What don't you do in a name? Well, there are tons of things you don't do... but, here's a few.
We'll start small and work our way up--well, not necessarily, there's no starting small in the "don't" section. These are basic--but unwritten--rules. Some of them the Erins have said, some of them have been observed, but all apply.
1) The moon, sun, and stars are sacred to the cats. These objects--or variations of the objects--are not to be used in names. (Tui (too-wee) Sutherland wrote SotC, where Sunstar and Moonflower are introduced. Vicky has corrected this mistake, as Tui did not know Clan traditions as clearly as the other Erins. Sunstar and Moonflower are mistakes, which still makes "sun" and "moon" unacceptable. Edit: Despite the fact Vicky cleared up the mistake, it still doesn't seem to apply to her, because we see a Sunpaw in Eclipse. No one really cares anymore, I guess. But, yes, it was admitted a mistake--even if Vicky has gone back on her word for a ten-hundredth time.)
"Star" is not used in a name at all unless the cat becomes a leader. There is absolutely no reason to use "star" as a prefix. It is very disrespectful to StarClan.
There's rumors that "stone" and "mouth" are also not acceptable due to Mothermouth and the Moonstone. It seems to target suffixes only, as Prefix/mouth and Prefix/stone do not occur in the books, but Stone/suffix names do. (IE: Stonefur describes the cat's fur, but if the cat were to be named Littlestone, for example, this may be too much of an implication toward the Moonstone.)
"VickyHolmes: You'll notice that we shy away from using Sun or Moon in any names because these objects, particularly Moon, have special significance for the Clans. You might be interested to know that in the very first drafts of the series, Bluestar was called Bluestone, but we changed it because it sounded too similar to "Moonstone"."
Examples of unacceptable names:
Moonfur
Sunclaw
Starkit
1a) This also applies to names that expand on the above:
Lunarfur
Solarclaw
Eclipseheart
Crescentpelt
2) Due to the fact that dreams are held in high regard, and are sacred in the ways of warriors, no variation of the word "dream" is to be used. This applies to the word itself, and synonyms or similar words (wish, hope, muse, desire, etc).
Examples of unacceptable names:
Morningdream
Dreamkit
Wishing-gaze
Musemind
3) Spiritual connotations--both in the human world and cat world--are not to be used. Words such as "spirit", "soul", and "angel" denote higher levels of being, an honor not worthy of warriors. This is only allowed for leaders through the use of "star" as a suffix, to represent their connection with StarClan. Vicky has stated that "spirit", "soul", and other words similar would not make it primarily because of their human connotations with certain religions. (Brightspirit's name, however much I despise it... is a "one time thing," said Vicky. And like many other names--Braveheart and Shinningheart included--are fan-based. Who knew?!)
Examples of unacceptable names:
Spiritsong
Angelwing
Blacksoul
Gentlespirit
Demonsythe
Soulflight
4) Words that tend to be seen as disrespectful in their literal sense are not to be used. Cats are literal in their naming, and do not use hidden messages. This means that names that include words such as "hollow", any variation of the word "fall", "burning", "searing", "singed", "shattered", "twisted", "broken", or any word related to the aforementioned is not acceptable--especially in a name that is given at birth. Certain words (such as "torn", "broken", or otherwise) are acceptable as renames, but most are not.
Examples of unacceptable names in either situation:
Brokenheart
Twistedface
Hollowsoul
Searingkit
Fallenbird
Examples of acceptable names for a rename:
-- Cats that get renames must have been in life-threatening situations, otherwise the name becomes meaningless. Every cat tears a claw every now and then, so "Tornclaw" isn't an acceptable name change. Most cats that get renames are then sent to be an elder, because any situation that would then require a name change usually hinders the cat from performing duties.
One-eye
Brokenleg
Tornfur
This also means that yes, Erins, "Birchfall" is not really a respectable name. The name denotes a falling birch (which for one, does not represent the cat for anything--appearance, personality, event even, that might have had something to do with the cat--it's a completely random and purposeless name), a very bad sign/event in a forest.
You must consider the meaning of your name when applying such harsh, disrespectful words. They are absolutely not tolerated.
5) Jewels and semi-precious stones are not acceptable in names. Silver and gold(en) are used because the terms for certain coloration and markings--technical terms--are actually "silver" and "gold", however, there are no markings classified as "jade", "ruby", "onyx" or otherwise. Secondly, the possibility of cats unearthing such rare jewels that aren't even found in the British Isles is an impossibility. Most stones must be mined for, and are found under certain conditions unavailable to the cats.
6) Remember that cats are not sophisticated. If the kit is red at birth, they are not "crimson", "scarlet", or "blood". They are red, or ginger. Cats don't have dictionaries and thesauri, so most words are unknown to them.
Examples of unacceptable names:
Scarletsky
Cobaltpaw
Jetkit
Burgundypelt
7) All Twoleg seasons are unknown to cats, therefore, an "Autumnspirit" is not acceptable, nor is a "Winterpelt". Seasons are referred to differently. This also goes for things such as oceans/seas, comets, and other things not commonly referred to in the books.
Examples of unacceptable names:
Summerheart
Oceanbreeze
Comet-tail
8) Animals found outside of the British Isles are not to be referred to. It's hard to keep track of all the animals that don't live in Britain, where the cats are located, but if you don't know for sure whether or not they can be found on the island, WIKIPEDIA IT. That is the simplest answer, and you won't look like a fool. Here are some common animals that usually get placed in names, that are NOT native--or found in--Britain: Wolf, coyote, cardinal, and bear. This also goes for plant species, such as the orchid, olive, and ebony tree. Please do your research on a species before placing it in a name. (Don't ask me why there are wolves in Eclipse. Apparently the mountains aren't in Britain, despite the fact the story takes place there. Also, some people claim that the wolf scene was removed from later publications.)
9) Everyone knows that Twoleg objects are not acceptable in names, that's obvious. However, that sometimes doesn't seem to apply--or gets overlooked. Many words even, don't seem to have human origins or connotations, but they do, and are not acceptable. Many common words used in names, such as "mask" and "dance" are human words to describe things in nature, but are not natural occurrences. A lot of people will defend that "mask" can be used because it's used to describe cat markings, but this is false. The only "mask" term used to describe a cat's marking is called mask-and-mantle, and I doubt you're going to be naming your cat Mask-and-mantleface anytime soon.
People will reference the "mask" of a raccoon, or the "dance" of courting birds, but these words are not recognized by cats. This also goes for the obvious materials, such as "ink", "sword", "dagger", and various metals (for reasons, see rule five).
10) You can't put a compound word in a compound word. Things like "butterfly" are already considered compound words, what Warrior names are, so putting two together is... ick.
Words you can't use: Butterfly, ladybug, dragonfly, sunflower, you know, those words.
This also applies to times of day (which are compound words). Twilight, midnight, afternoon, sunset, sunrise, among others, are not acceptable in a name because the name itself is a compound word (and you can't put two compound words together). Some times of day are acceptable, such as "dawn", "morning" and "dusk".
11) If playing in the original Clan settings, you can't use "shadow", "river", "thunder", or "wind" as your prefix--the reason being, those are the prefixes in the original Clan's names. If you're writing fan-fiction or RPing warriors of a different setting, those words would not be forbidden. (It is debatable whether or not the Clans were actually named after their first leaders or not, like SotC says. In the real books--can you feel my distaste for SotC?--it states most cats believe the Clans were named after the attributes of their environment. IE: ThunderClan has the thunderpath, WindClan has windy moors, RiverClan has the river, and ShadowClan lives in murky, cold, places. So, which ever you prefer.)
12) "Dirt" is considered an insult (as in "Dirtstripe") therefore would not be incorporated into a name. It is also the term for dung.
13) Don't forget the hyphen! Names that repeat a letter at the end of a prefix and the beginning of a suffix (One-eye, for example) require a hyphen. It is grammatically incorrect to remove the hyphen.
This has been pasted from
here and was not created by me whatsoever. All credit goes to the creators of that website.
