Original Post: Ember, October 28, 2017
Hello everyone! I hope you’ve had a wonderful October. It’s certainly been an exciting month on the website, especially after a fairly tame September. In a unique plot point, the clans have been forced to band together to fight off a cougar invasion. Over the next month, the cougar will be run out and NightClan will reform under the new name EclipseClan and take over their former territory. Our number of members has also boomed over the past few weeks and I’d like to welcome all of the new members to the site once again. We’re happy to have you! However, to keep the site from becoming too chaotic, registrations will be closed soon. If you have any friends who want to join, make sure they do so within the next day or so. As well, it would be a great help if you guys would answer this quick one-question anonymous survey for me so I can prioritize the best advertisement avenues in the future.
The series of Monthly Meows comparing the canon series to this roleplay will continue in the near future with a discussion of the clans’ relationship to other animals. For this month, we’re lucky to have an examination of how our clans treat names from Kingfish:
As Ember discussed in Monthly Meow LVII, the naming of characters here on Warrior Cats of the Forest is often quite different from the traditional way shown in the original series. In the main four clans, names were based on appearance and possibly ability when a suffix was chosen (Ravenflight, for example, could be black like a raven, and given the suffix “flight” for being notably fast); in the tribe, names were chosen based on the first thing the mother saw as each kit was born (Brook Where Small Fish Swim, etc.); in SkyClan, characters kept their kittypet names and were given a suffix (Billystorm, etc.). With these details in mind, it is interesting to see how characters are named here on the site. There appear to be three categories: traditional, Kotodama, and rogue-style.
As explained, the traditional style involves naming kits at birth based on appearance. In some cases, it sounds strange, since, obviously, a kit does not look like bracken fern or a chestnut. However, these names are based only on aspects of their appearance, such as color: brown hued cats are typically named after a plant or a bird, white or grey cats are named after flowers, bodies of water, or mountain-themes objects like snow, stones, or cliffs; ginger cats are named after flames or foxes, and so on and so forth. Kits may also be named specifically after their colour, like Blue-, Brindle-, Yellow-, etc. Finally, they may be named after their build, size, or actions at birth such as Tall-, Short-, Mouse-, Bear-.
A rather unique and interesting style of naming is the Kotodama-like naming scheme. Kotodama is a Japanese term that literally translates to “spirit naming,” and refers to the idea that there are significant and perhaps supernatural powers inherent to words and names. For a pop culture example, if you’ve seen the movie How to Train Your Dragon, you may recall the main character claiming he was named Hiccup because it warded off bad spirits. Similarly, when naming a warrior, Kotodama names are chosen by the mother based on how the character is to be viewed by other characters in game: they are meant to be intimidating, or carry a powerful gravity . Examples of these names are Mudercrow, Kaiserstar, and the like. It’s not because when they were kits they were murderous or were dictators of the nursery, but because the name was intimidating or sounded very important, and gave them an importance by name rather than action. *In the same way, mothers can also name their kits something to promote something more positive such as Sweetfawn, Angelflight, or Sacredlotus, all of which sound soothing and powerful. Some names similar to these are Spirit-, Demon-, Seraph-, Cherubim- (for more spiritual names) or Blade-, Sword-, Dagger-, Lance-, and the like, *or for positive names: Gentle-, Heart-,Whispering-, and the like.
Finally, we have Tribe or rogue-style names.
Rogue-style names are pretty common among EarthClan and NightClan cats as they live closer to the heavily gang-populated areas. Most of these names come from things that the cats run into on a daily basis such as glass, wire, nails, bricks, and all of the other things you could find in a city. Similar to traditional naming, cats here are usually named after appearance, like Diesel could be a Classic American tabby with thick, black tabby stripes, or Glass could be a white or silver cat. In the same way, loners residing in the forests are most likely to be named after trees, rocks, bodies of water and other things found in the forest. Some rogues even have warrior-type names that resemble those of warriors, though prefix and suffix together form a pre-existing object such as Bumblebee, Razorwire, Springtrap, and so on.
What hasn’t been used but once, though, are the SkyClan name styles, with the exception of Noodlenose who belonged to a former member of this site. While there are characters named after human objects, none of them have kittypet names and warrior suffixes. Of course, these names do sound quite silly; things like Juliabreeze or Chesterheart have a cheesy ring to them. But it is interesting to note that most rogue names can be converted into warrior names, such as Periwinkle could become Periwinklegaze, or Rusty could become Rustyclaw, and so on and so forth.
All said, there are reasons behind every name, and artistic liberty should not be inhibited when it comes to naming characters. Even the Erins decided to venture into new territory when naming rogues and SkyClan characters, so why shouldn’t we?
Thank you again to Kingfish for writing this Monthly Meow! This is only our second user-submitted Monthly Meow, so if any of you would like to submit your own Monthly Meow, check out the Member Submitted Monthly Meows Blog Entry.
MoonClan
Apprentices:
Cherrykit, Thestralkit, Echokit, Graykit, Dusk-kit, Mottledkit, Pearkit, Splitkit, Ripplingkit, Orchardkit, Dutchkit, Everkit, Sugarkit: Early November
Snowkit: Late November
Warriors:
Swoop-paw, Narrowpaw, Insanepaw, Paranoidpaw, Franticpaw: Early November
Terrapaw, Singingpaw, Thunderpaw, Sevenpaw, Ghostpaw: Mid November
Silverpaw, Southpaw, Northpaw, Westpaw, Axolotylpaw, Phoenix: Late November
Deaths: Knightheart
EarthClan
Apprentices:
Smokekit, Grapekit, Moonkit, Jaykit, Melonkit, Thunderkit, Crescentkit, Wrathkit, Tousledkit, Loomingkit, Twistedkit, Flurrykit: Early November
Frostkit, Doekit: Mid November
Reedkit, Singingkit, Sevenkit, Shadowkit: Late November
Warriors:
Greypaw, Songpaw, Seapaw, Dewpaw, Lead, Amberpaw, Peachpaw, Timberpaw, Knightpaw, Mallowpaw, Flintpaw, Hollowpaw, Phantompaw, Hauntedpaw: Early November
Cranepaw, Firepaw, Tallpaw, Redpaw: Mid November
Maplepaw, Falconpaw, Dappledpaw, Hopepaw, Ivypaw: Late November
Deaths: Sinfur, Bluedragon
SunClan
Apprentices:
Rainingkit, Horizonkit, Skykit, Grimkit, Jackalkit: Early November
Pandakit, Pumpkinkit, Wildkit, Hoofkit, Eeriekit, Applekit, Caramelkit, Comingkit, Shadowkit: Mid November
Imhotep, Silentkit: Late November
Warriors:
Fawnpaw, Wildpaw: Early November
Crowpaw, Slatepaw, Frostpaw, Acornpaw, Dragonpaw: Mid November
Groundpaw, Nuclearpaw: Late November
Elders: Desolatestar
Deaths: Nighteagle
NightClan Rebels
Apprentices:
Black-kit: Mid November
Coolkit: Late November
Warriors:
Bullseye, Psych: Late November
Medicine Cat Apprentice: Wilson (Early November)
Elders: Briarpath, Spidersong
Deaths: Shasta
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