Date First Written: September 2010; Date Last Updated: 15 December 2021
What's Up With Our Names
How Our Thoughts Function
Long story short, our brain doesn't think in human words but rather functions as a soup of non-words. The thought processes that goes on in our brain is almost entirely made up of non-words. Whether it be the communication between headmates or our own personal thoughts, what goes on in our minds is not a string of speech-based thoughts. Rather it is almost entirely made-up of images, smells, non-word sounds, sensations, tastes, emotions, and even bits of memories. All very detailed and meaningful. Very rarely are words a part of our thinking process.
When words are used it is because either the thought contains something too abstract to think in senses and emotions, it is because we are reading something, or one of us is thinking about what we specifically plan on saying with our voice box. Only in cases like that is there a likelihood for some words to be internally heard. Even when words are thought, they are often not thought in how English sentences are made. They may be alone or disjointed. especially if being used just as a necessity modifier because a thought can't be conveyed easily as a sense of emotion for example. Rarely are words used in ways fitting the phrase "proper English." less someone is actively focusing on reading or writing something.
How This Effects Our Names
As a consequence of this, how we "call" each other internally is different than how spoken language operates. The names of most of us in our multiple system reflect this use of non-speech-based thought processing. Our names internally are not based in speech. We don't actually hear words when we call out to someone in our system or refer to someone in our system. The names we actually go by in our system is made-up of non-words like the rest of our thoughts and internal speech. So instead of word-sounds, our names internally are often made-up of anything from images to smells to non-word sounds to even bits of memories. Two of the most common ways these names work is that their internal name references their appearance in some way or references some aspect of their past. For example of someone’s name that draws upon both their appearance and something from their past (life), one of us is a tortoiseshell cat who came into our system as a spirit whose body had passed way and we found her remains (a few bones) under a fire pit and her innerworld name is made-up of the sight multi-colored autumn leaves, the smell of decaying leaves, the round of a crackling fire, and smell of smoke.
All of that is well in good internally because our names are in a form we understand instantly and naturally; however, making them functional when fronting can be a challenge.
Our Names Translated for the Outerworld
Translating our innerworld names into something useable outworld is a bit of an interesting challenge. We try to ideally translate our innerworld names down into as few words as possible while still roughly meaning what our internal names meaning. For some, this is easy but for others it is harder. Because of the nature of our innerworld names being based on non-words, the translations of these name often have a certain "style." We call them our "Descriptive Names" for a good reason. So we've got names like Earth Listener, Cavern-Risen, Redbreast, Fire In His Blood, Summer Blaze, BlueTail, White-As-Milk, Sky Singer, Golden Crown, Keeper of Stories, Light-of-the-Abyss, Ocean Watcher, Watts, Prowls-The-Territory, and many more.
As we said, some people's innerworld name focuses on some aspect of their appearance in some way and thus their Descriptive Name really focuses on that. So, one example, Grizzly Ears's name is a reference to his coat color, gray and tan, as "grizzly" means gray or gray-haired. For another example, Golden Crown’s name is a reference to his golden scales and the large antler-like horns on his head.
For those people whose innerworld name evokes memories of something they have done or happened to them either in this life or in their past life, we also try to translate some aspect of the memory into their Descriptive Name. For example, Cavern-Risen's name describes a specific event in her past-life, her fleeing a cave system and a pack she was raised with, is what gets briefly drawn up when thinking of her in our system, and thus it is her innerworld name thus she was dubbed “Cavern-Risen” as her Descriptive name.
Dual Names: Descriptive Name verses Symbolic Name
While sometimes we can come up with a passable English translation of someone's name (what we call their “descriptive name”), sometimes it just doesn't work. Sometimes people's names are passable enough to actually say to others or write down, but sometimes a person’s name just doesn’t translate well. Sometimes what we come up with while putting their name into English can come out too long and unwieldy for actual use. In instances such as this, we often end up coming up with an “Symbolic Name” for them.
What we call our Symbolic Names are often names that are more “normal” to mainstream societal standards. Most often these names are chosen from human or animal companion names that have a meaning that still somewhat describes the person. (For example, Galatea's name is a reference to both her silvery white fur and her soft almost sweet-like scent as the name she was given means "She who is white as milk.” For another example, Ghost's name is a reference to his white coat and faded black stripes as his Descriptive Name is Moonlight Through Branches which is a bit too unwieldy.) Occasionally, the name might be corrupted a little or combined with another name, but this isn’t always the case. (Such such an example, Darahagh's name is a combination/corruption of two names - Dara and Darragh - which both mean "oak," which he is. Whereas, for another example, Woadel's name comes from for a natural blue dye, woad, as he has blue feathers.)
Also, sometimes people use their past-life name, if they had one where they had a name. A lot of the once-humans use their (past-life) name as their name outside the system exclusively and its only inside our system they use both their Descriptive Name and their Symbolic Name/past-life name. (For example, William, Isaac, Bran, and several others all have names they can use from their past-lives.)
In Closing
So that is a brief explanation for why our names look the way they do and why they are so “weird.” This is also the reason some of us have two names.
Long story short, our brain doesn't think in human words but rather functions as a soup of non-words. The thought processes that goes on in our brain is almost entirely made up of non-words. Whether it be the communication between headmates or our own personal thoughts, what goes on in our minds is not a string of speech-based thoughts. Rather it is almost entirely made-up of images, smells, non-word sounds, sensations, tastes, emotions, and even bits of memories. All very detailed and meaningful. Very rarely are words a part of our thinking process.
When words are used it is because either the thought contains something too abstract to think in senses and emotions, it is because we are reading something, or one of us is thinking about what we specifically plan on saying with our voice box. Only in cases like that is there a likelihood for some words to be internally heard. Even when words are thought, they are often not thought in how English sentences are made. They may be alone or disjointed. especially if being used just as a necessity modifier because a thought can't be conveyed easily as a sense of emotion for example. Rarely are words used in ways fitting the phrase "proper English." less someone is actively focusing on reading or writing something.
How This Effects Our Names
As a consequence of this, how we "call" each other internally is different than how spoken language operates. The names of most of us in our multiple system reflect this use of non-speech-based thought processing. Our names internally are not based in speech. We don't actually hear words when we call out to someone in our system or refer to someone in our system. The names we actually go by in our system is made-up of non-words like the rest of our thoughts and internal speech. So instead of word-sounds, our names internally are often made-up of anything from images to smells to non-word sounds to even bits of memories. Two of the most common ways these names work is that their internal name references their appearance in some way or references some aspect of their past. For example of someone’s name that draws upon both their appearance and something from their past (life), one of us is a tortoiseshell cat who came into our system as a spirit whose body had passed way and we found her remains (a few bones) under a fire pit and her innerworld name is made-up of the sight multi-colored autumn leaves, the smell of decaying leaves, the round of a crackling fire, and smell of smoke.
All of that is well in good internally because our names are in a form we understand instantly and naturally; however, making them functional when fronting can be a challenge.
Our Names Translated for the Outerworld
Translating our innerworld names into something useable outworld is a bit of an interesting challenge. We try to ideally translate our innerworld names down into as few words as possible while still roughly meaning what our internal names meaning. For some, this is easy but for others it is harder. Because of the nature of our innerworld names being based on non-words, the translations of these name often have a certain "style." We call them our "Descriptive Names" for a good reason. So we've got names like Earth Listener, Cavern-Risen, Redbreast, Fire In His Blood, Summer Blaze, BlueTail, White-As-Milk, Sky Singer, Golden Crown, Keeper of Stories, Light-of-the-Abyss, Ocean Watcher, Watts, Prowls-The-Territory, and many more.
As we said, some people's innerworld name focuses on some aspect of their appearance in some way and thus their Descriptive Name really focuses on that. So, one example, Grizzly Ears's name is a reference to his coat color, gray and tan, as "grizzly" means gray or gray-haired. For another example, Golden Crown’s name is a reference to his golden scales and the large antler-like horns on his head.
For those people whose innerworld name evokes memories of something they have done or happened to them either in this life or in their past life, we also try to translate some aspect of the memory into their Descriptive Name. For example, Cavern-Risen's name describes a specific event in her past-life, her fleeing a cave system and a pack she was raised with, is what gets briefly drawn up when thinking of her in our system, and thus it is her innerworld name thus she was dubbed “Cavern-Risen” as her Descriptive name.
Dual Names: Descriptive Name verses Symbolic Name
While sometimes we can come up with a passable English translation of someone's name (what we call their “descriptive name”), sometimes it just doesn't work. Sometimes people's names are passable enough to actually say to others or write down, but sometimes a person’s name just doesn’t translate well. Sometimes what we come up with while putting their name into English can come out too long and unwieldy for actual use. In instances such as this, we often end up coming up with an “Symbolic Name” for them.
What we call our Symbolic Names are often names that are more “normal” to mainstream societal standards. Most often these names are chosen from human or animal companion names that have a meaning that still somewhat describes the person. (For example, Galatea's name is a reference to both her silvery white fur and her soft almost sweet-like scent as the name she was given means "She who is white as milk.” For another example, Ghost's name is a reference to his white coat and faded black stripes as his Descriptive Name is Moonlight Through Branches which is a bit too unwieldy.) Occasionally, the name might be corrupted a little or combined with another name, but this isn’t always the case. (Such such an example, Darahagh's name is a combination/corruption of two names - Dara and Darragh - which both mean "oak," which he is. Whereas, for another example, Woadel's name comes from for a natural blue dye, woad, as he has blue feathers.)
Also, sometimes people use their past-life name, if they had one where they had a name. A lot of the once-humans use their (past-life) name as their name outside the system exclusively and its only inside our system they use both their Descriptive Name and their Symbolic Name/past-life name. (For example, William, Isaac, Bran, and several others all have names they can use from their past-lives.)
In Closing
So that is a brief explanation for why our names look the way they do and why they are so “weird.” This is also the reason some of us have two names.