Finding your therian name

Hello,

This thread exists because people Googled "finding your therian name" or "figure out your therian name" and found us. I thought I'd talk about this a little bit.

Many therians believe they have become or are therians for psychological reasons. Amongst those of us, naming your theriotype makes no sense. Your theriotype is what you are, it is not a separate entity and therefore has... your name, because it is you. Your theriotype is also an animal and wild animals tend not to use names to refer to one-another.

Now it is possible that you are domestic animal therian who has some kind of past life experience in the context of which you "had" a name.

As some of you will also mention, there is a section about Therian Names on the website, on the Spiritual Therianthropy page. I am not a Spiritually identifying therian and I don't want to be inconsiderate of other people's beliefs. I suppose it's possible that you think you are a therian for spiritual reasons and you see some kind of deeper meaning in giving your animal aspect a name.

But it is far from any kind of "first step" as it is often seen and within the community the whole idea of it is generally frowned upon.

There are multiple good threads discussing the subject further:

• Therian Names
• Names
  

LP,
Dusty

Your Theriotype is you. It's who you are. Naming your theriotype makes it seem like its separate from you. Therians naming there Theriotypes has always confused me.

I am not against naming kintypes, because I cannot stop anyone from naming them and making them seperate from themselves. I disagree with naming kintypes or making them seperate in any way, it does not make a lot of sense to me. For me, naming a kintype and understanding that it is not seperate would be similar to saying that it is not seperate, but can talk to you. A kintype is something an individual identifies as, it isn't a lot more than that.

Naming kintypes for fun - I do not understand that, it is completely unnecessary. Naming, because you want to keep your theriotypes organized also doesn't make a lot of sense, because then you would still have to tell everybody what is "Herb" and what is "Wood", and why would you organize yourself, your own identites? Past lives, being domestic, I doubt that a lot of people can remember that, animals do not know letters and do not remember a lot of words. Even naming them, just because you were one in your past life still makes them sound seperate, you were one in your past, now you are a human, so why would you rename yourself and have 1+ name that is not yours. Leave your past life behind and don't make yourself seperate from yourself, but I cannot stop anyone from that. It is your life, your identity, decide what you want to do with it.

dividing yourself us is never a good idea. however, is it possible that the idea of finding a name is mixed up with the spiritual and religious practice? taking a new name as you grow and develop. just an idea.

Personally, I believe that naming my theriotype makes perfect sense. When I’m not shifted, I feel like my human self. But when I’m shifted I feel different, like I need to shake off my human identity.

Well... When I shift, I really feel like I don't have a name. I believe canines identify each other mainly by their senses (for example, the sense of smell), so I think I get that mindset too when I shift. In those moments, I even tend to not recognize my own human name, even though I know it's mine.

In my own, meandering experience, not everyone is so well integrated that their theriotype feels as if it is them. Some folks experience their therianthropy in a way that leads to them feeling it is somewhat split. Not separate, exactly, but more of a "side". A different version of themselves, where the mix of aspects is different. It usually isn't an entirely different personality, but for some folks the change is so dramatic that it feels that way. Some folks will compare it to like the balance knob on a stereo, or the hot and cold taps of a faucet.

Many groups run folks like that off, calling them fluff, or telling them they belong in some other community. Our shared animality is the important thing, and the level of mixing between their theriotype and their human personality isn't really so critical.

I do find it strange that there are folks which will name their theriotype, and suspect that it is an indicator that they may be experiencing something else, but it isn't a guarantee. So, I tend to give them time to understand their experiences in the context of the community, first.

I feel like *if* my wolf self has her own name, it's probably just like... a growl, or something. Wolves don't give each other names like Shadow or Luna. Nothing wrong with calling yourself something like that, but that's something you as a human are assigning to your theriotype.

I have an "animal name" but it's not like a name for my kintypes. As a therian/otherkin, I go by Flash. Neither my theriotype or kintype are named and they probably won't be, I also don't understand naming them as they should be you, or at least a part of you, not something else entirely enough to have its own name. Although some beliefs don't match up with that and that is perfectly fine, in my experience, I don't think therio/kintypes should be named unless for a special reason they already had a name. I personally don't feel separated enough from my vulture or drake for them to ave their own name as I am them, we are one.

I use my drake as a name which is a whole entire other thing, I like using the word drake as a name online and that helps decipher me from others, it's like a nickname for me. It's more the opposite of what we are talking about but if anyone is interested, what are your thoughts on using your therio/kintype as a name for yourself?

I've seen a lot of younger therianthropes asking people how to find their therian names and if they do have any. There are a few videos on YouTube about how people do cave meditation and wait until the first name that comes up. I personally believe that if therian names actually were a true thing then it wouldn't really work, because anyone who is a therian or not can do this meditation and it wouldn't really be anything "special", if you understand what I mean.
A theriotype is the species an individual identifies as right now. There are a lot of therianthropes who were their theriotype's species in their past and believe that they had a name. Well, past is just past and present is what it is now. You are yourself, your theriotype has your own name. Maybe it would even be more correct to say that it doesn't even have a name? It's your own identity after all.
If people don't want to use their own name on the internet then they can give themselves a nickname they'll be using in the community. Giving a name to their theriotype only because they don't want to use their real name on the internet is really not necessary. I've seen people saying that.
If people want to name their theriotypes then it is their own business, let them live being misinformed and enjoy the life they have.