Twin brother of Amras and youngest(?) of the sons of Fëanor (it is unclear which of the twins was born first). The name is a compound of am “up” and the suffixal form -rod of raud “lofty, noble” (PM/353, VT41/10), an adaption of his Quenya name Q. Ambarto (PM/353).
Conceptual Development: In the earliest Lost Tales, this character was first named G. Damrod (LT2/251), and the name remained N. Damrod in Silmarillion drafts from the 1930s (LR/223). It appeared in The Etymologies with the gloss “hammerer of copper”, a combination of N. dam “hammer” and the lenited form of N. rhaud “metal” (Ety/NDAM, RAUTĀ).
The name was changed to S. Amrod in Silmarillion revisions from the 1950s-60s (WJ/197). Elsewhere Tolkien said that Amrod would also have been the proper Sindarin adaption for the name of Ambarto’s cousin Q. Ambaráto, but that Noldorin Elf chose the Sindarin name Aegnor instead (PM/347).
A name that Fëanor gave his youngest son to replace his ominous-sounding mother-name Umbarto (PM/353-4). It is a compound of amba “up” and a masculinized form of the adjective arata “exalted, lofty”, so perhaps meant: “✱High and Lofty” (PM/353). It seems this name was Sindarized as S. Amrod. Conceptual Development: In The Etymologies from the 1930s, the name ᴹQ. Nambarauto “Hammerer of Copper” is given as the Qenya equivalent of his earlier name N. Damrod (Ety/NDAM, RAUTĀ).