Cat Warriors Naming Guide

Suggestions and Tips for Naming Clan Cats, version 2.0
written by the Lady Ten
last updated July 26th, 2010

Important Note:  These suggestions refer to ordinary circumstances.  This page does not concur with all of Erin Hunter's names.  The mere usage of a certain prefix or suffix in the books is not proof that it works.

Introduction

In the role play universe inspired by Erin Hunter's Warriors, a warrior name describes the basic, obvious qualities of the cat.  That means no history, no commemoration, and nothing that requires explanation or backstory.  The name should give you an image of the cat all by itself, using straightforward terms that the clan cats would be familiar with.  It should neither exalt nor degrade.

Warrior names have a prefix, given by the mother within the first few days of the cat's life, and a suffix, given by the leader after the cat completes warrior training.

Prefix = beginning part
Suffix = ending part

Prefixes

The prefix must be a
fur color,
body shape,
or something from the cat's natural surroundings that involves the above
(such as a plant, animal, or time with regard to sky color).

A prefix refers to appearance and appearance only.  What else could you notice about a newborn?  However, a mother shouldn't name her kit Wetkit just because he was born in the rain -- his name should be able to describe him for the rest of his life.  The purpose of the prefix is to give something by which a mother may refer to her individual kits, as distinguished from the others in the litter.  If some of the kits look alike, then it is not inappropriate for them to have similar names, although of course they cannot have the same name.  

Suffixes

The suffix must
state how the prefix applies (fur, tail, step),
mention a part of the cat (claw, fang, whisker) that the cat is skilled with or uses often,
or describe the cat's personality with an adjective-convertible noun (heart, flower, storm).

The purpose of the suffix is to serve as a shorthand indicator of an outstanding trait.  This can help the deputy plan hunts and patrols and can aid the leader in devising strategies.  A suffix that indicates personality attributes gives them an idea of with whom they would work best, increasing productivity.  Particular skill sets also make certain cats better fitted to jobs requiring those skills -- use a skilled -fang cat where you need one of your best fighters, but use a sensitive -whisker cat to patrol borders or serve as sentry back at camp, and don't forget that the cat with the -heart knows how to cheer everyone up when the chips are down.  Your graceful -stream cat will make the sneakiest spy.  Your passionate -storm cat will lead the charge into battle.  There are numerous possibilities.  A leader should know the Clan, granted, but notes inside names make for faster decision-making under pressure.  

Sometimes, a cat will receive a suffix with little to no bearing on their skills or personality, such as the much-neglected fur suffix.  Generic words such as these serve as options when the cat in question has skills and personality that cannot be worked into a suffix, or if a particular suffix that could apply to this cat would sound bad with this prefix, or if the suffixes that fit this cat are already too common in the Clan.  

It is not the leader's job to describe a warrior's appearance.  The prefix should already have that covered.  As for other superfluous suffixes (such as a word that denotes fur texture or a favorite pastime unique to that cat): unless the leader knows how this information could be useful in future planning, it does not belong in a Clan cat's name.  

Suffix Suggestions

Generic Anatomy
Fur, pelt, stripe (for tabbies), tail, belly, throat, face, leg, ear, and foot are all fine suffixes.  However, keep in mind that if you use one of these, the prefix should apply to the majority of the cat as well as the indicated area.

Special Attributes
claw = fierceness and skill with claws
fang = fierceness and skill with fangs
storm = moody, emotional, passionate, boisterous (stormy) personality
flower = precious, dramatic, loquacious, feminine (flowery) personality
heart = lively, affectionate, sincere, jovial (hearty) personality
stream = fluid movement and gracefulness
nose = keen curiosity and strong sense of smell
whisker = sensitivity, in either (or both) the emotional and physical sense of the word
tail = good balance and expressive tail movements

Non-Warrior Suffixes
kit = baby cat
paw = apprentice (cat 6 months or older undergoing warrior training)
star = leader of a Clan

Leaf is not the imperative suffix for medicine cats and flower is not the imperative suffix for queens.

What to Avoid

There are many popular words that may sound cool or pretty, but keep in mind that some of them don't serve a purpose in a Clan cat name and will detract from its quality.

Cats can't sing.  They can chirp, yes.  This is not a song; it's a chirp.  They know about bird songs, yes, but unless the cat has a vocal deformity, it can't sound like that.  Because bird songs are the only songs of which Clan cats would know, and because chirping does not sound like bird song, they would not think of chirping as singing.  Song does not mean happy; it means song.  Songs can be sad, angry, and all sorts of moods, so song does not indicate a happy or cheery disposition.

Cats don't know about dancing.  At all.  They aren't made of liquid and don't have the cash to buy a pool.  Fall suggests decline and failure, so it would be dishonorable to say the cat has a fall.  Soul and spirit are too mystic--spirituality on that level is reserved for the medicine cat, but giving a medicine cat a suffix like that is redundancy.  Cats' shadows are all more or less the same, so using shadow as a suffix says nothing.  Cats also don't have weather or foliage.

Medicine Cats

Medicine cat names are no different from warrior names.  If you show someone two names, one of a warrior and one of a medicine cat, that person shouldn't be able to tell the difference.  Making a cat a medicine cat instead of a warrior doesn't change anything about the requirements of the name.  Using leaf as a suffix does not mean the cat is a medicine cat.  It means the cat has leaves.

Mothers don't know their kits will grow up to be medicine cats.  In most cases they would expect them to become warriors and as such would give them names according to this belief.  It is not mandatory for a medicine cat to have a plant in her name.

Eye Color

Why not in the prefix?
Kits are born with their eyes closed.  After they open, they're always blue for several weeks.  A mother would name the kit for easy-to-recognize appearance traits like fur color or size.  She wouldn't wait weeks to see what their eye color is.  Eye color is less noticeable than other appearance traits and something you have to be in front of the cat's face to see.

Why not in the suffix?
As explained above, the prefix must be something to do with size or color.  If you take a brown tabby with green eyes and name him Dustleaf, you're saying that the cat has leaves like dust, or at best, you're just saying that a brown cat is growing leaves out of his body.

Moon, Sun, and Star

Rest assured that the author of this page couldn't care less about StarClan and what the cats consider "sacred".  However, she does maintain that they are of far too much importance to be used in a warrior name.  The moon and sun mark the passing of time.  The sun is gigantic, powerful, and gives light and life to all things.  The moon is not only a meaningful symbol of peace during gatherings, but is also always changing in appearance as it waxes and wanes.  

Colors are found everywhere, objects and living things come in all shapes and sizes, and there's far more than one tree and animal and cloud in the world, but there is only one sun and one moon.  To use these in a warrior name would distinguish and laud a cat more than he or she could ever deserve.

As for Starkit, Ten hopes she becomes leader.

Times of Year

In the Clans, cats refer to winter as leaf-bare, spring as new-leaf, summer as green-leaf and autumn as leaf-fall.  Thus winter, spring, summer, and autumn would not be in their vocabulary.  Fall would mean a decline, not a season.

If, for some reason, they did use the human names for the seasons, they wouldn't name kits after them.  Cats cannot look like seasons.  They can look like snow, yes.  Snow is a fine prefix.  They can look like dead leaves, yes, but mothers don't name their kits after dead things.

The Step Suffix

Whitestep does not mean the cat has white paws.  In fact, a cat shouldn't get the prefix White if most of her pelt is a different color.  

When a leader gives step as a suffix, this indicates a gait that is skilled or useful (quick and speedy or careful and stealthy, for example) or a gait that matches the prefix.  Cats can have steps of a certain size corresponding to their overall body size (Smallstep) or it can relate to their prefix in other ways.  Cranestep works if, in resembling a crane in color as well as long legs, a cat has crane-like steps.

Non-Feline Suffixes

The theory behind names such as Ravenfeather is that it can work because the cat is the color of a raven feather.  However, this page advises against such a practice because it leads to names like Cedarbark and Stormcloud.  When you use cedar as a prefix, it's obvious that you're referring to the bark.  When you use storm as a suffix, it's obvious that you're referring to the clouds.  Names are more effective when the suffix is something the cat has, unless it's a direct personality correlation that makes sense and upholds respect for the cat.

The Final Formula

A name tends to work when either the cat has a suffix that looks like the prefix,
the cat looks like the prefix and is skilled with the suffix,
or the cat looks like the prefix and has a suffix-y personality.