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The topic of a cat's name has come up a few times in the story now, and I'm sure you've all noticed that the cats of the Garden do things a bit differently. I thought I'd lay out some of the general rules and traditions around a cat's name within the setting.
The first thing worth noting is that naming structures are much looser than in canon warrior cats. It has been a long, long time since the ancient Clan ruled the desert, and while many of their traditions carry on in some capacity, they've been warped, changed, and misunderstood with time. Cats have not lived in Clans for many, many moons. The Garden has no hard rules about how a cat has to be named. All cats are welcomed, regardless of where they are from or what they are called.
The purpose of the -kit suffix was once simply to denote a cat was too young to begin their training. Within the Garden, this is still commonly the case. To outsiders, however, and to more superstitious or traditional cats, this tradition was changed over time to instead be a kind of placeholder name. Living alone, it is much harder to ensure the survival of a whole litter, and so -kit is used in place of a full name. It allows the parents to depersonalize their relationship to the kitten, in the event it does not reach adolescence, while still being able to address them in some capacity. Some parents opt to not name the kit at all until they feel survival is ensured, but it is typically a manner of preference and whatever tradition the parent themselves was named with. As with Moth to Flame, this practice is not always viewed favorably. Within the Garden, however, it is the norm, seeing as the practice dates all of the way back to the ancient Garden, even if it had different meaning then.
The prefix (or first name) is not always the cat's first name forever. A cat called Whiskerkit, for example, could later be named Longwhisker, pushing the first name to last. Since it's a placeholder name, it can also be changed entirely upon receiving one's full name - although this is more rare. What's important to note is that there is a lot of flexibility within the naming structure.
There's also a common trend in names to add an -ing to the end of prefixes once a full name is given. A Chasekit may become Chasing [Suffix]. This is very dependent on parents' own preferences. It's typically to keep kit names short (sometimes impersonal as well), or to make a name flow better. Once more, it's very flexible.
-paw is the suffix of students, and is almost exclusively used in GardenClan with almost no application outside of it. With parents being the only teachers most cats have on their own, if they're even that lucky, it fell out of fashion in favor of just giving a cat their full name once they were old enough to fend for themselves. It is meant to signify that a cat is capable of leaving camp, and starting to learn, but that this cat is not able to survive on their own yet, and they still have more to learn about the world, the Clan, and Heaven.
The two part naming convention is still the most common way for cats to be named, especially if they live in a group or family unit. It's most common and traditional for cats to be named after their parents or another close relative in some way. Sometimes this is as simple as a cat directly inheriting a parent or grandparent's name, especially if the first cat has passed. Sometimes it is only the suffix or prefix that is passed down. Most commonly, however, is for a cat to be named something adjacent to their family members. A cat named after a bird might name their kits after different birds, or incorporate words like wing or feather into their kits names. A cat named after a time of day, such as Evening Fire, chooses Night- as the first name for his kit. This is the most normal way of naming a kit, so that their lineage can be traced back easily - so much so that it is often referred to as a "family name," even if it isn't directly passed down or shared by every cat. It shows the parent put thought into their kit's name, and thus that even if the cat does not live with their family, they were loved in some way. It also sometimes helps for neighbors and nearby cats who could perhaps know a cat's parents to identify them as their offspring - for better or worse.
If a cat is going to be named after a family member other than their parents, it is likely going to be their grandparents. In fact, it's often the case that names will "skip a generation," with the kit's names being much closer or more related to the grandparents' than their parents - and the parents' names being closer to their grandparents in turn. This also helps lineage be traced backwards. It is also seen as a sign of respect to one's elders, and a great honor (most of the time) to the kit who shares the name.
It's also not uncommon for parents to find some way of merging their family names. A cat named for their white pelt whose mate is named after the weather or a season, for example, might choose 'snow' to be in their kit's name as a way of marrying the names from both sides.
It's considered very strange to pick a first and last part of the name that do not interact or "go" together in some way. This is a little abstract and hard to explain, but the first and last name typically play / interact / build off of one another. The most common example of this is the first name being some type of descriptor of the second, although it is not always the case. The easiest way I can think of explaining this is that the name should conjure up some sort of image in your brain, rather than just being two words put together. More eccentric or less traditional cats sometimes ignore this.
Many moons ago, it was very normal for cats to almost solely be named after their appearance or a trait. While these names also have two parts, they are pushed together as one word. The cats don't write, so it's unclear how much this distinction would really matter. But these names have much less flexibility. Imptail and Angelwing are the obvious examples - the first name carries much more weight than the last, where as more modern naming conventions put equal emphasis on both halves. Squirreltail of SmokeClan is another. While it is not an uncommon way of naming kits, it is seen as a bit more old fashioned.
Cats who have had many kits have a bit more freedom when it comes to naming. While kits from a first litter may all have names related to their family in some manner, a kit from a second or third (or even a particularly large litter) may have more variety in their names. Some cats - often ones that live in family units or cats who are mates but only live together when kits are involved - will opt to only name their first litter, or even just their firstborn by the family name. A less common version of this is sometimes seen in more powerful families in which only the firstborn in each litter is given a "whole" name, and the others are left with one word names, or far less related names.
Single names (Locust, Lake, Fig, ect.) are most commonly used by cats who have no family ties. While they might have been named by their parents, and sometimes the name may relate to them, it's more often than not a sign that this cat has no lineage or relationship to their birth family. For some cats, this is a point of shame - or even a punishment / slight from a parent. For others, it signifies independence. It's more common for cats who live further away from the desert or completely alone to have a single name, as naming traditions do not stay the same as you leave the region.
There is also a small percentage of cats (made up mostly of those who live with humans or maintain a life of complete solitude) that remain functionally nameless. If they must interact with others, it's common to see them pick a descriptor or title to be used in place of a name. The best current example in the comic would be The Dreamer!
Cats who live in close proximity or with humans often only have one name. Cats who are named by their human owners/companions/caretakers can have names that vary wildly. Any cat with a "human" sounding name was most certainly named like this. Cats being named after human objects is also a good signifier that they or their parents lived close to a human at one time. This also applies to two part names. Cats in SmokeClan often have human words and objects mixed into their name, for example. Similarly, Mulberry Wine's mother named him after something she knew the human who cared for her liked.
Prophets (and leaders of other groups) in the modern setting do not take the suffix -star or change their names in any way. The title is typically enough.
Cats being named by the leader of a group is almost unheard of. It is the parent's responsibility to name a cat, and unless they relinquish or neglect that duty, it is seen as their right to do so. It is frowned upon to change the name given to a cat by their parents. A name should ideally serve two purposes - connect a cat to their family, and also set them apart as an individual. a cat without parents may choose to have a close friend, teacher, or respected elder help to choose a full name, but it is more common for such cats to forgo a full name in favor of a single world.
”transandrophobia/anti-transmasculinity isn’t real” When i was younger one legitimate thing o had against transitioning (in the future) was that instead of being a women scientist, instead of being progressive and boundary breaking, i would just be a man. What would all the little girls think if i abandoned them, left the harshness of female hood to become a man instead, become not the idol they looked up too?
literally used to get so upset that i would not be a “woman in STEM” and would be taking spots away from women who could be in STEM instead of a man like me. that once my gender changed i was the statistic we were trying to push against. who needs more men like me in STEM?
Not to talk over you but use this as a way to get the conversation outta the tags — it’s younger trans men who needs men like you in stem. When you transition, the world doesn’t just lose a women in stem it also gains a trans man/masc.
@echoiiing said it very well.
So, for everybody that feels that strange shame and pressure of needed to be the Women Scientist, the Women Role Model in the room — you’ll instead be a Trans Masc scientist, a Trans Man Role Model.
Not to mention the fact that the world is always gaining new women every day in the form of trans women. They get to be the Women Scientists and the Women Role Models for women and girls to look up to. It’s not our job to fulfil that role when trans women are doing it so much better than we ever could.
Whenever the world gains a new trans person, future generations of trans people gain an extra bit of hope that they wouldn’t have otherwise had, so never ever feel guilty about transitioning. The world needs you exactly as you are!
first of all, good job for... errr, okay, you didn't come out, actually you stayed in the closet so hard that you bolted yourself inside of it and doomed yourself to the dark forever. but that's okay buddy, maybe this film would cheer you up. i don't know if you've heard of it, but it's called I Saw The TV Glow.
i will admit that with the context of her transfem subtext, it does make sense that her motivations are more like 'i am afraid of getting close to anyone' and as someone who Loves messy as fuck characters, i still enjoyed seeing that spiral of self-destruction in episode 9. so, no issues there.
but gosh... i will also admit, when we got to those experimental sequences with her and that entire sequence of pomni going through the doors showing the different sides of jax, it really made me think Wow! This is the kind of character study i expected from this show! I wish the other characters had scenes of their psyches being dismantled!
because if there's an issue i find with jax's character, it is that she lacks Ambiguity. and that is because she initially presents as a male-presenting character... it's hard to already pull off Ambiguity with an asshole male character because that kind of shit is already Expected for them. it's a centuries-old trope that has been in pride and prejudice, i am Not surprised in the slightest that this character has hidden depth.
which is what made a lot of jax scenes fall flat for me. i know her deal. i know that she's putting up a front, and i do not need that constantly repeated.
and honestly! she could have the Ambiguity if she was presenting as a woman at the start... and she can still be trans
my problem with tadc overall is that It doesn't know what it wants to be. its marketing made it come across as a psychological horror, and while i'll say that the show has its moments of psychological horror, i can't say that i am really feeling it the entire show. it's said to explore each character and their traumas, but it doesn't really sufficiently explore characters that aren't named jax. it has set up a lot of things for the Digital Circus setting itself but it doesn't do much with it.
like, i don't really need the setting to be more developed and explored, it is just a backdrop for the characters at the end of the day. but holy chekhov's gun if we're Never going to explore the digital lake or carnival i would suggest just making them Blank forests. i'd actually think it would exemplify the Isolation in their situation since it would be a constant reminder that they're trapped In The Circus.
what makes a lot of the arguments Against tadc's writing appalling to me is that the defense with the other characters' lack of development and focus is that they would be 'insubstantial'. it shows that the only way the problem of making sure each character 'has development' is through cuts... instead of, well, doing rewrites.
and that's the Thing. the show at times genuinely feels like a first draft, something that was written and not revised. and considering that i know that gooseworx had revised the dialogue sometime after episode 2's release... i don't think that's good! it still has clutter that is typical of the first draft, with scenes that feel Pointless and threads that go nowhere. it's in Desperate need of a second draft.
i hate that i am constantly bringing up ragatha when it comes to my criticisms since zooble definitely has it the worst, but she is legitimately the poster child of these writing problems — if you cared about her as a character, it wouldn't be hard to see the cracks.
“The Red Dowry” is one of many games on the 2026 Power of Pride Bundle. Feel free to give the bundle and game a moment of your time with the links below, as well as keep an eye on the bundle’s release on June.
99% of "mysterious disappearances" esp of people in their 20s who start acting weird for 48 hours and then vanish are not mysterious, thats just when a lot of reality-obliterating mental illness tends to kick in and it's pretty easy to get a short circuit in your brain that makes you go family guy death pose in joshua tree national park. it's not any less tragic, it's just a documented phenomenon and not particularly predictable. its a big reason the medical advice is for people with a family history of schizophrenia to completely avoid weed and psychedelics. "people just go crazy sometimes" is a principle of human health that used to be a lot more accepted prior to the american midcentury and to a certain extent thats a healthier way to conceptualize and prepare for the risk, as opposed to the modern assertion that anyone acting weird is dangerous and broken forever.
you should have a rough outline of a plan for if any of your loved ones experiences psychosis, it really does happen a lot. UTIs can cause psychosis. taking drugs, even safe drugs, or prescription drugs, can cause psychosis. i was once prescribed a heavy regimen of vitamin D because i was deficient, but the doctor never told me to stop taking it, so i moved to california, stopped being deficient, and developed vitamin d toxicity with downstream hyperparathyroidism which triggered significant hypomania that was undetected and uncontrolled for yeeeeeeears. i just slowly got Weird and started making impulsive decisions based on slightly out-of-gamut beliefs. i drove cross country by myself to have a love affair. the love affair was real, the series of decisions leading to burning down my life in pursuit of it were based on not great brain function however. etc. you see what i mean. churchill mentioned depression being the "black dog who stalks us" (one reason for Churchgrim's multi-referential name) but theres another, stealthier dog called Insanity and it's closer to some people than others but man it sneaks up on you. every time i see one of those "guy gets weird and drives into the wilderness forever" missing persons stories i think "yeah i could totally pull that off"
"van gogh cut off his ear what a lunatic" you are 3 nights of bad sleep, getting unexpected upsetting news and taking a substance as benign as coffee at the wrong time away from doing the same hope this helps
