#Aaaaand Thornclaw is not retiring in my rewrite so he gets nothing

[bonefall]

Better reasons that all the scarred cats are named like that

Casually making scars, injuries, and congenital abnormalities points of pride in the WC universe by changing the reasons they have those names

Crookedstar

After breaking his jaw, Rainflower refused to feed him. Between the neglect and the injury, the clan did not expect him to heal, let alone make it to his warrior name ceremony. Stormpaw surviving his kithood and his apprenticeship was a sign of strength, resourcefulness, and blessing from StarClan. His warrior name, Crookedjaw, is a mark of pride.

Deadfoot

Born Hopkit and later becoming an excellent hunter named Hoprunner, it wasn’t expected that he would ever be a good fighter. That would be perfectly respectable, but ambitious Hoprunner had his eyes on deputyship. In order to have that position, he needed to be an exceptional warrior in both hunting AND fighting.

So at first, he trained to ‘overcome‘ his twisted paw. It wasn’t working, until he realized, it didn’t HAVE to be a weakness to overcome. In a fateful battle with ShadowClan, he used his ‘good‘ paw to distract his opponent, reared up, and clobbered them with the dead foot like a club. Upon becoming deputy, he was renamed to Deadfoot in honor of the battle move he’d founded.

Elders

When a cat becomes an elder, it’s customary for them to name something they’ve “given“ to their clan in exchange for finally being allowed to rest. She’s given One-Eye, he’s given Half-a-Tail. This is optional, and goes in and out of popularity between generations.

Additional cats for fun:

Clawface = Was Duskfur, renamed for an injury sustained during a very bloody fight with WindClan, to raise Clan morale

Ratscar = Was Meltpelt (because it’s fun that he’s Melt and his sister is Snow). Survived being literally buried in angry rats at the carrionplace.

Shredtail = Was Thornstripe, lost his kits to a mother badger, lost his tail while getting revenge slaughtering the badger’s kits in turn.

Redscar = Was Redberry, a warrior turned medicine cat. For the life he’d lived before medicine, his proud mentor gave him a new name once he was fully trained.