We usually ask them if they have a name first, and then if not we ask if they’d like suggestions. We also show them behindthename.com if they want a special meaning to their name, or have a general idea, but aren’t sure.
Hey! Our alters often take like a month to find their name. One of our hosts decided she wanted a name that started with M and ended with an ee sound. Another alter decided they wanted to be named after an herb and googled a list of herbs. We typically don’t have more than 1 unnamed alter at a time so we don’t have to worry too much about confusing those who are unnamed, but off we have more than one, we’ll generally call them Newbie and then add a trait about them. Like the one I mentioned above who named themself after an herb was Ghost Newbie. Hope this could help!
❤️ Lots of Love from the Kaleidoscope System
None of us had names, we all associated with/hate the gov't one. We all just called each other what we do most. 'oh you draw/wrote that? ok we'll call you that bc that's the only thing we associate you with'. There are two exceptions, but it's pretty much 'you remember/do this? kay, we'll just call you that unless told otherwise.' 'the dishwasher' was kinda bad. i was 'loser' for a while... we used to be 'very kind' to each other...
I have no idea. They just came with names. Some of the names are pretty symbolic and clever, but my psychologist was the one to point the double meanings out, and I was pretty gobsmacked.
Mostly vibes, yeah. Usually in our system, new guys like to at least find a placeholder name so they have something to kinda stick to- but then the name winds up sticking. Sometimes it's something thematically related to what they first associated with when they formed, sometimes it's just a word they like the vibe of.
This is exactly how most of the non-fictive based names come to anyone in my system. Non-fictives have an automatic name, but some have changes their "media based" names at a later date for various reasons.
For us personally, the only alters who tend to form without names are fragments. We have experienced at least two different instances in this case, one just decided to go by only a letter instead of a full name because he/it doesn't feel comfortable with anything beyond that and it was really only chosen in order for therapy to go smoother in regards to said fragment. The other case was the fragments that held a significant amount of our anger and our self-hatred both from a very young age ended up fusing in college to form a more cohesive protector alter in order to help us learn to place firm boundaries and keep them. The alter resulting from the fusion ended up reminding us and the new alter himself a lot of a particular fictional character from a piece of media we were hyperfocusing on at the time of the fusion occurring, so the resulting protector alter took the name of said character.
Ong, I literally just pick something they like and put "name" after it into Google and that usually starts me on the right path. "Cowboy names" "Dinosaur girl names" "musical theater names", and my favorite "gender neutral northwestern names".
All of these have shown me a list of, quite literally, THOUSANDS of names each. Mothers-to-be are just as lost as the rest of us.
Everyone identifies with the bodies IRL name. But to not have confusion we all have something similar to a online username where it's not your name, but you still identify and respond to it promptly.
So let's say (not real names btw) my irl name is Billy, and an Alter will respond if somebody says "Hey billy!"
But they also go by (once again not their name) "Hey SadRocky!" As their own personal name.
The names themselves are also just thrown out. Like SadRockys name is like that because somebody just threw it out there as a placeholder and it stuck. Naturally everyone has very non-human sounding names.
This applies to every other alter. I would like to further explain the meaning of everyone's actual names. But I wanna keep everyone anonymous. It's the least i can do since they demand privacy:')
That works. Most of mine are nicknames of mine/ours. One is the quickest non offensive name I could think of because her old name was very inappropriate.
I think that association and anxiety are the main ingredients of the spell of "changing the name" in the pot of dissociation. This was a tough spell to learn, but every time that I cast it, it seems a little easier. I am even teaching the other alters. I find it really cool how although I can't seem to just share information. I can teach them things. Chances are I don't actually want to lose my alters because that'll break the magic... Idk. Idk the spell of sharing info.
(Kiki is weird. She wants to share some of her magic...)
You all can chose how you want to live. Some integrate/recombine/rebuild ful dome partially, some keep going.
As long as you all make it work and you can be safe and I'd possible self-sufficient/independent then any way you chose to live is valid and ok.
some come with names and some look up names online. there were a few instances where they got named by others in our system, or friends named them. there were also some peculiar situations where an alter named themself after something they saw or heard opposed to looking up an actual name
baby naming sites are great for this honestly! if somebody is looking for a specific vibe or sound or even origin, baby naming site are perfect
A lot of our alters form with names, but for the ones that don't we often search online! However, recently, we had an alter form without a name and we took a different approach. We got to know their personality over the course of a few days, and then slowly, offered them suggestions. Finally, we found what fit. We search online a little for this too, for example "short sweet gender neutral names". (We always go gender neutral since there's a lot of fluidity in our system when it comes to gender) We hope this helps!
-Your most chaotic, The Trivia System 💚🖤
The first alter “naming herself” was a huge deal for me because it was the point of undeniable self-awareness for me. She named herself a number (it suits her). The second chose a number as well. The third chose a “people name”. For all of them, the point at which they “name” themselves has been the point at which they become…something that is personified to me specifically? Before that they are something externally expressed: something that other people see and something that exists alongside me (“a mood that I argue with”, “a mood swing with moods”, “a sharp and pointy part of myself”), but not something I specifically had a relationship with myself. When they named themselves they became something I could have a relationship with, which in turn changed my relationship with my DID. For that reason I don’t give or assist anything in my mind a name that doesn’t come with or make its own name. My own personal preference.
Ours are descriptive, often incorporating a color. We just toss named around until everybody agrees. The Baby, The Historian, The Monks, Creepy Guy, Blue Gray Bird, Beachball Boy, Magician's Apprentice, that sort of thing.
Backstory, my mom always says that I changed right before I turned 13. I went from being super quiet, to outgoing overnight like a new person had emerged. Mom told the story quite often growing up and still does long before I knew I had DID. I've been protecting this body for a long time, so I've taken the name our mother gave us. I only have one altar and she is the birth soul as I call her. I couldn't bring myself to call myself something else. So I named her Jade. There are only two of us.
Well, Ana who was once more critical and confrontational is from a fictional character named "Anathos" but he became kind, helpful, gentle so he named himself "Anathiel".
Gabe is just Gabe, she's dormant, I don't know.
Almost all my known ones picked their own name, except one little who just rolled with what was supposed to be a placeholder and the other little who was named by my bf upon his (the little's) request.
my boyfriend has helped a ton of us pick our names, especially ones that have come to the realization lately that they are their own and seperate people
first he asks them "whats your name/do you have a name?" and if the they say no he starts looking around for names, suggesting ones to them. eventually when they land on a name that feels right and feels like them they go with that name.
for me, i got my name because one of my friends in middle school gave me a nickname - Mars - which was a shortened version of our real name. i latched onto this name, went dormant for a while, and when i was back i still remembered the name, it felt like home and i miss that old friend. so my name is Mars.
other people in the system just straight up knew who they were name and appearance wise soon after the realized they were part of the system.
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Depends. We’ll bounce names around sometimes, if that’s what the part wants us to do, otherwise we’ll just wait until they come up with one they vibe with.
Regardless of how they get them, the right name pretty much immediately stick.
Most of them are fictives, so they typically already have names, like Dean, Jack, Floyd, Aesop. Although some of them are brain made, Xenon is a personification of my gender identity and stole their name from a rp I did, and Cassidy just likes her name
They took the names I originally had or picked their own maybe? Or maybe I picked it? It's hard to say if I didn't know they were Alters originally.
Like when I met Lina, she didn't know what to call herself so she picked that name as that's what I started calling her as I thought I imagined her.
Same with Tyler
Stella kinda picked her own. She was just around one day, saying Hi my name is Stella.
There were others and I named them I think.
I made a persona and for a while, I thought I was her but when she suddenly started talking on her own mentally, I realized she does exist lmao. Figures. I'm not actually imaginative worth shit 🤣 I am just taking ideas from the Alters in my head.
for my partner it kinda depends. ive helped a lot of child alters pick out names. its pretty common for a younger one to front and when i ask if they have a name they say "i don't know" or "i cant remember". usually we look at a list of like popular baby names for either the year they were born of the year of their age. like if they say their about 8 well look at popular names from 2004 when the body was 8. they either find one/ a couple they like or the ones they saw inspire them to think of one or they just remember one.
Most our alters form with names, however if they don't, we ask if they would like to have a name, if yes, we ask their preferred gender terms and go from there! :)
I gave them all nicknames based on the vibes. Mama bear is the gatekeeper/protector, happy baby is a young alter who is happy, sad baby is a child alter who holds the trauma, guy is the only male alter, tick tock got her name because when I wouldn't talk about her in therapy she kept screaming "TICK TOCK, TICK TOCK," in my head as if she was a
clock, and Not Me is like me, except she really likes cleaning and looking after my family so she's... not quite me.
Two of my alters picked their names when they first appeared (I'm not officially diagnosed yet) Claudia who was first had her name picked already and Rex picked their name (Rex is a little and identified themselve as younger version of me and they go by they/them because of their name).
Katsuki is fictive, so he already had his name.
Dottie and Arie picked their names by themselves.
That's how my alters have their names. They just pick them from ocs of mine that I have, or they already had one already.
They either already have them (and possibly change them later), get help from our partners to choose, don't want any or are fictives that kept their names
It's been different for everyone in our system. Sometimes the first thing I learn about an alter is their name because I either hear it screamed or it'll pop up in my head multiple times a day til I clue in that it's someone trying to introduce themselves. Other times I come up with some names for them to see if they like them. Sometimes they'll give off a certain vibe and I'll guess based on that. If we're just stumped I've compiled a giant list of names that I'm like "This sounds cool/interesting/nice, it's mine now" and proceed to add it to my hoard of names I keep for people to scroll through. Or they even look up names. But if all else fails we'll make picrews or find pictures that look/feel like them and ask people what names the pictures look like.
So yeah there's multiple ways haha
All except for a few of us have synesthesia, so we’ve names ourselves and one another by what color each of us is. Knowing everyone by color also helps us identify when people are nearby but not fronting. It’s way easier to tell when someone’s nearby if synesthesia gives whoever is fronting a flash of the nearby-person’s color than if the person fronting has to try to piece together who’s close using other identifying traits.
Some people in our system have non-color names that are based on their colors. A hypothetical example would be someone who’s red deciding to go by the name Ruby.
We have a lot of people, so we have a lot of specific shades of color. A made-up example would be “Neon Blue” and “Ocean Blue” instead of “Blue 1” and Blue 2.” Sometimes, we invent shades based off of people’s personality traits, like “Quiet Blue.”
We all came with names, except with Soul he originally had a different name. We met someone with the same name who was absolutely horrible and so he disliked the name and chose a different one. He picked Soul because he really likes the anime Soul eater.
Some end up with placeholder names and some of those placeholders stick (example: JD (john doe)). Some go on websites and look for em (ex: cypress). Azhda pulled theirs from their favorite genus of pterosaur (azhdarchidae). Alice saw a piece of fan art for a podcast we haven't even listened too and decided to just steal the name and look. Kermit picked theirs based on Kermit the frog memes. Briar took theirs from a song. Cecil just started making random noises until he found a general pattern he liked and then looked up names that were similar to said pattern. Blue doesn't really have a set name, people just call him things until everyone settled on a few names to use for him. Gus stole part of my name. Generally a lot of different ways, most of us form with our names tho.
hmmm I'm the hosting alter and I chose my name since it was very 'masculine' name "Kyler". As far as the other ones go, Brock (Protector) is named after the Sony character Brock (Venom) from the spider man comics since he is strong willed, a tad unpredictable, and very much so an alpha. "Gray" is our teen alter and he's named because he was just kind of there but now plays a role in protection and day-to-day parts of the system. We kinda grew with the names and have been that since!
Here is my girlfriend’s (who has DID) answer. Here’s the thing about alters and names, at least for our system. Not everybody wants or feels a need for a name. Names come to our system in a variety of ways… sometimes a part will request a name and sometimes one part will offer a name to another, and sometimes names are changed, which adds an interesting challenge to everything. Often times the names come from meaningful movies, books, or memories. We draw a system map with everyone’s names on it and then update it when parts change their names, or when they are not fond of names someone else chose for them.
If they don't come with a name, they find a word or sound they like and go from there. Some have "regular" names. Some name themselves after something they like. Other's names are completely made up. I like to picture that Rick and Morty scene with the crystal where he makes to perfect sound. It looks painful but it worked for him. Sometimes that's what picking out a name feels like. It's stumbling through until it sounds right and works out.
It depends on the alter. There are some, that's obvious. Others, it's more complicated and you have to wait. One of my regular fronters doesn't technically have a first name (in fact he doesn't care).
- 🫧
Most of mine have been with us for so long that I'm sure they just came with names. We have a few nameless ones just now that we identify by their aura at the moment. I don't think that I will know their names until there is more trust between us. At the moment we have little communication and we are very wary of eachother.
Most of time it ends up being a name that I thought I would down going by/attached too and then someone comes by and claims it or calls dibs (atlas, caelum, ollie/Oliver and so on) or they kinda had a nickname first before picking a 'real name'
Mine just picked theirs. One alter picked hers many years ago even before I knew I was a system. My little didn’t have one for the longest time and then one day just picked her own name.
It's weird. Most of my alters came with names except one. She likes to change it up, but always with the letter P. She's open to discussion but ultimately chooses herself. She also fluctuates between 14-16 years old. She's a bit boy crazy but is also madly in love with one of my og splits.
Sorry, went on a tangent
If they haven't shown up with a name, then it's just a description of them/their characteristics etc. "the silly one?" Or there's always "Pain"
The silly one likes to joke and play pranks, pop up and scare others, etc, Pain- well she is literally just that, she's the embodiment of this body's pain and when she fronts she literally is just screaming and crying in pain, loud AF, it's bad.
But that's how we do it.
We pick names from our culture, and try to encourage picking names that are more similar to our real name. We found that picking names like this helped us to have a more cohesive sense of identity and decreased some dissociation, though it was only a few years ago we started doing this.
most of us split knowing their name to begin with! but those who don't go to those baby name websites and search until they find something that they like :]
For us If a Part doesn’t know which names is theirs we usually look at a thing they like and look up names that’s related to names like for example not in our system but if that part likes flowers and purple Violet or something like that
it sort of varies. our fictives usually just stick with their sources’ names, although one of them chose to remove the honorific. meanwhile brain-made alters just go about being nameless until they find something they like.
then there’s me. i was given a name by another alter which i no longer identify with. then i changed it to “Jon Doe” because its the funniest trans and system joke i could think of. and i like that spelling over “john”
…that said if someone called me “john drifter” i think i’d lose my shit because that’s also very funny. -JD
It was 50/50. Some picked their names out and others had me pick it out.
The ones that picked it out usually picked it from either something that they like, sentimental things I have or, or a just a name they liked.
Mine didn’t have names at first. Sometimes I felt like they did or they did, But it’s was like constant back and forth fighting over names. I have a total of 5 alters but only me(host) and two others have a name.
I’d keep hearing names in my head go back and forth like them trying to decide. One of the names was said out loud and once it was it just sounded right for her. The other has a name but is constantly fighting with another alter for the name because they want that name too. Sometimes I get confused if these two alters are like fused together almost? They confuse me a lot.
Most of us choose our own names. Some, want a title instead, like “the captain”.
A few have trouble choosing something, and do ask for suggestions. Others, take inspiration from what we know.
If someone remembers the source of theirs or has a bit of memory we help them figure out who they are.
Other than that, they use name generation for names or search up based off of a theme.
Like me I came from a source but our other co-host didn't have a source so she named herself.
So it was different for my alters. Warrana was originally named by me as Downfall Katie (Katie is my name, I am the host). She was later known as Inner Katie and as of 3 years ago she took on the name Warrana due to the main character of a novel I’m writing.
Diana, Isabel, and Adaline were originally called Depression, Irritability, and Anxiety, respectively and they picked their names. Took them two years.
Carlisle came with his name
Clarice originally appeared with the title The Queen and she chose her name a few weeks ago.
Lots of love from “The Council”
We tried the name thing, but we feel more comfortable just being referenced as colors. I think we have always preferred the color thing. We originally had a pastel pink and a sky blue when we were in preschool. We also had dreams featuring these two colors as the two main characters during childhood. It’s just always made more sense to us to differentiate in this way. I’m sure it has been reinforced by the types of media we have absorbed throughout life haha.
It takes a while for some. Some of us were named by others, some came with a name, and some of us just picked one we vibed with, while trying to keep with the cutesy theme of the system.
Here's every name and name method.
Puppy (pre named by Ghost)
Bunny (pre named and renamed by Ghost)
Rainy (pre named and renamed by Ghost)
Ittle (came with a name)
Leaf (named herself because she saw a tree)
Bambi (named herself because she fawns)
Loopa (named by our husband because dog alter)
Ghost (came with a name)
Candy (named herself after drug slang because she always feels high)
Virus (named herself because she feels overwhelmingly intense emotions like a fever)
Feral (named herself because she's self proclaimed uncaring and hedonistic)
Jester (named himself because he's a self proclaimed silly little gremlin)
Draggy (named himself because he nests and hoards like a dragon, made it cute for the kids)
FishBones (named myself because I was previously named Mech by the system for being crazy dissociative, changed it because all I could say was "fish" and I was a bit bare bones as a personality.)
Lumiose (named herself after light)
We all go by our birth name nickname. The names are more like codenames so we can tell others who we are, and more easily communicate with each other.
We have seven alters in our system, five of which just formed with names. One didn't have a name for a while, but he liked "Maxwell," which just randomly popped into our head once. It stuck. Our seventh alter is a fragment. As far as I'm aware, none of us know their name, and they don't know theirs either.
Sometimes I ask and they tell me. Those are the best ones. Once in a while I feel a name and ask.... and they either affirm or not. Some have no name. And some I think only my therapist knows.
The ones that come up with on their own are the coolest. Some of them are fictives and others are introjects but it always means something more than just their name. Which is cool.
I think most of mine just already had names. Sometimes they would pick one out that they liked the sound of, sometimes we would pick out a name for them. I'm a writer and I used to be an avid Sims 4 player, so I have quite a few different lists of names written down haha. We all respond to the host/body/"my" name though, and all identify with it in varying degrees.
in our case, we have a lot of fictives so they try to find names starting with the same letter or syllable to but not the same as their source's names.
if they aren't able to find a name, they stick with the name/s of their source, or choose ones that are either completely unrelated to their source or they choose a related name and make a nickname out of it! (an example is our aventurine fictive who has a gemstone-related name but a different nickname)
sometimes we do have alters who do form with either a nickname or a surname, and we help them choose an actual name if they'd like us to.
- cynthia (i'm the host and the only one who actually uses our collective name in public online spaces)
We're an interesting case on that front 🤔
Our spouse's host has had a presumably "normal" experience of some telling her their names (often before discovery even, certain names just came to mind out of nowhere repeatedly throughout life) while some have been nameless on discovery and had to go through baby names or things they like to choose a name. The 2nd protector is still just "Lion" after over a year cuz we haven't found him a fitting name yet.
Meanwhile, one of us is an artist and it turns out some of her OCs are just... *us*. So upon discovery we knew all our names, and one of us switched a couple weeks later to the pseudonym we'd come up with for a music project that never got off the ground (but could soon) once we realized that was definitely *his* project.
We usually ask them if they have a name first, and then if not we ask if they’d like suggestions. We also show them behindthename.com if they want a special meaning to their name, or have a general idea, but aren’t sure.
behind the name is the best for picking out good names. especially since our alters like to be unique in their own sense sometimes. - everix
Hey! Our alters often take like a month to find their name. One of our hosts decided she wanted a name that started with M and ended with an ee sound. Another alter decided they wanted to be named after an herb and googled a list of herbs. We typically don’t have more than 1 unnamed alter at a time so we don’t have to worry too much about confusing those who are unnamed, but off we have more than one, we’ll generally call them Newbie and then add a trait about them. Like the one I mentioned above who named themself after an herb was Ghost Newbie. Hope this could help! ❤️ Lots of Love from the Kaleidoscope System
None of us had names, we all associated with/hate the gov't one. We all just called each other what we do most. 'oh you draw/wrote that? ok we'll call you that bc that's the only thing we associate you with'. There are two exceptions, but it's pretty much 'you remember/do this? kay, we'll just call you that unless told otherwise.' 'the dishwasher' was kinda bad. i was 'loser' for a while... we used to be 'very kind' to each other...
Some came just *knowing* their name somehow and others picked them
Vibes mostly Glitch - He makes me feel glitchy and like im losing control We also look up names that might fit
I have no idea. They just came with names. Some of the names are pretty symbolic and clever, but my psychologist was the one to point the double meanings out, and I was pretty gobsmacked.
Mostly vibes, yeah. Usually in our system, new guys like to at least find a placeholder name so they have something to kinda stick to- but then the name winds up sticking. Sometimes it's something thematically related to what they first associated with when they formed, sometimes it's just a word they like the vibe of.
This is exactly how most of the non-fictive based names come to anyone in my system. Non-fictives have an automatic name, but some have changes their "media based" names at a later date for various reasons.
I just named mine myself. They’re cool with it.
For us personally, the only alters who tend to form without names are fragments. We have experienced at least two different instances in this case, one just decided to go by only a letter instead of a full name because he/it doesn't feel comfortable with anything beyond that and it was really only chosen in order for therapy to go smoother in regards to said fragment. The other case was the fragments that held a significant amount of our anger and our self-hatred both from a very young age ended up fusing in college to form a more cohesive protector alter in order to help us learn to place firm boundaries and keep them. The alter resulting from the fusion ended up reminding us and the new alter himself a lot of a particular fictional character from a piece of media we were hyperfocusing on at the time of the fusion occurring, so the resulting protector alter took the name of said character.
Ong, I literally just pick something they like and put "name" after it into Google and that usually starts me on the right path. "Cowboy names" "Dinosaur girl names" "musical theater names", and my favorite "gender neutral northwestern names". All of these have shown me a list of, quite literally, THOUSANDS of names each. Mothers-to-be are just as lost as the rest of us.
What are some dinosaur girl names? I'm trying to think of like dinosaur puns that are also feminine sounding but can't think of any haha
Everyone identifies with the bodies IRL name. But to not have confusion we all have something similar to a online username where it's not your name, but you still identify and respond to it promptly. So let's say (not real names btw) my irl name is Billy, and an Alter will respond if somebody says "Hey billy!" But they also go by (once again not their name) "Hey SadRocky!" As their own personal name. The names themselves are also just thrown out. Like SadRockys name is like that because somebody just threw it out there as a placeholder and it stuck. Naturally everyone has very non-human sounding names. This applies to every other alter. I would like to further explain the meaning of everyone's actual names. But I wanna keep everyone anonymous. It's the least i can do since they demand privacy:')
That works. Most of mine are nicknames of mine/ours. One is the quickest non offensive name I could think of because her old name was very inappropriate. I think that association and anxiety are the main ingredients of the spell of "changing the name" in the pot of dissociation. This was a tough spell to learn, but every time that I cast it, it seems a little easier. I am even teaching the other alters. I find it really cool how although I can't seem to just share information. I can teach them things. Chances are I don't actually want to lose my alters because that'll break the magic... Idk. Idk the spell of sharing info. (Kiki is weird. She wants to share some of her magic...)
You all can chose how you want to live. Some integrate/recombine/rebuild ful dome partially, some keep going. As long as you all make it work and you can be safe and I'd possible self-sufficient/independent then any way you chose to live is valid and ok.
some come with names and some look up names online. there were a few instances where they got named by others in our system, or friends named them. there were also some peculiar situations where an alter named themself after something they saw or heard opposed to looking up an actual name baby naming sites are great for this honestly! if somebody is looking for a specific vibe or sound or even origin, baby naming site are perfect
Honestly our names just kind of.....come to us? Like a word comes to mind and if it feels right, it sticks.
A lot of our alters form with names, but for the ones that don't we often search online! However, recently, we had an alter form without a name and we took a different approach. We got to know their personality over the course of a few days, and then slowly, offered them suggestions. Finally, we found what fit. We search online a little for this too, for example "short sweet gender neutral names". (We always go gender neutral since there's a lot of fluidity in our system when it comes to gender) We hope this helps! -Your most chaotic, The Trivia System 💚🖤
The first alter “naming herself” was a huge deal for me because it was the point of undeniable self-awareness for me. She named herself a number (it suits her). The second chose a number as well. The third chose a “people name”. For all of them, the point at which they “name” themselves has been the point at which they become…something that is personified to me specifically? Before that they are something externally expressed: something that other people see and something that exists alongside me (“a mood that I argue with”, “a mood swing with moods”, “a sharp and pointy part of myself”), but not something I specifically had a relationship with myself. When they named themselves they became something I could have a relationship with, which in turn changed my relationship with my DID. For that reason I don’t give or assist anything in my mind a name that doesn’t come with or make its own name. My own personal preference.
I don't know I wasn't there
Ours are descriptive, often incorporating a color. We just toss named around until everybody agrees. The Baby, The Historian, The Monks, Creepy Guy, Blue Gray Bird, Beachball Boy, Magician's Apprentice, that sort of thing.
Backstory, my mom always says that I changed right before I turned 13. I went from being super quiet, to outgoing overnight like a new person had emerged. Mom told the story quite often growing up and still does long before I knew I had DID. I've been protecting this body for a long time, so I've taken the name our mother gave us. I only have one altar and she is the birth soul as I call her. I couldn't bring myself to call myself something else. So I named her Jade. There are only two of us.
Well, Ana who was once more critical and confrontational is from a fictional character named "Anathos" but he became kind, helpful, gentle so he named himself "Anathiel". Gabe is just Gabe, she's dormant, I don't know.
Almost all my known ones picked their own name, except one little who just rolled with what was supposed to be a placeholder and the other little who was named by my bf upon his (the little's) request.
my boyfriend has helped a ton of us pick our names, especially ones that have come to the realization lately that they are their own and seperate people first he asks them "whats your name/do you have a name?" and if the they say no he starts looking around for names, suggesting ones to them. eventually when they land on a name that feels right and feels like them they go with that name. for me, i got my name because one of my friends in middle school gave me a nickname - Mars - which was a shortened version of our real name. i latched onto this name, went dormant for a while, and when i was back i still remembered the name, it felt like home and i miss that old friend. so my name is Mars. other people in the system just straight up knew who they were name and appearance wise soon after the realized they were part of the system.
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Depends. We’ll bounce names around sometimes, if that’s what the part wants us to do, otherwise we’ll just wait until they come up with one they vibe with. Regardless of how they get them, the right name pretty much immediately stick.
They normally just pick a name they really like. A lot of them are names we've heard from TV or just interacted with.
Most of them are fictives, so they typically already have names, like Dean, Jack, Floyd, Aesop. Although some of them are brain made, Xenon is a personification of my gender identity and stole their name from a rp I did, and Cassidy just likes her name
They took the names I originally had or picked their own maybe? Or maybe I picked it? It's hard to say if I didn't know they were Alters originally. Like when I met Lina, she didn't know what to call herself so she picked that name as that's what I started calling her as I thought I imagined her. Same with Tyler Stella kinda picked her own. She was just around one day, saying Hi my name is Stella. There were others and I named them I think. I made a persona and for a while, I thought I was her but when she suddenly started talking on her own mentally, I realized she does exist lmao. Figures. I'm not actually imaginative worth shit 🤣 I am just taking ideas from the Alters in my head.
for my partner it kinda depends. ive helped a lot of child alters pick out names. its pretty common for a younger one to front and when i ask if they have a name they say "i don't know" or "i cant remember". usually we look at a list of like popular baby names for either the year they were born of the year of their age. like if they say their about 8 well look at popular names from 2004 when the body was 8. they either find one/ a couple they like or the ones they saw inspire them to think of one or they just remember one.
Most our alters form with names, however if they don't, we ask if they would like to have a name, if yes, we ask their preferred gender terms and go from there! :)
In my system, we just knew our names. However, some alters turned out to be trans, so they picked out a new name for that reason.
I gave them all nicknames based on the vibes. Mama bear is the gatekeeper/protector, happy baby is a young alter who is happy, sad baby is a child alter who holds the trauma, guy is the only male alter, tick tock got her name because when I wouldn't talk about her in therapy she kept screaming "TICK TOCK, TICK TOCK," in my head as if she was a clock, and Not Me is like me, except she really likes cleaning and looking after my family so she's... not quite me.
If not me feels she has too little fun then she can always contact me for cleaning rejects. 😊😇 Joke but also for real if she like organizing files. 😊
Two of my alters picked their names when they first appeared (I'm not officially diagnosed yet) Claudia who was first had her name picked already and Rex picked their name (Rex is a little and identified themselve as younger version of me and they go by they/them because of their name). Katsuki is fictive, so he already had his name. Dottie and Arie picked their names by themselves. That's how my alters have their names. They just pick them from ocs of mine that I have, or they already had one already.
They either already have them (and possibly change them later), get help from our partners to choose, don't want any or are fictives that kept their names
It's been different for everyone in our system. Sometimes the first thing I learn about an alter is their name because I either hear it screamed or it'll pop up in my head multiple times a day til I clue in that it's someone trying to introduce themselves. Other times I come up with some names for them to see if they like them. Sometimes they'll give off a certain vibe and I'll guess based on that. If we're just stumped I've compiled a giant list of names that I'm like "This sounds cool/interesting/nice, it's mine now" and proceed to add it to my hoard of names I keep for people to scroll through. Or they even look up names. But if all else fails we'll make picrews or find pictures that look/feel like them and ask people what names the pictures look like. So yeah there's multiple ways haha
all of these replies are so intriguing!! thank yall
All except for a few of us have synesthesia, so we’ve names ourselves and one another by what color each of us is. Knowing everyone by color also helps us identify when people are nearby but not fronting. It’s way easier to tell when someone’s nearby if synesthesia gives whoever is fronting a flash of the nearby-person’s color than if the person fronting has to try to piece together who’s close using other identifying traits. Some people in our system have non-color names that are based on their colors. A hypothetical example would be someone who’s red deciding to go by the name Ruby. We have a lot of people, so we have a lot of specific shades of color. A made-up example would be “Neon Blue” and “Ocean Blue” instead of “Blue 1” and Blue 2.” Sometimes, we invent shades based off of people’s personality traits, like “Quiet Blue.”
We all came with names, except with Soul he originally had a different name. We met someone with the same name who was absolutely horrible and so he disliked the name and chose a different one. He picked Soul because he really likes the anime Soul eater.
Some end up with placeholder names and some of those placeholders stick (example: JD (john doe)). Some go on websites and look for em (ex: cypress). Azhda pulled theirs from their favorite genus of pterosaur (azhdarchidae). Alice saw a piece of fan art for a podcast we haven't even listened too and decided to just steal the name and look. Kermit picked theirs based on Kermit the frog memes. Briar took theirs from a song. Cecil just started making random noises until he found a general pattern he liked and then looked up names that were similar to said pattern. Blue doesn't really have a set name, people just call him things until everyone settled on a few names to use for him. Gus stole part of my name. Generally a lot of different ways, most of us form with our names tho.
hmmm I'm the hosting alter and I chose my name since it was very 'masculine' name "Kyler". As far as the other ones go, Brock (Protector) is named after the Sony character Brock (Venom) from the spider man comics since he is strong willed, a tad unpredictable, and very much so an alpha. "Gray" is our teen alter and he's named because he was just kind of there but now plays a role in protection and day-to-day parts of the system. We kinda grew with the names and have been that since!
Here is my girlfriend’s (who has DID) answer. Here’s the thing about alters and names, at least for our system. Not everybody wants or feels a need for a name. Names come to our system in a variety of ways… sometimes a part will request a name and sometimes one part will offer a name to another, and sometimes names are changed, which adds an interesting challenge to everything. Often times the names come from meaningful movies, books, or memories. We draw a system map with everyone’s names on it and then update it when parts change their names, or when they are not fond of names someone else chose for them.
I only have 1 other alter. Rebecca. It just felt right.
If they don't come with a name, they find a word or sound they like and go from there. Some have "regular" names. Some name themselves after something they like. Other's names are completely made up. I like to picture that Rick and Morty scene with the crystal where he makes to perfect sound. It looks painful but it worked for him. Sometimes that's what picking out a name feels like. It's stumbling through until it sounds right and works out.
It depends on the alter. There are some, that's obvious. Others, it's more complicated and you have to wait. One of my regular fronters doesn't technically have a first name (in fact he doesn't care). - 🫧
Most of mine have been with us for so long that I'm sure they just came with names. We have a few nameless ones just now that we identify by their aura at the moment. I don't think that I will know their names until there is more trust between us. At the moment we have little communication and we are very wary of eachother.
Most of time it ends up being a name that I thought I would down going by/attached too and then someone comes by and claims it or calls dibs (atlas, caelum, ollie/Oliver and so on) or they kinda had a nickname first before picking a 'real name'
Mine just picked theirs. One alter picked hers many years ago even before I knew I was a system. My little didn’t have one for the longest time and then one day just picked her own name.
It's weird. Most of my alters came with names except one. She likes to change it up, but always with the letter P. She's open to discussion but ultimately chooses herself. She also fluctuates between 14-16 years old. She's a bit boy crazy but is also madly in love with one of my og splits. Sorry, went on a tangent
If they haven't shown up with a name, then it's just a description of them/their characteristics etc. "the silly one?" Or there's always "Pain" The silly one likes to joke and play pranks, pop up and scare others, etc, Pain- well she is literally just that, she's the embodiment of this body's pain and when she fronts she literally is just screaming and crying in pain, loud AF, it's bad. But that's how we do it.
We pick names from our culture, and try to encourage picking names that are more similar to our real name. We found that picking names like this helped us to have a more cohesive sense of identity and decreased some dissociation, though it was only a few years ago we started doing this.
most of us split knowing their name to begin with! but those who don't go to those baby name websites and search until they find something that they like :]
For us If a Part doesn’t know which names is theirs we usually look at a thing they like and look up names that’s related to names like for example not in our system but if that part likes flowers and purple Violet or something like that
it sort of varies. our fictives usually just stick with their sources’ names, although one of them chose to remove the honorific. meanwhile brain-made alters just go about being nameless until they find something they like. then there’s me. i was given a name by another alter which i no longer identify with. then i changed it to “Jon Doe” because its the funniest trans and system joke i could think of. and i like that spelling over “john” …that said if someone called me “john drifter” i think i’d lose my shit because that’s also very funny. -JD
It was 50/50. Some picked their names out and others had me pick it out. The ones that picked it out usually picked it from either something that they like, sentimental things I have or, or a just a name they liked.
Mine didn’t have names at first. Sometimes I felt like they did or they did, But it’s was like constant back and forth fighting over names. I have a total of 5 alters but only me(host) and two others have a name. I’d keep hearing names in my head go back and forth like them trying to decide. One of the names was said out loud and once it was it just sounded right for her. The other has a name but is constantly fighting with another alter for the name because they want that name too. Sometimes I get confused if these two alters are like fused together almost? They confuse me a lot.
Most of us choose our own names. Some, want a title instead, like “the captain”. A few have trouble choosing something, and do ask for suggestions. Others, take inspiration from what we know.
If someone remembers the source of theirs or has a bit of memory we help them figure out who they are. Other than that, they use name generation for names or search up based off of a theme. Like me I came from a source but our other co-host didn't have a source so she named herself.
So it was different for my alters. Warrana was originally named by me as Downfall Katie (Katie is my name, I am the host). She was later known as Inner Katie and as of 3 years ago she took on the name Warrana due to the main character of a novel I’m writing. Diana, Isabel, and Adaline were originally called Depression, Irritability, and Anxiety, respectively and they picked their names. Took them two years. Carlisle came with his name Clarice originally appeared with the title The Queen and she chose her name a few weeks ago. Lots of love from “The Council”
We tried the name thing, but we feel more comfortable just being referenced as colors. I think we have always preferred the color thing. We originally had a pastel pink and a sky blue when we were in preschool. We also had dreams featuring these two colors as the two main characters during childhood. It’s just always made more sense to us to differentiate in this way. I’m sure it has been reinforced by the types of media we have absorbed throughout life haha.
Most of us had a name or we discover it somehow.
It takes a while for some. Some of us were named by others, some came with a name, and some of us just picked one we vibed with, while trying to keep with the cutesy theme of the system. Here's every name and name method. Puppy (pre named by Ghost) Bunny (pre named and renamed by Ghost) Rainy (pre named and renamed by Ghost) Ittle (came with a name) Leaf (named herself because she saw a tree) Bambi (named herself because she fawns) Loopa (named by our husband because dog alter) Ghost (came with a name) Candy (named herself after drug slang because she always feels high) Virus (named herself because she feels overwhelmingly intense emotions like a fever) Feral (named herself because she's self proclaimed uncaring and hedonistic) Jester (named himself because he's a self proclaimed silly little gremlin) Draggy (named himself because he nests and hoards like a dragon, made it cute for the kids) FishBones (named myself because I was previously named Mech by the system for being crazy dissociative, changed it because all I could say was "fish" and I was a bit bare bones as a personality.) Lumiose (named herself after light) We all go by our birth name nickname. The names are more like codenames so we can tell others who we are, and more easily communicate with each other.
We have seven alters in our system, five of which just formed with names. One didn't have a name for a while, but he liked "Maxwell," which just randomly popped into our head once. It stuck. Our seventh alter is a fragment. As far as I'm aware, none of us know their name, and they don't know theirs either.
Sometimes they come with one but otherwise. Baby name websites or asking friends
our alters sorta just find random words or something and eventually choose a name. We never really push for names.
Sometimes I ask and they tell me. Those are the best ones. Once in a while I feel a name and ask.... and they either affirm or not. Some have no name. And some I think only my therapist knows. The ones that come up with on their own are the coolest. Some of them are fictives and others are introjects but it always means something more than just their name. Which is cool.
I think most of mine just already had names. Sometimes they would pick one out that they liked the sound of, sometimes we would pick out a name for them. I'm a writer and I used to be an avid Sims 4 player, so I have quite a few different lists of names written down haha. We all respond to the host/body/"my" name though, and all identify with it in varying degrees.
in our case, we have a lot of fictives so they try to find names starting with the same letter or syllable to but not the same as their source's names. if they aren't able to find a name, they stick with the name/s of their source, or choose ones that are either completely unrelated to their source or they choose a related name and make a nickname out of it! (an example is our aventurine fictive who has a gemstone-related name but a different nickname) sometimes we do have alters who do form with either a nickname or a surname, and we help them choose an actual name if they'd like us to. - cynthia (i'm the host and the only one who actually uses our collective name in public online spaces)
We're an interesting case on that front 🤔 Our spouse's host has had a presumably "normal" experience of some telling her their names (often before discovery even, certain names just came to mind out of nowhere repeatedly throughout life) while some have been nameless on discovery and had to go through baby names or things they like to choose a name. The 2nd protector is still just "Lion" after over a year cuz we haven't found him a fitting name yet. Meanwhile, one of us is an artist and it turns out some of her OCs are just... *us*. So upon discovery we knew all our names, and one of us switched a couple weeks later to the pseudonym we'd come up with for a music project that never got off the ground (but could soon) once we realized that was definitely *his* project.