Deaf 101: sign names! Note: some people write it as 'sign-name'.
Sign names are a sign someone makes which refers to a person! They're sort of like Deaf nicknames. You can't give yourself one, and a hearing person can't give you one either.
Sign names can come from many different things - a person's appearance, personality, spoken/written name, an event the person was involved in, etc!
If a person comes from a Deaf family who already have sign names, their sign name is often influenced by their family's. For example: a Deaf kid's older brother's sign name is signed on the chest; the Deaf kid's sign name might then also be given a sign name on the chest, because people associate them with their brother.
Some people's sign names are just their initials, however this is less popular now (at least in Australia). Sometimes a person's sign name is an already-existing sign, but with the handshape changed to the letter of their name.
Never ask a Deaf person for a sign name, it's incredibly rude and entitled. You are not owed a sign name. Some people never get a sign name (often because their spoken/written name is very short, and therefore easy and quick to finger-spell or because they're not very involved in the community), and that's okay!
