I don't really know whether I should use "distinction" or "difference" or something else!
My sentence goes like this:
For a better distinction among them, people were given nicknames, which reflected their character traits, or people assigned to themselves some, often, prominent lineage.
Also — what about the rest of the sentence? Does it look fine to you (i.e. is it clear that the meaning is that people assigned themselves names from famous families)?
Any help is appreciated.