Odd, I remember replying to this thread already... Or maybe it was another thread similar to this one.

Regardless, I don't really see this being the case for me personally. Nothing really happened to me prior to me showing the first signs, and while I do feel disconnected from myself, that came later on due to life circumstances. In fact, this disconnect contributed more to me not realizing I'm a therian, not to me being a therian. I also think being born with a predisposition for therianthropy in this case is pretty much just saying one is being born as a therian, but with extra steps. If one is a therian and goes their entire life without finding out, they're still a therian. There will always be at least some signs.

If I were to apply this logic to myself, I'd be a cat. I grew up around them, was pretty much raised by them when nobody else wanted to pay attention to me, and they're extremely imprinted onto me. I see myself in them, but not as a member of their species. I see myself as a member of their family. I'm cat otherhearted through and through.

It's also worth mentioning I used to despise most canines for the majority of my life. I only stopped when I figured out I was a therian, and a canid for that matter. I hated it, but what can you do. Sometimes I feel like it was a punishment or a lesson, but I don't really believe in that stuff.

I also remember mentioning a couple of times that my dad and me share quite a few canine traits. How he described himself when he was younger sounds an awful lot like me. When I told him about my therianthropy he wasn't surprised. Who knows.

Congratulations Bagera-- I'm sure you'll make a good admin for the site. You have a knack for keeping people level-headed.

Special interests being a major factor is a theory I share. Atleast in the cases where it starts early and the animal seldom if ever changes. Sometimes therianthropy itself might be a special interest and that could be how some people end up with lots of theriotypes?
If you were to discount autistic special interests or general obsessive tendencies (with or without autism), and only include cases where that isn't a factor. I think our numbers would shrink significantly.
I know it's a factor for me for sure, it would explain why I have two types that on the face of it are very different to eachother. The commonality there is lifelong or near lifelong passions. I am my passions, like a patchwork quilt of spinterests past.

People with this tendency are prone to social isolation and bullying especially in adolescence. And those interests are comforting and provide a reliable source of company during a miserable time. I hated being a teenager (and being a younger kid was a mixed bag too). I wasn't cool, I got picked on, didn't go to parties, I had anxiety with knobs on, home life was hell. Escapism is enticing. I have all the time in the world to throw myself into my passions and watch sealife documentaries and mermaid films and imagine being there. I can retreat into reading ape articles, collect figurines and make up fictional worlds about talking apes with a bonobo as self insert.

This is as good a recipe for a therian or otherkin as any. Autistic tendencies + interests + environmental adversity and isolation. Tried and tested formula.

It's difficult for me to pinpoint what exactly caused my therianthropy, or whether or not it was even a choice, because I don't remember when I started feeling this way. My memory only goes back to about the age of five, and I've been acting feline for as long as I can remember.

I was raised around Bengal cats, and was very close to my first cat, an old girl named Squealer. She was like a grandmother to me almost, she taught me how to have empathy for animals and bond with something not of your own species. She was there for my birth, up until she died when I was about seven. It is very possible that she had imprinted on me at an early age, causing me to develop an attachment not only to cats but to spotted, half-wild, or wild cats in particular. That and childhood trauma from being excessively bullied and isolated during my formative years likely could have contributed to the development of therianthropy, it's just been too long, and my brain blocked out too many of the memories for me to remember accurately. When it comes to things like this, I don't want to guess and end up being totally wrong, as that might send me or somebody else into a complete spiral, wondering if we're valid, if we're real, if something went wrong along the lines that led to our current state, etc. Ultimately, I don't care what caused my therianthropy — I still feel non-human and I likely always will, I view it more as a matter of 'what just is' rather than what could or should have been or why it is.

I also would like to add on to what @Jeb_CC said about disassociation: I think disassociation is simply required for some aspects of therianthropy. In order to recognise and accept this part of yourself, you have to willingly detach yourself from humanity, even if only momentarily. Furthermore, when you shift or do something to feel more in tune with your theriotype(s), you are essentially disassociating in order to bring about the animal in you. Disassociation can also be a common way of coping for youth experiencing early or extreme trauma. Somewhere along the lines, amidst trying in desperation to detach yourself from reality, the human and animal sides of one could become muddled and blurry, causing a feeling of non-humanity to develop and, ultimately, permanently stick. But I believe that, without a professional psychologist's perspective, this is honestly hard to determine and, even if it were true, is probably only relevant for a very certain sub-set of therians.

I have a username that I use on therian-centric forums, in order to keep my therianthropy posts online separate from my legal name as well as my gaming nick. But it has no deeper meaning. Susitar is literally the Finnish word for wolf (susi) + a feminine suffix. So in English, it would be something like "wolfess". Just a placeholder to protect my real identity.

When I was 14 and started to awaken, before I found the therian community and didn't really know what was going on, I did create a "wolf name". I loved the novel Watership Down, so inspired by the rabbit names there, I gave myself a "wolf name": Sea Breeze. I had also seen some furry art (without knowing that it was an entire subculture), so I drew some art of this "Sea Breeze", a fox + wolf hybrid with water magic. So in a way, I made a fursona when I was 14?
But it sounded more like a pirate name, to be honest, and I never did use it for anything in the long term. I also realised I was a wolf, and not a fox at all (even if they are my favourite animal) and abandonded all ideas about a "magical hybrid with water powers".

Susitar was something I came up with much later, I think I started to use it on Tumblr first (2010). I realised that Tumblr was much more public and open than say, Werelist. On Werelist I had used my normal gaming handle at first. But my irl friends knew about that username - and I didn't want them to know about my tumblr account. Later, I went back to change my username on Werelist to Susitar as well.

Like many others in this thread, I don't think most wild animals have names in the ways that humans do. Maybe dolphins or something have names, but wolves don't really need that.

Tl;dr: I have a username on therian sites. It's not a "spiritual name" or "therian name", it's just an online handle.

Omg Bag, congrats <3
I never thought I'd ever see this happen

Therians having names for their theriotypes really confuse me, your theriotype is supposed to be YOU. I understand if you were a pet in a past life, or maybe you have an identity disorder where you sometimes don't feel like yourself, but past that I really do not get it at all.

Wow..I did not know of any of this but from what I have read, DustWolf was getting tired so I am glad he can rest but I also hope he still comes here once in awhile.
Congratulations to Bagera too

Well I guess I came to the conclusion that I was never 100% human, and that’s what feels right to me.
I don’t think my younger self realised that I was an animal, but I definitely showed it in different ways. Anything that wasn’t human I clung to. Anything that just involved animals fascinated me, and I felt a longing towards being different in this life.

But perhaps I don’t exactly know why I’m a therian. Maybe it’s just something we’re born with, like a different way of thinking.
Personally, I think as a therian I can help protect the beautiful nature around us, it’s apart of me and I feel extremely set to protect it.

I don't have a "therian name" per se, but I use Ashoka as my username on here and OKP, just to have something to differentiate from my username elsewhere which is generally my fursona's name. Mostly wanted something different even if it's really just a few syllables that don't particularly mean anything specific. I agree with the idea that mostly theriotypes wouldn't have a name in the human sense of the word. Like, my lynx and fox are just me so they have my name. (My vampirekin type and fictotype are a bit different since they did/do have names, given in a past life and from source. But still essentially part of me, so I don't generally go by those names in person.) I do think that if my theriotypes did have a name of some form which others of the species used to identify them, it would be something like their scent or appearance-related to distinguish them from others. Animals are much more physically sense-based than humans. (hopefully this is understandable the way I wrote it)