#name discourse

I as a part hold a lot of internalized Model Minority shit and used to literally struggle to convince myself I am Asian despite being half Asian, having been raised in a moderately heavy Asian environment, and having the majority of my friends be Asian while ALSO being VP of the Asian Club in highschool, while being told by everyone I am "just asian" growing up and getting all the usual stigma and judgement, while being "definitely not white" looking.

Identifying as "basically white" kept me safe and palatable to white people which helped us maintain the Model Minority pressure we had which played into a lot of the generational cultural trauma and even a partial role in some of the Actual Trauma stuff.

I felt I was unclean and appropriative and cringe and weird to use names from my own culture because I was "basically white" - I was "just like all those cringe weebs, koreaboos, and sinoboos that just take the name and make me feel violated and uncomfortable and I didn't want to do what they are doing." Little did I know, the reason I felt that way was BECAUSE it felt like it was violating Asian cultures, which is something that - even in my Asian-denial phase - inherently knew was something I deeply identified with and treasured.

If not for a lot of the rhetoric around transfolk and DID parts taking up names of cultures they dont belong to did I realize where it stemmed from and why it was weird and uncomfortable.

Even more so, its only when I started realizing that those names are not for people out of the culture, did I realize that the fact that I CAN use it, that people of the culture don't think it is WRONG for me to use those names, did I realize really that

Hold on, I AM actually Asian. I AM NOT white. (And if you want to tell me "You ARE half white" there is a difference between White in blood and White™. No I will not explain it.)

The whole Asian-denial phase of my life (which was literally until the last two years or so) was EXTREMELY detrimental to my mental health and was an EXTREMELY healing thing to break down to actually let myself live AS my self and live in full acceptance of myself

So even if "its just a name, its harmless" is your stance, please consider that some people who have gone through their whole life with generational and cultural trauma - that respecting the sacred nature of the names from their culture can be extremely supportive, healing, and helpful to supporting them in thriving past surviving what they've gone through.

or they invent a name. bakumi idk

Now, that may seem unrelated at first, but let me explain.

Elizabeth and Evan both start with an E. Micheal was a spiteful teen who hated (and still hates) his dad.

William (and maybe Mommy Afton) would totally want a naming theme for his kids, so he went with "starts with E" cuz idk, he likes the letter or something?

"One-Eye, Halftail, Oddfoot, FLIPCLAW (what kind of prefix is 'Flip'?) Twigbranch, Clawface etc. Don't get me started on those atrocious SkyClan names with KITTYPET PREFIXES

Harrybrook, Snookthorn, Rileypool

Like tf?

so i'm going to start with saying! as a general rule, i love these names. i will address them each in turn, but i don't have a problem with warriors having "bad names," i have a problem with names that don't make sense given their context.

it does not make sense for blackfoot to be named blackkit, when he's mostly white. (and, as a colorpoint cat, i assume, would be born entirely white.) etc.

but i have no problem with bellaleaf, because well, yeah! makes sense to me.

after all, leaf was named leafdapple, why shouldn't bella be named bellaleaf.

i'm going to discuss each name you brought up in turn, and then, under the cut, i'm going to ramble about naming philosphies.

one-eye: i'm fine with this. i don't mind cats being named after their disabilities, not when it's an established part of warriors culture. (even if it doesn't happen anymore because people would be pissed about it.) i don't know if i think it's right, or if i think cats would have a problem with it, but i think it's good. i'd like to think most cats wouldn't have a problem with it, though. that said, for one-eye in particular, her name was already white-eye, so it feels redundant. food for thought, i suppose.

halftail: i'm not okay with this, because he lost...half his tail? trust me, as someone who had a cat with half a tail, you don't notice it. doesn't make sense. he can keep sparrowpelt, altho tbh i almost always forget about him.

oddfoot: oops i forget him initially! i actually assumed he was named odd because of numbers or something, but apparently it’s a deadfoot situation. we don’t know his kit name, so i’ll assume he was named as either an apprentice or a warrior to fit. it wouldn’t make sense for him to just have the prefix odd, and i’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that he didn’t. if he did, however, i would have a problem with it because that makes his name a compound name, not because his leader renamed him.

flipclaw: i don't have a problem with it. what kind of name is flipkit? the kind of name a mother would give who looks a lot like the cat who traumatized her, i think. more importantly, i think it's cute! doesn't bother me. would i name an oc flipkit? probably not, but that's just me.

twigbranch: oh no i love her name. i love it! it's so cute. it means something, too! it has meaning. nope. no one is taking twigbranch away from me. i love it.

clawface: mixed. i don't really have a problem with a cat being named clawkit, but it feels...violent. shrug. i don't like it, but like, i also don't like sandynose.

and i won't directly address skyclan because uh i already stated my thoughts on them.

skyclan in particular, tho, it actually makes a lot of sense for their names to be like that. there is no reason to apply any clan norms to skyclan names.

i really hope they keep their names, too. tradition and legacy of names is important to them (pebbleshine and violetshine for the most direct example, but it's everywhere), and i want that to stay. i love that leafstar named her kit harrykit. never change skyclan.

(your url really got to me for a moment sjhdhd)

i wouldnt say either of them are cursed.. but if i had to choose:

samdo - 6.5