaigne and to a much, much more limited extent those in Vodacci, Castillan, and Eisen. For names, however, I thought I would write a few notes.