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, 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 is basically a death sentence, especially in District 12 (see below). Afterwards, Peeta is chosen as the male tribute from District 12.

Volunteering
In some Districts, particularly 1, 2, and 4, so called "Career Tributes" who have been training all their lives to volunteer to participate in the Games. In poorer Districts such as District 12, the Hunger Games are equivalent to death, therefore the volunteering regulations are rarely used. Katniss Everdeen was one of the few volunteers District 12 had—volunteering to save her sister, Primrose Everdeen, from becoming a tribute.

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 2 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.

The 9th Hunger Games

 * Mags - District 4 (Victor)

The 45th Hunger Games

 * Chaff - District 11 (Victor)

The 50th Hunger Games (Second Quarter Quell)

 * Maysilee Donner - District 12


 * Haymitch Abernathy - District 12 (Victor)

The 51st Hunger Games

 * Brutus - District 2 (Victor) 

The 52nd Hunger Games

 * Lyme- District 2 (Victor)

The 62nd Hunger Games

 * Enobaria - District 2 (Victor)

The 65th Hunger Games

 * Finnick Odair - District 4 (Victor)

The 70th Hunger Games

 * Annie Cresta - District 4 (Victor)

The 72nd Hunger Games

 * Johanna Mason - District 7 (Victor)

The 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)

The 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

 * Blight - District 7 (Victor)
 * Titus - District 6
 * Gloss - District 1 (Victor)
 * Cashmere - District 1 (Victor)
 * Wiress - District 3 (Victor)
 * Beetee - District 3 (Victor)
 * Morphlings - District 6 (Victors)
 * Cecelia - District 8 (Victor)
 * Woof - District 8 (Victor)
 * Seeder - District 11 (Victor)

Film
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.