The Science of Warrior Cat Names

So I was in the shower deciding what I'd name my man Pinepaw as a warrior, and a thought hit me. Warrior cat names consist of two parts right? The prefix, which is the part of a cat's name that they'll carry throughout their whole life, and the suffix, which changes based on their life stage. Knowing that cats are named at birth, one can draw the conclusion that the prefix of a cat's name is chosen based on 1 of 3 reasons.

The Science of Prefixes

Reason 1: Appearance
When a kit is born, their parents know nothing about them save for their looks, and their movement. We'll pull from the first arc of Warriors here for examples. Think of Sandstorm and Graystripe. Both of their prefixes stemmed from their appearance, with Graystripe (Graykit) being gray at birth, and Sandstorm (Sandkit) being creamy. Both of their prefixes make good sense as they reflect their pelt color. Now appearance isn't just color. Tallstar of WindClan, named for his tall tail. Swiftpaw of ThunderClan, named for his lanky frame. And yes, the dreaded Sneezekit of RiverClan, named because he probably sneezed after he was born or something ridiculous. BUT his name fits into my algorithm so it can stay... for a while. This is by far the most common way to name a kit, as it reflects on their looks and physical appearance or actions at birth. It nullifies names like "Greeneyes" as all kits' eyes are blue at birth.

WCC Examples:
Rosepaw
Cinderkit
Tinykit
Batbite
Ferretnose
Freckleface
Spiderquill

Reason 2: Honor or Nostalgia
If a kit isn't named off of their pelt or stature, they'll most likely be named to honor a fallen warrior or an inspiration for the parents. This is the second most common way to name a cat. For those of you who've read Crookedstar's Promise, both Crookedstar, and his brother Oakheart were named Stormkit and Oakkit, to honor the tree that sheltered Rainflower during her birth. When Lionblaze and Cinderheart had their kits, one was given the name Hollykit to honor Lionblaze's sister, Hollyleaf. It's worth noting that most of the kits named after someone or something in particular don't often reflect the appearance of their namesake. For a WCC example, JJ's Jaydream didn't resemble a jay, but took on the name Jaydream in honor of his grandfather, Jaystar.

WCC Examples:
Jaydream
Oakstar
Ivystar
Clovertwist

Reason 3: Foreshadowing or Metaphorics
By far the rarest of Warriors' naming conventions is the practice of foreshadowing in a name. Oftentimes a metaphor or a hope for something greater, kits will be named bold, big things to bring on good fortune in their lifetime. See Firestar of ThunderClan, named not only for his flaming pelt, but for the prophecy he fulfilled as well. Note Leopardfoot, also of ThunderClan. The last of her litter to survive, she was given the name of a leopard to give her strength in the days to come, even though her pelt was black as night. Brightheart wasn't glowing, but "bright" represented her spirit, a metaphor.

WCC Examples:
Wolfkit
Bloodstrike
Flashpaw

Knowing the reasoning behind prefixes often helps when naming a cat, and gives insight on the meaning behind it. Suffixes are another entity entirely, and pull from many other things aside from appearance.


The Science of Suffixes

Suffixes are arguably the more important part of a cat's name. While the prefix is given simply for being born, a suffix reflects the journey a cat has gone through during their life. There are multiple reasons for the suffix a cat will receive, and often leaders will favor different suffixes from others.

Reason 1: Appearance
It's quite common for both a prefix and a suffix to reflect a cat's appearance, especially if that cat has a defining visual trait or quirk. Body parts of cats are seen as appearance names, as well as continuations of the prefix. See Sandstorm, while "storm" is not a part of a cat's body, it further brings home the point that Sandstorm represents a gust of sand. Appearance names are the most common form of suffixes as well, with cats like Graystripe named for their gray stripes, cats like Bluefur for blue fur, and cats like Talltail for well, their tall tails. It is worth noting that both Pinestar, Sunstar, and Bluestar all favored appearance names, as they were responsible for naming Frostfur, Patchpelt, Oneeye, Halftail, etc.  

WCC Examples
Ferretnose
Maplewhisker
Streamtail
Spotlake
Harefoot
Ravenstar (Raventail)

Reason 2: Nature
Pulling from Native American influences, nature names are also quite popular. Cats like Tallpoppy, Fernsong, and Leafpool all reflect nature names. These names can refer to a cat's spirit, as one could draw the conclusion that Fernsong is the embodiment of ferns blowing in the breeze.  Leafpool doesn't look like leaves in a pool, but her aura is that of calmness and a cool demeanor. These names are increasingly popular on WCC, as they are the fastest and easiest way to bring across a cat's personality. Tanglerose is prickly and yet has beauty underneath. Goldengale is swift and golden-hearted. Firestar and Bramblestar enjoyed these names.

WCC Examples
Ploverpuddle
Willowbreeze
Flowerthorn
Beecloud
Dustcloud
Sunflower

Reason 3: Personality
Names that don't make sense in context, but instead represent a personality. Lionblaze's name represents his bravery and fiery personality, yet lions do not blaze. Firestar (Fireheart)'s name representing his warm heart and heroic nature, yet his heart wasn't physically on fire. These names are incredibly popular with medicine cats.

WCC Examples
Aspenheart
Softbreeze
Mothglow
Sagelight
Snowflight
Redfall
Grousefrost
Honeytongue

Reason 4: Honor
As same as the prefixes, usually a cat will get a suffix like this to honor a fallen friend or lover. Crowfeather demanded he be named Crowfeather to honor Feathertail. Jaydream was named after his mother, etc.

WCC Examples
Jaydream
uuuuuh y'all i think that's it

Reason 5: Life Experience
These names, like a personality suffix, don't necessarily have to make sense in context. Rather, they reflect a cat's greatest achievement or biggest moment. I'm a huge fan of these names myself. Names like Brightheart, Leafpool, and Briarlight are a good example.

WCC Examples
Lynxscar
Burntstag
Scorchbranch
Oakstar


Knowing these naming conventions, it helps us piece together a solid name, and defines what it means to have a good name. In my book, a good name is a name that covers not but one of the reasonings, but multiple. Take Fireheart for example.

Fire --> Represented his fiery orange pelt, and the prophecy
Heart --> Spoke of his brave soul and courage.

Or Leafpool, one of my favorites.

Leaf --> Honoring SkyClan's leader, Leafstar.
Pool --> Speaks of her cool personality, and also notes her achievement of finding the moonpool.

This is why names like Twigbranch and Stemleaf SUCK because they are so repetitive but it's all good lmao. Who the heck let Bramblestar pick names???

Love you all! Thanks for coming to lemon's monthly science talk! (my spontaneus muse comes at random, but i can for real make a monthly warriors science thing if you guys would like!)

also guys it would be so neat if we took all of our cats and wrote out which of these reasonings they fit into (and see if i missed any lol) i'll do it with my cats, feel free to post below with yours!

Flintfang
Flint: Reason 1, Appearance
Fang: Reasons 1 and 3, Appearance and Personality

Finchstar (Finchbreeze)
Credit goes to Ripped on this one, she picked Finch's name!
Finch: Reasons 1 and 3, Appearance and Metaphors
Breeze: Reasons 2 and 3, Nature and Personality

Leaftwirl
Leaf: Reason 1, Appearance
Twirl: Reasons 2 and 3, Nature and Personality

Duskrain
Dusk: Reason 1, Appearance
Rain: Reasons 1, 2, and 3, Appearance, Nature, and Personality

That's all the warriors I've ever had! What about you guys?

wow this is really cool. This will help me alot, thanks!
I named Wolfpaw after her appearance and personality, for she is social and lonely. Wolves are usually in a pack or alone.
I named Mousekit after his appearance (cuz I imagine mice as brown) and the fact that he's sort of a pushover, and that he's quiet sometimes. Kinda like a mouse.

I'd like to suggest another reason to suffixes: skills! It kind of falls into a few categories (personality and life experience especially), but I felt inclined to add it. Honoring a warrior's skills is probably the most "traditional" style of naming, right after appearance. Some canon examples are Spottedleaf (-leaf for her skills in healing with herbs) and Tigerclaw (though you could make the case that this is for his big, tiger-like claws or his ferocious personality, it could also be for his battle prowess). This was my original intent for Ferretnose's name: she's a great tracker! I also considered Sandleap for Arno's warrior name, being that he was speedy climber.

Some suffixes that would fall under this category would be -claw, -fang, -whisker, -nose, -leap, -stream, -gale, -leaf, -branch, and the like.

Here are my characters:

Ferretnose
- Prefix: Appearance (small and brown, with a white underbelly and muzzle)
- Suffix: Skill/Appearance (white muzzle, talented scent tracker)

Aspenheart
- Prefix: Appearance (thin, silver tabby with dark stripes)
- Suffix: Personality (he cares, he's a softie, a very silly man)

Sandblaze
- Prefix: Appearance (cream tabby)
- Suffix: Personality/Nature (spontaneous, emboldened, hothothot)

Beecloud
- Prefix: Honor (ooc, his uncle Beepaw. ic, Ferretnose felt him kicking and likened him to a buzzing bee)
- Suffix: Nature/Personality (drifty and dreamy)

Tanglerose
- Prefix: Appearance (wiry, tangled, messy pelt)
- Suffix: Nature (covered in thorns with a hidden beauty)

Loonwhisper
- Prefix: Appearance (tuxedo)
- Suffix: Nature (strange and ethereal vibes, especially from a loon, which ordinarily screams all the time. there's a cool juxtaposition there)

Why do I like appearance prefixes so much? I think they make the most sense, logically speaking. What else do you know about a kit in its first few days except for its pelt and size? It definitely helps to describe a character without providing a picture. Who's Crowkit? Probably a black kit. That's just my thought process and method. :D

Yes I do enjoy Lemon's monthly science talk.

Spotlake
Spot: Appearance as she has a spotted calico coat
Lake: Also appearance since her spots look like minature lakes. Also forshadowing since lakes bring life and Spotlake has like 50 million children

Deerfrost
Deer: Appearance because his pelt looks very much like a deer's
Frost: Spoke of his distant personalty and harshness towards Shadowclan. And foreshadowing

Nightwolf
Night: Appearance as his pelt is as dark as night.
Wolf: Personalty (sorta) Wolves are pack animals and are very social (most of the time) They also are desadents of dogs and Night is based off of my IRL dog. His name is also wolf because at the time of naming him I realized that Dog's get a bad rep in warriors and that it wouldn't be very nice to my son to name him something that gets a bad rep so I just names the closest thing to dog

oh i am incredibly down for monthly warriors science

Raventail
- Prefix: Appearance (black solid)
- Suffix: Appearance/Skill (fluffy tail + good at climbing, somehow)

Lightfang
- Prefix: Appearance (cream/white tabby)
- Suffix: Skill (skilled in hunting and fighting + a plain suffix for a plain cat)

Galeheart
- Prefix: honestly,,,,, there’s no logic to this one (gray tabby)
- Suffix: Honor (named after his mother, Emberheart)

Mudfrost
- Prefix: Appearance (brown calico)
- Suffix: Personality/Nature? (composed and relatively distant but mostly i just liked the sound)

Snowflight
- Prefix: Appearance (white solid)
- Suffix: Personality (…flighty…)

Smallbean
Small - Appearance (he's significantly smaller than may other cats)
bean - Appearance, personality (beans are small, like he is, and Bean: A smol bean is someone, such as a significant other, famous person, or a child, who is petite but precious(dictionary))

Robinloft
Robin - Appearance (she has grey fur with a red underbelly)
Loft - Personality (i first named her this because i thought Robinloft sounded cool, but soon decided it also fit her lofty and uplifting personality)

Elsa
- Appearance (She's white like snow)
- she's also 99% based off of my irl cat named elsa

PLS DO THESE MONTHLY YES

Larkflight
Lark: Appearance, brown tabby with white underbelly
Flight: Personality, whimsical and ‘flighty’

Redfall
Red: Appearance, ginger tabby
Fall: Skill, I read somewhere that the suffix -fall meant good at climbing

Emberspark
Ember: uh
Spark: Personality, bright and optimistic and uplifting

Wildflower
Wild: uh
Flower: Personality, gentle and kind

Ooh I really like this! I'll definitely be using this to decide on some of my potential future character names.

Addershade
Adder-: Appearance. Not necessarily just for his pelt color, but also because of his long, snakey tail.
-Shade: Appearance, for his partially dark black coat, and personality, because he’s easily suspicious, and sees the world as a shady place.

Nettlefire
Nettle-: Her prefix was initially foreshadowing to her personality, which was originally going to be much pricklier and more volatile. But she ended up developing into a much colder and calmer character, so it doesn’t really apply as it was originally intended.
-Fire: Life Experience. She was badly injured in a fire as an apprentice, and requested the suffix herself as a way of confronting her trauma.

Crowkit (whose intended suffix right now will be either -call or -song)
Crow-: Appearance. He has long, dark fur, which is tufted in a way that looks somewhat like a bird’s plumage. Also metaphorics, since crows are one of several animals that are often portrayed as tricksters in folklore and fairytales.
-Call/-Song: Personality. Both (according to a suffix guide I found) denote a cat who is diplomatic/a smooth talker.

Marshcloud
Marsh-: Appearance. Well, OOC anyway. It’s because I thought the pelt of the cat I used as his face claim kinda looked like a marshmallow.
-Cloud:  Both personality (according to the suffix guide I was looking at, it means a cat is an idealist/dreamer) and appearance (he was very fluff)

MONTHLY WARRIORS SCIENCE YES MY FAVOURITE TYPE OF SCIENCE
nevermind the fact that none of them are warriors taKe my overgrOwn studEnts

Featherpaw × Featherwish
> prefix: appearance ° dainty, frail, silvery
> suffix: personality ° altruistic, thoughtful, philosophical, wistful; spent so long wishing and seeking more in herself and the world around her.

Vixenpaw × Vixenrose
> prefix: appearance + foreshadowing/metaphorics ° russet and lithe, she resembles a fox quite nicely. also very noticeably a metaphorical vixen also her dad was houndheart and yes it's perfectly painful also foreshadowing is nice, isn't it? :)
> suffix: appearance + personality ° in ways, her red fur evokes thoughts of a rose. moreso, it's symbolic of her alluring, extravagant and eye-catching exterior (in which she highly prides herself), yet is shielded with stinging thorns to conceal insecure mentalities.

Smokepaw × Smokespirit
> prefix: appearance ° he is smöke cat. and also mystërïöus-löökïng. wöndërfül.
> suffix: personality + life experience ° he's passionate without doubt, with the resolve of a lion. the most significant time of his life was his avid participation in the rebellion against the righteous few; his spirit was unleashed without restraint, to be seen, to be heard, to be felt, to inspire.

Cool science Lem :o I'd suggest an addition to suffixes, which is the traditional naming style I use most often: skill suffixes, which don't necessarily relate to personality or one specific lifetime achievement, but rather a longstanding area of excellence throughout this cat's life.

Harefoot
prefix: appearance - lanky, dusty, long like a hare.
suffix: life experience/skill - -foot doesn't denote that Harefoot's feet are like those of a hare in appearance, but rather his skill of being especially agile and fast, which is unusual for ThunderClan cats who are trained for slow, steady stalking in the undergrowth. His ability to move at almost full tilt completely silently through bushes is honored with his name.

Spottedstar/Spottedleap
prefix: appearance - he is a spotty boy (and a pretty boy uwu)
suffix: life experience/skill - the man leaps like a flying squirrel, impressive even for SkyClan cats. His extra long tail, powerful build, and long, hard moons spent alone in the mountains are responsible for his agility.

Juniperlight
prefix: appearance + honor/nostalgia: he is dark and smol like a lil juniper berry. He also carries on the plant name theme into his generation: Cherrymist, Firflower, Sagelight, Juniperlight.
suffix: personality + honor/nostalgia: Juniper is bright, happy, and day-dreamy, hence light; but he is also named in honor of Uncle Sagelight for looking after him following Firflower's death.

Turtlepaw/???
prefix: appearance + foreshadowing/metaphorics: He looks like a little baby turtle, but also his father hoped his only child would be safe and protected like a turtle with a shell.
suffix: idk yet, probably personality but who knows

Well I guess...
Rosepaw is named after her pelt
Streamtail because of her pelt and her long tail
Ebonysong because...her pelt is dark and she has a nice voice claim?

((The portal is frozen I can’t even tap on anything aaa))

Ooh, neat!

Ravenmist’s prefix was after her appearance (1), and her suffix gives note to her blindness and how it affects her (5). She might be blind, but she’s not completely “in the dark”, metaphorically speaking. She uses her other senses to their full advantage and functions almost as a normal warrior.

Crowspirit’s prefix was also after his appearance (1) (and my tradition of giving my characters bird names) and his suffix is after his personality (3). He is the definition of spirited, full of energy, life, and determination, even through hardships, and has kept that throughout his life.

Bloodstrike
Prefix: Blood ~ the red in his fur resembles dried blood. Could be a ominous thing as suggested. Only time will tell.
Suffix: Strike ~ Given to him by Spottedstar for his tendency for battles, I think.

Dawnwing
Prefix: Dawn ~ Literally he is all of the colors of a morning sky. Silvery white, radiant gold and sky blue eyes.
Suffix: Wing ~ This guy practically flies through trees and across tree limbs. Also... have you seen him hunt? He catches rabbits like it's no big deal, whereas most Skyclan cats struggle with the feat.