Tribute

Tributes are residents of the 12 districts of Panem who are forced to participate in the annual Hunger Games. Except in special cases, such as for Quarter Quells, twenty-four children between the ages of 12 and 18 are chosen at random. Every district must give two tributes, a girl and a boy. The circumstances may be different if it is a Quarter Quell, like the 50th Hunger Games. That year, each district had to send two boys and two girls to compete, thus providing a total of 48 tributes. A twist was also applied to the 25th Hunger Games, in which the districts, instead of choosing their tributes at random, each of the districts had to pick their own tributes. The chosen tributes will fight to the death in an arena, until only one remains.

Choosing the Tributes
Each year, all children aged twelve through to eighteen are separated into their respective age groups and appointed into different areas. There are two glass spheres, one for the boys and one for the girls, that have all the children of that District's names on slips of paper in them. Children who are twelve get their name entered once. Children who are thirteen get their name entered twice and so on until they are eighteen with seven entries. A child's name may be entered more times, if they opt to receive a Tesserae. For each tesserae taken by a child (with a maximum of however many people are in their family) their name is added an extra time, and in exchange the family receives a year's supply of grain and oil for one person. However, these entries are cumulative, so all entries get rolled over to the next year. Gale took Tessera for five family members since he was first entered into the reapings, and so had his name entered forty-two times by the 74th Hunger Games. Similarly, Katniss has her name entered twenty times. Her sister, Primrose Everdeen (Prim), only has her name entered once, since Katniss refused to let her take a tessera even when Prim insisted.

The District's Escort picks a name out of each of the glass bowls, ladies first, and the two children whose names are chosen become the District's new tributes. In the 74th Hunger Games, Prim is selected first, but Katniss volunteers to take her place since becoming a tribute at a young age is basically a death sentence, especially in District 12 (see below). Afterwards, Peeta Mellark is chosen as the male tribute from District 12.

Volunteering
By rule, once a person's name has been chosen to become a tribute, another eligible boy or girl may volunteer to take their place. Normally volunteers are asked for after the chosen person is introduced, but Katniss Everdeen volunteered spontaneously before her sister, Primrose, could mount the stage. This marked the first time that a person had volunteered in the district.

In some Districts, particularly 1, 2, and 4, so called "Career Tributes" who have been training all their lives to participate in the Games are eager to volunteer, thus the volunteering protocols are different. Cato however is described as having lunged forward to volunteer. However in poorer districts such as 12, participating in the Hunger Games is equivalent to a death sentence, therefore the volunteering regulations are rarely used.

For the 75th Hunger Games, Brutus, Mags, and Peeta volunteered. Mags took the place of Annie Cresta and Peeta replaced Haymitch Abernathy. District 12 thus had volunteers at two consecutive Hunger Games, one for each gender.

Quarter Quells
In the first Quarter Quell, the tributes were not drawn randomly from the glass balls. Instead, they were voted into The Games by the people of their District. In the second Quarter Quell, each district had to send two times the amount of tributes. These tributes were drawn randomly from the glass balls. In the third Quarter Quell, the tributes were chosen from the pool of remaining victors from past Hunger Games.

9th Hunger Games

 * Mags - District 4 (Victor)

50th Hunger Games (Second Quarter Quell)

 * Maysilee Donner - District 12
 * Haymitch Abernathy - District 12 (Victor)

51st Hunger Games

 * Brutus - District 2 (Victor) 

52nd Hunger Games

 * Lyme- District 2 (Victor)

62nd Hunger Games

 * Enobaria - District 2 (Victor)

65th Hunger Games

 * Finnick Odair - District 4 (Victor)

70th Hunger Games

 * Annie Cresta - District 4 (Victor)

72nd Hunger Games

 * Johanna Mason - District 7 (Victor)

74th Hunger Games

 * Marvel - District 1
 * Glimmer - District 1
 * Clove - District 2
 * Cato - District 2
 * Foxface - District 5
 * Rue - District 11
 * Thresh - District 11
 * Katniss Everdeen - District 12 (Victor)
 * Peeta Mellark - District 12 (Victor)

75th Hunger Games (Third Quarter Quell)

 * Cashmere - District 1
 * Gloss - District 1
 * Enobaria - District 2
 * Brutus - District 2
 * Wiress - District 3
 * Beetee - District 3
 * Mags - District 4
 * Finnick Odair - District 4
 * Morphlings - District 6
 * Johanna Mason - District 7
 * Blight - District 7
 * Cecelia - District 8
 * Woof - District 8
 * Seeder - District 11
 * Chaff - District 11
 * Katniss Everdeen - District 12
 * Peeta Mellark - District 12

Unknown Games

 * Titus - District 6

Trivia
is wealth, often in kind, that one party gives to another as a sign of respect or, as was often the case in historical contexts, of submission or allegiance. Failure to pay tribute constituted an act of rebellion. extracted tribute from its provinces and subject kingdoms and this role is repeated with the Capitol as the receiver of the tributes in the form of one boy and one girl from each district.

The phrase "Tributes" is also the official name for Hunger Games fans in the film adaptation. It was primarily chosen after numerous fan sites conducted a survey on which names should be chosen; some of the names included in the survey were Mockingjays, Rebels, and several blatant names, such as Jabberjays.