FAR: Naming
The naming system within the new Felis Artis is one of the largest changes from the original, simply to take it away from it's origin point.
Initially after deciding to cut the project loose from it's fanwork status, I knew that I needed to change that. I'd changed the names a lot from the canon ones already, but I felt that the full separation would be needed.
Once I'd decided on that, I got to work on deciding what to keep, and what to change. I knew I wanted to keep an aspect of changing names across ranks, but with a little more creativity than just one option for the suffixes to be changed to.
I wanted to take the key parts of the canon I'm working from as follows:
Starting name is simpler/less complex than adult names.
Changes parts of it as the character changes ranks.
Then, I noted a few things that I also wanted to consider when making the new naming system.
Frame it so epithets and titles are more usable.
Account for certain technologies. You know how the initial proposed name for Tigerclaw was Hammerclaw? If they'd had hammers, then it'd probably would have gone through. It made sense within the universe.
Acknowledge the accomplishments in secondary schooling.
Nicknames! All these requirements can lead to pretty long names. What do these cats call each other in casual settings, when the formal naming won't work?
Recognizable. As the names get more complex, this might be an issue.
With my goals laid out, I got to work on developing a system that would work with what I wanted out of the names. I wanted to slowly see what would work, and by extension, what wouldn't work, by work-shopping a few character names; I decided to focus on our two protagonists in Arc 1 as a good starting point.
In the original project, the two of them were called Wildfire and Crowtongue.
Wildfire's name has clear symbolism and imagery associated with it that I wanted to maintain, but Crowtongue's associations would be harder to maintain.
The first thing I did was hyphenate the two parts. This makes it easier to read whats being changed and swapped around.
Wildfire -> Wild-fire Crowtongue -> Crow-tongue
The first thing I decided to tackle was the acknowledgements of secondary education. In the original project, cats would change their secondary names, or suffixes, based on their ranks in the groups. Now, they change their names based on expertise.
The easiest way to do this is to have a third part of the name that changes depending on their documented schooling. With the new system for education and learning (which I will make another post for... eventually) there are three levels in completion of schooling.
None -> Required -> Intermediary -> Advanced
I decided to make the new added part of the name change with specific words. In Redux canon, these specific words are translated for English readability, but probably would be shorter to say in their cat language. Choosing words for this was a little tough, but I worked from the original project's ideas and finally settled on these suffixes.
(none) -> "-paw" -> "-paws" -> "-pawprints"
Now, after settling on where these characters would end up in the new education system and what they'd realistically complete in their lifetime, all I had to do was add it to our character's names, right at the end.
Wild-fire -> Wild-fire-paws Crow-tongue -> Crow-tongue-paw
Now, it doesn't really roll off the tongue easily, does it? After taking a short break to consider how to fix it, I couldn't thing of anything better at the moment. I could always come back to it later after I had more to work with.
Deciding to work on another aspect next, I tackled the titles and epithets.
In my first idea was to just tack it onto the beginning of the names (alike to things like "The Brave ___" or "The Honorable ___", but realized I'd have to make individual titles for any cat that reaches the high enough rank, and that simply is not sustainable with the sheer amount of cats that exist in the series. I'd run out of words.
So, I decided to add a new system. Honor titles are added at the beginning of their names, but now there's another, slightly more common, honoring system. Honor renaming.
Cats with Honor titles, such as "The Brave ___" or "The Honorable ___" and other such items, have to have passed away before their title is given. Honor renamings happen when a cat is alive and changes their whole first section of their name.
Honor renaming is for smaller feats. Honor titles are given to grand cats who change history, for better or for worse, but honor renaming is more like graduating valedictorian. It's for smaller, less large-scale feats that would be honored. It's like saving a kitten from a flood (honor rename) versus curing an illness that was killing kittens for years and years (honor title).
So, for example, a cat with the name Gray-snow-paws would be honored, and their name would be changed to something else. Something like Blue-dusk-paws. The education status would not change, but the initial part of the name would.
Cats with honor renamings can be, and often are, given an honor title after death. It depends on their work.
After finishing that section up, I decided to finally outline what would give a cat their initial names. After floating a few ideas around to some friends, I decided on how the first parts of the names would be given.
The first part of their name would be a virtue or that their parent would want them to embody as they age. It would be in the noun or infinitive form until their second part of their name is placed at the beginning. It will change depending on the word, but it will either change to an adjective or an adverb
For example, a kitten born could be named Kindness or Sympathy, but once they get their second part at the front, it could change to Snow-kindly or Holly-sympathetic.
You might be thinking that these names are long. They don't roll off the tongue easily, and aren't easy to remember. You'd be right, but before we can even think about that, we have to define the parameters for what gives a cat their second section of their name.
Looking back at the original project, I'd made the names change based on their education status, but with the updated tiered education system, that wouldn't work. So, what else often dictates education in hundreds of cultures around the world? Age!
Cats gain their second part of their name when they become three months old, and then typically begin their formal education at around four months old. Their second part of their name usually refers to their physical description. Being named after pelt colors, patterns, or unusual features are common.
But, what about Wild-fire-paws and Crow-tongue-paw? They don't have their first/central part of their name as a virtue, it's just words!
Fear not, there's an explanation. When a cat completes their required schooling, their central name is changed for the first time. It can change to anything, save for words reserved for special sections of their names, and can mean whatever.
It can change to something that fits their physical description, special skills or affinities, interests or inside jokes. The only requirement is that it has to be one word. Anything goes.
When a cat retires from work, their central name can be changed again. Like the first time, it can be anything they want. It will be the name they keep in death. However, unlike the first time, they can also choose to keep their old name. It depends on the cat.
As a note, the only time a cat's second name is changed is with honor renamings. This is what makes them so specially permanent and why it's often named after a physical feature. Not much will change about your pelt color as you age, save for a few special gene cases, so it's generally safe for a cat to be named after their pelt, or their ears, or anything else.
So, with these parameters set up, let's run through a normal cat's name changes (honor titles and honor renamings excluded simply for simplicity's sake) in their life.
Strength -> Mouse-strong -> Mouse-dusk-paw -> Mouse-dusk-paws -> Mouse-chase-paws
As you can see, the cat gained their first education completion suffix alongside their central name being changed. It is the same ceremony. In a few cases, these events are two different ceremonies due to the style of education (cooking and medicine are the main ones that tend to require two ceremonies, but specific mentors and teachers may also stagger the ceremonies for numerous other reasons in any of the other fields of education/work)
After all this, we need to decide on changes for leaders. In the old project, they gained the second name of "-star," but I feel that this won't work again.
After a lot of deliberation, leaders will gain a special title. It's like an honor title, in the sense that it goes in the front of their name, but it simply is the word "Starlit"
Blue-dusk-paws -> Starlit Blue-dusk-paws
Now, with all of this done and dusted, the final part of the work to do in names: Nicknaming!
Nicknaming is usually done with a part of the subject's full name, or entirely unrelated. It's simply what they're known by in casual settings. The exception to this is leaders, in which their title is always going to be included as a sign of respect.
Starlit Blue-dusk-paws would be known as Starlit Blue, whereas others would be commonly be refereed to with specific parts of their name (Wild-fire-paws is referred to as Wildfire, while Crow-tongue-paw is referred to as Crow. It depends on the cat's preferences.)
After all this work, I'm happy with the final result! I've been considering making the naming system it's own (creative progress not included) visual guide to showcase the changes across time, but we'll see if I end up making it.