Ursus wrote:I think even the name of Ursus would merely be a name used in my travels more so than a more culturally appropriate Dunedain/Numenorean name, much as Aragorn does.
I read Aragorn's use of the name "Strider" a little bit differently. It didn't so much appear to be a name that he chose to use while interacting with Bree-folk as much as a (somewhat insulting) label the Bree-folk referred to him by, along with "Longshanks". I don't know if he just never gave them his name, so they named him, or if they decided to disregard any name he gave them as a way to further "other" the Rangers, or if it was another situation entirely, but although he uses the name Strider in Bree, possibly for the reasons you suggest, he clearly sees it as an insult -
Fellowship of the Ring, Book II, Chapter 2: The Council of Elrond wrote:Travellers scowl at us, and countrymen give us scornful names. "Strider" I am to one fat man who lives within a day's march of foes that would freeze his heart or lay his little town in ruin, if he were not guarded ceaselessly.
Bilbo is surprised when Frodo calls him Strider, as well, as it's not one of Aragorn's names that he's heard before.
Ursus wrote:Let’s not assume that everyone in Middle Earth is poorly read. All it takes is someone with a big mouth and a bit of history education to take note of a tall, dark stranger with a Numenorean name and certain sort of “bearing†(meaning well armed,equipped, and woods wise)to cause a lot of trouble.
I think it may be more safe to assume that than you might think - the Professor seems to suggest that some Hobbits and most Bree-folk (who named the Rangers and seem to have the most interaction with them, aside from the elves who know who and what they are) are illiterate.
Fellowship of the Ring, Prologue, Chapter 3: Of the Ordering of the Shire wrote:By no means all Hobbits were lettered, but those who were wrote constantly to all their friends (and a selection of their relations) who lived further off than an afternoon's walk.
Fellowship of the Ring, Book I, Chapter 9: At the Sign of the Prancing Pony wrote:The Bree-hobbits were, in fact, friendly and inquisitive, and Frodo soon found that some explanation of what he was doing would have to be given. He gave out that he was interested in history and geography (at which there was much wagging of heads, although neither of these words were much used in the Bree-dialect). He said he was thinking of writing a book (at which there was silent astonishment), and that he and his friends wanted to collect information about hobbits living outside the Shire, especially in the eastern lands.
Fellowship of the Ring, Book I, Chapter 10: Strider wrote:'It's addressed plain enough,' said Mr. Butterbur, producing a letter from his pocket, and reading out the address slowly and proudly (he valued his reputation as a lettered man)
There's oral history, of course, but in our own world oral histories usually only go back five to eight centuries (although they can go back
much longer, in certain circumstances), but I don't know that the Breeland oral tradition includes much about the Numenoreans -
Fellowship of the Ring, Book I, Chapter 9: At the Sign of the Prancing Pony wrote:Few had survived the turmoils of the Elder Days; but when the Kings returned again over the Great Sea they had found the Bree-men still there, and they were still there now, when the memory of the old Kings had faded into the grass.
In fact, it seems like the Rangers might be (most likely
very selectively) telling the Bree-folk parts of their own oral history, what with the "strange forgotten tales which were eagerly listened to" they tell.
Travelers pass through Bree "(mostly dwarves)", so it's possible someone more aware of history might travel through, but it seems relatively unlikely that someone in Bree would hear a Sindarin name and connect that to Arnor, especially since Bree-folk "were more friendly and familiar with Hobbits, Dwarves,
Elves, and other inhabitants of the world about them than was (or is) usual with Big People" (emphasis mine). It seems like they would more likely connect that to the Elves. In fact, they seem to be so generally unaware of history and geography that Aragorn is unsure if Butterbur will have even heard of Mordor. He has, but it's not assumed as a given.
So, a summary of that meandering post would probably be that Rangers might use different names around Bree, and it's hard to say one way or another because we only have the one (extraordinary) example of Aragorn, but I'm not sure that they necessarily would or would necessarily need to. Breelanders are kind of clueless (or "simple", as Aragorn put it).