Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-2165692-20161018043733/@comment-26893431-20171024182148

Helel ben Shahaar wrote:
 * By that point in Third Era, Dovahzul was damn near dead as a language, with only a few words (such as "Evgiir Unsalad" ) being in uncommon use, and almost exclusively in Skyrim. It is almost certain that Imperials were merely unable to pronounce "Nahfahlaar", or it sounded more like "Nafaalilargus" to their ear.
 * Seeing just how many languages, both fictive and real, contain silent "h", Imperials may have simply mispronunced  "Nahfahlaar" as "Nafalar", which then became a base for "Nafalilargus".
 * Tiber Septim swore to protect the dragons that served him. First logical step: assign them fake or distorted names so that their real names remain unknown to all but him (because then, no one would be able to harm them or turn them against him with that knowledge).
 * Out of lore reason - Lore that dragon names are each made up out of three words of Dovahzul was not yet invented when Redguard was produced.

As for the argument that Nahfahlaar died 500 years before Nafalilargus was ever even mentioned: dragons are biologically immortal, which can be seen in this excerpt:

"There is no credible story of how dragons came to be. According to dremora that the College of Whispers have "questioned," they just were, and are. Eternal, immortal, unchanging, and unyielding."

- Torhal Bjorik, There Be Dragons

True, as Nahfahlaar was a coward he wouldn't make a very good guard. But let's face the facts: he was one of the last surviving dragons, and quite possibly the only one known at the time. That alone is enough to elevate his status to legendary. His very appearance, and perhaps some boasting and intimidation (and we've seen that Nafaalilargus was a silver tongue) would've been enough to scare almost anyone away.

As for Numinex, and his queer name: again, his real name may have been lost in centures or simply mispronounced, hailing from a near-dead language.

It is also quite possible that his true name was Numunnax, meaning "Now-Man-Cruelty". After Olaf captured him and made him his slave, it is quite possible he purposely changed his name to Numiinex meaning "Now-Eye-One" (yes, I know that "gein"  is the Dovahzul for "one" but "nex"  could just as much be a synonym, as "single" is for "one") as a way of saying "I now belong to One-Eye" to psychically torture him and break his mind, ensuring the dragon's amenability (kinda like what Ramsay Bolton did to Theon Greyjoy by renaming him into "Reek", and did that to that extent, that Theon was actually convinced that his name was indeed Reek). Due to this, accompanied with (quite possibly) claustrophobia and imprisonment, Numinex lost his mind, and even forgot his own name, calling himself his assigned name from that point on.

"I used to visit him from time to time. Nearly crazed by loneliness and captivity. . He did not even remember his own name."

- Paarthurnax during The Fallen

And there you have it. If I missed something, be a dear and let me know. 1. How lively the language was is irrelevant. 2. You don't simply change a name for the sake of changing a name. 3. That makes no sense, changing a name has nothing to do with safety. 4. Nahfahlaar was last seen hundreds of years before Nafalilargus. 5. Nafalilargus fought for the Imperial Legion; so he was not a coward.

They are not one and the same.