There really is no need to look for a specific reason why. Personally, I don't believe in a deity shaping our identities, nor in past lives, sorry. These questions of why, what for and how tend to the philosophical in my eyes. One should rather look for answers in our genetic makeup. Who we are is determined before birth (f.ex. who our parents were, where they came from) and after birth (f.ex. how we were raised, environmental triggers). Of course, what matters too, for the sake of completeness, is our basic personality.
While it's okay to ask yourself these questions every once in a while, you should note that the kind of answers you'll receive in the community are often, not always, looked for in the wrong areas of life.
Take a snow leopard for instance in the Himalayan mountains. Just assume you are this creature, that someone put you there in order to survive the upper colds and freezing temperatures. Wouldn't you rather be born in the desert, or on more fertile grounds? You couldn't, even if you tried. Whose fault is that? Parents? Nature/nurture? No, I doubt that is the case. The answer, my friend, is luck. If nature was a recipient creature and we could ask it why it put us there, it would probably say that we were born that way because of a strange current of events.
In my eyes, everything living and breathing on this earth is the result of that. People, wolves, sneps, they're all bound by a natural instinct for reproduction, a drive as deep as the four primary emotions. Why aren't some of us real live sneps? Because people gave birth to them... Turn it around the way you want or read it the way you like, but I'm afraid we were born therians because of (un)lucky selection.

I had such theory too when I had spiritual connection. If you have psychological connection, it will be more complicated. Personally for me this is like how my mind adapted to cope with some problems.

I do like your explanation, and in all the dreams I remember having I was at least some form of animal (sometimes in an anthro form for more interactive dreams) but I don’t think I have any past life memories etc? So? I do consider myself a ’mix’ therian though (both psychological and spiritual)

Well, what i think is that some people have a strong connection with their past lives, its fine if you dont have a animal pastlife, you dont need a animal past life to be a therian,or any. Its just what ive found out about myself and friends.

yeah i dont really think about the past lives thing cause it kinda scares my not gonna lie. like, how could my past wolfdog self affect my human self i just find it confusing XD. yeah im wondering the same thing with Melonwolf, me being a psychological therian?

What about purely psychological therians? My major past lives were both human.

You are totally correct. That is a really good point

Even so, such people consider themselves human. That’s the difference.

What I beleive is that it has to do with past lives. A lot of people have dreams or thoughts of their past lives, and for therians,they were animals. I know there has been a lot of contraversy with therians,and there have been bullying and hate crimes about them.

Now, with past lives there are people who are "new souls" also known as people who havent had a past life. I beleive those people can be therians. Really its just about people who have a strong connection to animals/ specific animals.

If you are a therian but in dinial because there is a lot of contraversy, dont care what other people think. Please be yourself.There are people who understand what your going through. Please dont be ashamed of what you are or what your interested in.

I think finding ones therian or otherkin name is an experience that certainly varies from one person to the next. I can see how it is strange for those with wild animal types, but I also can see it as just someone looking for what they prefer to be called within the community. Perhaps it is words being put to a scent, a translation of how animals recognize each other to a simpler way as we are forced to live as humans. Then there are those with a more spirtual view of things who may believe names to be a more meaningful part of their animality. I don't see the harm in it either way.

For myself as a member of the dragon community, it is not uncommon for us to have a dragon name or be in search of one. The name I go by for instance, Azaphaer, is one that I meditated on until it felt right. My name originally came to me one night in deep thought: Zaphaera. This name though would not fit my experience forever to where it morphed into my current one. Do I as a dragon actually have a spoken name though? No, I do not. My actual "name" is not a word, a scent, or an image; it's an energy signature. Similar to an aura, it's a wave of life that is distinctly my own and recognized by other spirit beings to identify me by.

My other type being more alien nature has a name that was given to me in that life. This is very different from animals however, being a member of an alien race with a culture that revolved around calling names. That name, Starscream, is not my true name either though for that particular life. It's a human translation, an english one, that only reflects what my name means in my native language of neocybex. We don't speak with tongues or organic bodies. These are spoken with metallic rings, clicks, and hums. Nothing similar to an earth creature.

I can see why other beings would have names for so many other reasons than my own, which are both already so different from one another. Having multiple names isn't so unheard of when we consider our natures. The names are still all connected to one individual, no matter which part of ourselves we are using them to describe.

-Azaphaer