Personal name signs
Name signs are a valued aspect of ASL/Deaf culture. Culturally Deaf signers, as well as some hearing members of the Deaf community, have their name signs. There are two types of name signs: initialized and descriptive name signs. Initialized name signs are more common in North America, while descriptive (non-initialized) name signs in Europe and some other continents are more common. Some signers do not have or choose not to have name signs, so their names would be be fingerspelled.
Name sign is a tradition that culturally and lingually Deaf person assigns a name sign to a new non-native member of the community. In this culture, it is a gift, something that is given to one and is not something that a non-native can pick or invent for oneself. It is treated in the similar way Native Americans give names to honorary members from the outside. A new name sign is sometimes mutually agreed between a person and her/his Deaf peers, family, or community. Unlike birth names on their certificate, a sign name can be changed once or at least a few times in a person's lifetime or it may remain the same for years since its first naming.
Forming a name sign has its complex system of rules. The assignment of a name sign is usually not given quickly nor without consideration of its rules. Unfortunately, many novice signers make up name signs for themselves that not only their formation may be insuitable or contextually awkward, but it also shows an ignorance of the culture. Name sign is a part of the distinct identity of the Deaf culture.
Areas of Initialized Name Signs
The most common areas of the initialized name signs are: upper head, lower head,
hand in the mid-level air, right hand on the left hand, right hand on the left shoulder, chest,
and occasionally other parts of the face and body.
Name signs may have either a single initial or double initials of the name in manual alphabet. Double-initial signs would reduce the chances of being similar name signs of others.
Traditionally, the area of the upper head for name signs in ASL is reserved for male and lower head for female.
Types of Name Signs
Some name signs consist of a combination of initialized and descriptive types. For example, the person's initial name is S. B. Because she was a great Deaf swimmer, her name sign is "S" shifted to "open B" backward in a wave movement like a fish.
Some names are short or simple that they remain to be
fingerspelling. For example, a person's name sign for "Anna" is "A" to a long "N" to "A" sideward.
SL Name Signs
SL name signs are largely used in other countries where most of their native sign languages were not affected by, for example, artificial sign systems. The name signs may be named on a basis of some characteristics,such as:
The person who always wears a hair pin got this name sign.
The person's last name is spelled almost the same as "strawberry"
in a foreign spoken language; thus, her sign name is similar to
"strawberry".
The person is sweet, chubby and bald, always wearing a belt that
he looks like a good candidate for the Santa Claus role. Thus, he got the sign name similar to a large belt.
This person got his name sign which is similar to a "violin"
sign because he was known for his lengthy, sometimes unrealistic talk.
Students at the Alberta School for the Deaf in Edmonton, Canada, named Wayne Gretzky as "9-9"
on the arm when Gretzky was playing for the Edmonton's Oilers in the mid-1980s.
Laurent Clerc born in France in 1785 was America's first deaf educator and one of the founders of the
American School for the Deaf in West Hartford, Connecticut. At age one, he accidentially fell off a chair near the fireplace. It burned his face badly that left his cheek a scar, which inspired his name sign.