I think it really depends how you want each social class to come across!
You said that it was based in a sort of pseudo-Roman Empire; this implies that the society values refinement, intelligence, and military and political might. Perhaps some names with meanings centred around those things, especially in the upper class, of the children of poorer parents who had high aspirations [e.g. names meaning "warrior" or "skilled in debate]?
The Roman Empire also had a rather large pantheon of deities, and absorbed most of its conquered cultures/religions into its own. Maybe names after gods and so forth, particularly ones showing which specific class or "race" that they belong to.
Or, if you wanted to take it a little less seriously (or maybe just to have to do less work!) you could use a sort of shorthand for the same things: e.g. Lower-class names end in vowels, middle-class in consonants, and upper-class always in a block of two letters (such as "ch"), or Rontelo, Ginbour and Ridbur names are more gentle and "rolling" in the mouth, while Leron names are abrasive, rather like a lion's roar.
I hope that this helped at least somewhat!
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Thinking on it, I'm wondering now if I shouldn't try to differ the names slightly, to match their general personalities. Although the difference isn't huge, the Rontelo are more dwarves to the Ginbori's elves, while the Ridbura are second class citizens, unable to do a lot of jobs due to being decidedly small and unimposing.
edited 16th Oct '17 5:13:40 AM by MattII
Okay, I'm attempting to write a story about anthropomorphic animals (Funny Animal level) but am having trouble coming up with a naming theme. There are at least four (I may come up with more eventually) different 'races' here:
The terrain is akin to the African savanna, and I want to give the whole thing a 'Roman Empire in sub-Saharan Africa' vibe WRT to the name. I've figured I want at least three groups of names, one for the upper class of the kingdom/empire (the empire contains the first three races above), one for the lower class of the kingdom/empire, and one for the tribal Lerons. Unfortunately, naming has never been a strong point of mine, so some help in coming up with a coherent set of naming standards would be greatly appreciated.
edited 16th Oct '17 4:49:08 AM by MattII