Sign Names | ASL Ponderings + Deaf Awareness Month 

A few things to add! (Will edit as more things come up, and I might make another video if the list becomes long!) There are ALWAYS exceptions to the rules. So you might think, "I have a sign that breaks one of these rules, but it was given to me by a deaf person??" It might be one of those exceptions! Generally, sign names use ONLY one hand. Rare exceptions will use both. Names that are four letters or fewer are not "required" to have a sign name because they're so short and typically easy to fingerspell. Names that have five letters, but has some double letters, are considered the same as four-letter ones (such as Gabby, Lizzy, Tommy, etc.)

Thank you for making captions optional. As an ASL student, I try to watch without captions first. Then watch again with captions, then without again. I can learn a lot that way. Thank you!

My two year old daughter lost her hearing sometime in the last year and we’re not sure if she’ll ever hear or not. I’ve been learning sign and using it with her, to her delight and lowered frustration (since we can actually communicate now). I thought about giving her a sign name (like “hair” and the letter M for Mary since her red hair is what people always notice first about her) but thanks to your video I realize I should just sign her name (helps that it’s short). I’ll continue using ASL with her even if she gets her hearing back, but I’ll leave the sign names to the deaf community since I don’t want to accidentally create something embarrassing or vulgar for her with my ignorance. Thanks for kindly educating ! :)

Interesting! It was my hearing parents who gave me my sign name. And I've always been a part in the deaf community here in Sweden since they found out I was deaf when I was 1 year old. They was learning sign language after that. And it was me who gave sign names to one of my little hearing brothers (the other brother got his sign name from our parents). My kids got their sign names from me, their deaf mom. So I think both deaf and hearing people (who can sign language) can give sign names too.

In Russia we often have hometowns’s sign names for people’s sign names. As well as activities (“footballer”, “dancer”), last name adaptations (is the person’s last name is Bobrov (beaver) his SN is likely to be “beaver”. There can be a letter or two for a name as well. And body or facial features, just like you guys! And many other options. I like the way you make up new signs for names. In Russia we normally use signs that already exist

As a hearing person, I started my ASL journey six years ago. I have met many deaf people since then and really enjoyed interacting and learning about the deaf community. A couple years ago one of my Deaf friends explained the concept of sign names to me and gave me my sign name based on my long bangs (make a "B" hand and swoop from one side of the forehead to the other in a curved motion). I didn't even realize there were rules to sign names! Thanks so much for the great informative video!

I've known the letters in ASL for years now. I've forgotten and relearned the numbers multiple times. Today, not in this video though, I learned something and it may be cheesy, but I'm proud of myself. I learned the Pledge of Allegiance in ASL!!!

General rule for sign name- typically one handed.

In my case, myself and my children are hearing, however my youngest son is speech delayed so I have been teaching him signs (such as signs for milk, thirsty, hungry, eat, drink, more, all done, mom, tired, please, thank you) to help him communicate as he often gets frustrated with not being able communicate his needs. I find it a bit odd that as his mother, and the person who gave him his spoken name, that I cannot give him a sign name. It is quite interesting.

Sign names are interesting. Cause it is very unique for a language to name a person this way. I do have to confess dough. I don't use my first given name when introducing myself, because it is to long to spell out. 😅 I use my second name that only has 4 letters.

I’m non-verbal and my father was h-o-h so I grew up using dutch sign language. I’m now learning asl and I’ve been told that my name-sign, which has no meaning in dutch, is not usable in asl (it not only has a meaning, nooo, it’s a vulgar word for a certain sexual act) 🤪 Anybody else ever run into something like that?

Thank you so much! I love your content, as it teaches me so much about Deaf culture. I am learning ASL, and my goal is to be able to follow your videos (someday) without slowing down the speed and without captions. I first watched this video 6 months ago, with captions and only got the odd sign or phrase. Today on .5 speed I was able to get about 60% of it. Improvement! Also, I'm so excited to have received a sign name from a Deaf woman I have been practicing with since January. She chose the perfect sign for me with a letter from my nickname "L" and the action for the sign "business/busy" -- it's perfect for me and I love it and am honoured to have it given to me.

Interesting. Sign is pretty intricate but also very intuitive; I learn something new about ASL every day.

I always feel awkward when an interpreter asks for my sign name and I respond "I don't have one," like I'm failing some sort of Deaf test. But I realize that my name, Avory, is super easy to spell, so that's probably why I was never got one!

THIS IS SO COOL IVE NEVER THOUGHT ABOUT THIS BEFORE

As someone starting to learn ASL, I find it amusing that some sign names seem to be little humorous pokes at someone. It evinces me a somewhat more fun-loving culture that isn’t as present in Standard American English

Well, I learned something new so thank you, Rogan! :^)

I recently had to drop my sign name! I know three other people just in my area who have the same one (B tapped on side of the head, super common ) and some have the same first name too. Asked one of our Deaf professors and she said it was allowed to be dropped. People will get tired of fingerspelling my name eventually so looking forward to see whats next

This is awesome. I began learning basic ASL as a child. I'm hearing, but I've had several deaf friends as an adult. These friends have often signed my name by the sign for cloud rather than spelling it out since that is my name. But I don't think that I'd call it a sign name really. I want to respect the deaf community, so I generally spell it.

Thanks for this! ASL student and trying my best, captions are appreciated as my processing time is still very slow

I'm non-verbal due to a neurological condition so I have been learning asl for a couple years. I was given a sign name pretty early on but I don't use it very often just because my name is so easy to fingerspell and because I don't really hang out with the people who gave it to me anymore. really the only person who uses it now is my (hearing, trying to learn asl for me) partner. it was originally the sign for Mohawk but with an E hand shape but it kind of evolved over the years into just pulling a loosly closed fist over the side of your head

I adore Josh Castille and I never knew his sign name before this video. I’m screaming that it not only looks like the choreography to A Chorus Line, but the full name of a Dolly Parton song. He is the Supreme Gay.

I have so much to learn 😅

I've only taken ASL for 3 years, with a deaf teacher and many deaf or hard of hearing classmates/ teammates, through these years my friends and I have gone to many events for the deaf community and during those chatted with loads of people. Still to this day I haven't been given a sign name, even when I've brought it up in conversation! (and I have the longest/ most often misspelled name out of my peers so it's really a pain to always spell it out fully) Literally all of my friends with only 3-5 letter names have sign names because the ONE event I wasn't able to go to, they made good friends with a deaf couple who gave them all sign names :/ so I really hope I get some luck and receive one soon.

Thank you! This was great. Fascinating. I've noticed you use English syntax when you sign. I've noticed many RU-vidrs doing this. Would you mind (or have you done) videos on ASL syntax and if it's changing? My original ASL teacher told us everyone signs a little differently but there were two main ways of ASL syntax. My recent teacher described just one so far in his class. Also when you signed letter (as in a letter of the alphabet) did you sign the sign for a letter that you mail out? I was trying to catch it. Thank you again. Really enjoying watching these.

I spy "A Tale for the Time Being" on the desk in the background--such a good book! I do have a question about sign names: for spoken names, you know how families often "pass down" certain names across generations? Does that ever happen with sign names? Like, I have the exact same name as my great grandmother, which doesn't cause confusion since she's no longer with us, but I was thinking, do two people ever have the exact same sign name? What happens if they do? (sorry if this question doesn't make sense!)

My hearing mom gave me a sign name that I didn’t like anymore when I got older. So I changed it to a “loose” letter “m” that moves right and left a few times below jawline similar to the sign “hippie” because I like hippie stuff and because I like keeping my hair short at my jawline. I am profoundly deaf and was surprised to see you say deaf people shouldn’t give themselves a sign name. 🤔 When I told my friends in the deaf community my sign name, they were fine with it.

OMG sir it gave me a headache watching this I had to constantly rewind you sign so fast good practice for later

great video dude ! very informative

Great video! I'm deaf- I kind of don't really have a name sign right now but I've had at least 2 that stuck a bit. First one was in college and was related to my nicknname- the sign uses the two hands- it's like the sign for squirrel but all the fingers are extended-- "Smiley". Only my group of friends ever used it lol. Had another when I started this last job as there were two other deaf there- C at the chin. Interestingly I learned of some of the name signs that were given to a lot of the hearing co-workers by 1 of the deaf-- a few of them were...not nice/inappropriate. I don't really use the C sign anymore- have not been able to interact with the deaf community in a few years :(.

I wish I knew sign language to people that are deaf

I used to want a sign name, but I've gotten so good at fingerspelling my name and it's just so fluid to spell, I now realize. Now, I'd probably reject a sign name if I got one. I prefer to spell it

Great information! My 11 year old son (deaf) is always wanting to give everyone (family and friends) name signs, but... he pretty much always wants to do the same 2 things, but changing the handshape to the person's initial... For example, He gave his sisters (Lorelai and Ashlynn) their initial (L or A) tracing down the side of their head to show their long hair. Ok... fine. But then every time he tries to give a name sign, if they have long hair, that's automatically what he wants to do. (Like a G used in the same way for his cousin Gabriel who currently has long hair.) I've told him, many times, that he can't just give everyone the same name sign, but people keep telling me that he gave them a name sign and showing me basically the same thing. (facepalm) Suggestions? Another question I have is about names with small children. How do you teach a young child to specify a person (or understand who you are talking about) before they are able to understand spelling/reading, if that person does not have a name sign? Thank you for sharing this information.

Great video! Very interesting because as you know the school year has just begun for many children and NAMES of friends is always needed the first week! I am an Interpreter in mainstream first grade this year. This is my 15th year in Education, and I am certified in Special Education and Deaf Education as well. we do not have Deaf adults in our building and so I did assume the role of giving the peers in my student’s class sign names. This student is from hearing family, CI but learning ASL and not responding to CI at all. Parents do not sign. I know the best scenario would be having a Deaf adult ASL teacher in our building but that’s not the case. So sign names created by me absolutely needed or he has no connection to peers and he is instead resorting to frustration when he is trying to tell me something about someone with no name. i have often wondered how Deaf might feel about hearing teachers needing to help with this in mainstream (hearing giving sign names for school setting) At about second grade, I have found the Deaf students understand this concept (sometimes not the rules) of giving sign names to their friends so they become the creators, and I help make sure we talk about the sign name rules and the sign working together . The whole week so far has been building connections for the kids to get to know each other. I’m not going to leave this kid out . So we started with sign names, name games, basic ASL greetings, YOU NAME WHAT? , ME NAME fs, NICE MEET YOU, FEEL FEEL YOU, HOW YOU, etc. Anyways would love to know your thoughts on hearing give sign names in hearing schools with Deaf students

Now all my teaches want to learned

I think it's a fair point about getting sign names from the deaf folks in the community. I've been learning sign for almost 10 years and i don't have one (to be fair, I rejected the first and only one I received for personal reasons). I just don't have that much interaction with the community in person these days, and I feel okay just respecting that part of the culture. If I ever need a sign name that bad, I'll have to go put the work in and make some new deafriends.

We live in US and I want a unique sign name for my 1yr old son. He has family that are deaf, he is hearing. His name is River and one family keeps wanting to do something with “R” but I don’t want an “initialized” sign name:/. Every time we go somewhere he gets MULTIPLE comments about his BIG hazel eyes so I wish it pertained to that somehow. He also tries to imitate every single sound he hears. Help???🙏🏼😅

My son is about to take his first-ever ASL class in college. He's interested in learning ASL (which is why he waited to take a college-level course) and wondered if he will be given an ASL sign name by the Professor (an individual who is Deaf) in the event of more than one student with his name in the class (it's a common name). Is it more common for students to fingerspell their names while they're learning? If my son is into magic (card tricks) as a hobby, would the sign for "magic" be a possible one he could use if the Professor gave it to him ... would it follow the rules? His first name begins with M, so he's not sure about it as a possibility, or even what the Professor will give him.

I am deaf in one ear and mild loss in the other since age 4. I know a little sign language but have mostly use lip reading and subtitles for clarifying. Im starting to learn ASL more in depth as it has become more apparent that i will probably lose all hearing at some point. Would it be inappropriate for me to give family/friends sign names although i am not completely deaf?

I have a question, please. :) I am hearing and took ASL 1 and 2 about 15 years ago in college. I am trying to brush up my ASL but as of yet haven't interacted with the Deaf community in my new local area. My name has 6 unique letters. At my first ever Deaf gathering 15 years ago, a kind Deaf man gave me a sign name I vaguely remember ("A" that was shaken by my face. Close to the sign for girl, which I think it was based off of.). I wish I had made more of an effort to remember it, but we had been told our teacher would give us ASL names, so I didn't make proper notes because I was very new to learning and didnt understand yet. Our ASL teacher became deaf as an adult and was well respected and involved in the local deaf community. In class, one day she asked us each to suggest a sign name or trait to her we wanted our name based off of. Some of us came up with our deaf names that were then approved by her. Some of us got them made up by her. I asked for something based off of reading books and got a name with the letter "A" on the right hand flipping a book two times with the thumb- left hand flat. (I should add that my teacher told me it was unusual, but that it should be fine because I was so identified by books.) My question is. Which name should I keep? The first one that I cant fully remember? The name by my ASL teacher that I a hearing person helped invent and that seems to break the rules by using two hands and seemed strange to a few Deaf people I interacted with since? Or drop both and wait to earn one from my new local Deaf community this time around learning ASL? I am thinking I should do that, but I don't want to be disrespectful to the two Deaf people who named me before. I don't particularly like my spoken name, so whatever signed name I have is fully fine with me. I just want to be respectful.

Im not sure if you'll see this, because this video is old, but I have a question regarding children with speech delays. My almost 4yo son does not speak. His grandparents, who he talks to every day in a video call, have names like "ama" "Yaya" and "Papi" We've used the grandma sign and say "AMA" but I've been distinguishing between grandmothers by using a wiggling "y" sign for Yaya. My son can recognize his written name and I was hoping to teach him how to identify himself in sign but the ASL alphabet has been coming really slowly to him with all of the finger coordination. I thought to just use O-R (instead of spelling out Orion) and we'd do something similar for his little brother. Are these all "allowed?" I really want to be respectful to the deaf community and the legacy of ASL and at the same time have a desperate need to find ways to communicate effectively with my son.

How do I give my infant son a sign name?

I'm taking a sign language class and the homework for this weak is to come up with my own sign name 😅 it's Dutch sign language though, maybe the rules are different here

I kind of get the idea behind sign name to make it easier to people to identify each other without having to spell each other names all the time wich can be time consuming (especially long names like Alexander) but what about names that actually mean something how are we supposed to sign them? For example a person who's name is "Rose" could she just sign the flower "rose" or does she have to spell r-o-s-e until she get her "official sign name" given by the community? Cuz in the hearing community we don't spell our name we just say it so should in be the same for a name that already got a sign for it cuz it refer to an actual object like Rose or something more abstract like Summer (the Natsu part of my middle name is actually written with tha japanese symbol for "summer" but can still be signed with a single signa? To me it's not the same as giving yourself a sign name based on quality you think you might have is just...saying your own name in a more "concise" way when that way is actually available. Hope to read your thought on that.

Interesting video! My brother is mute (doesn't talk) and uses a mixture of signing (with me and my family because we sign) and writing (for non signers) He isn't deaf but is an involved membe of the deaf community, do you think it's ok if he gives a name sign to someone?

Hi!how can I give my daughter a sign name.? she's now turning7 not even go to school.but she's very smart girl we use very basic sign language in the house thx for your reply

I am learning asl. In my school i the only one who can sign one thes atudents parents he deaf

Hey Rogan! I was wondering where can I find/buy the "No More Craptions" shirt? I know you have one and I want to get one, so I wanted to ask you. Thanks in advance! 😃

Am I permitted to give people sign names? I ask because I’m only partially deaf from a severe car accident. I have 70% hearing in one ear, but only 30% hearing in the other ear.

What is your opinion of CODAs giving sign names? Ie specifically CODAs who grew up with ASL as a first language and immersed in the community? I’m not one, just curious on the opinion.

Hi! I have a question. If a parent isn’t deaf but their child is and the child’s name is really long, are the parents allowed to give the child a nickname (essentially a sign name) but they’re the only ones who use it?

There is a professor at Gallaudet that teaches about Black American Sign. If I'm remembering correctly Her Sign name does not start at her upper body, but is near her hip. I wonder if it's because the person who gave her the sign name signs in Black American sign language and not standard sign. This would be the only reason I disagree thay sign names have to start at your upper body but I need to do some more research

My namesign are the letters K T but like the word cat. It's my initials, plus how toddlers say my name (called me kitty) The only 'problem' is that my HoH friend gave it to me. She can hear some, but mostly communicates in asl, she's really immersed in Deaf culture, and has a lot of Deaf friends. Would my namesign still be valid?

i forgot to enable the captions so,, to me (a person who is just starting to learn asl) organ looked like he was signing " rap god " by eminem. god,, i hope to be that good one day

My 4 month old son has hearing loss. I am a hearing parent. I've always called him little man since he was born. Can I assign him the name little man as his sign name instead of spelling out his name, Logan?

Was curious... I in no way mean to offend so if I do please feel free to tell me and I will try to better explain. My daughter is nonverbal autistic. I'm trying to teach her some of the simple signs that can get her needs met. I really really want to be able to show her her name in asl. Her name is Grace. It is also a word. So could I simply sign the word? Or does she still need to be given a signed name? I can can sign most of the alphabet but she is having trouble paying attention while I try to remember what im signing. I dont want to offend anyone, honestly thatd break my heart bc thats not how I am. Id just like to shorten it so she can understand her name, and hopefully understand and take interest in other signs.

What happens if you’ve been given multiple ? Do you just pick whichever one is preferred ?

They used like intreptet i am advancwd in high school in 11 grade

I was not aware of the rules involved with name signs! Thank you for teaching me that. It also made me realize that my name sign is "illegal".

then that means i don't have a sign name so i was born deaf and my parents learned sign language so they could communicate with me (my parents are hearing) they gave me a sign name so that means i don't have a sign name :(

Hi

In my friends to

You deaf you yes

sign ur name beautiful

You're signing too fast for me, i can't read fast enough xd Had to slow down the video