#I hope none of my random ideas are actual clangens

[mammoth-clangen]

Hi! In your answer to another anon's question about clangen comic tips (all those resources were amazing btw, tysm!), you said picking a unique name really helped. I'm considering starting a clangen tumblr for a New Years project (yay!). And it will need a good name!

Any tips/preferences on naming conventions? Do you prefer longer names, descriptive adjectives, just main character names, etc? Any names that are particularly better/worse for you as a reader?

And of course, happy holiday season! Much love to our fluffy prehistoric family!! 🦣🦁

Referring to this ask

I'm glad the resources were helpful! That doc is really good because it helps summarise a lot of things I've absorbed through osmosis reading so many comics and listening to what the authors have to say cx

On naming conventions, I'm once again gonna give a disclaimer that this is all just my opinion! If you have chosen/want to choose a name that would be "wrong" by these standards, don't let me stop you!

That being said, if I can't remember your comic name and/or I see the name and can't remember which comic it belongs to, it really messes with my ability to get invested in the story/characters :'o

DeviantArt was super renowned for having comics with long unwieldy names that had to be shortened to acronyms, to the point readers would forget the name entirely. T.W.O.R.R. page 34 is easier to forget than It Cascades Down page 34 (these are both my own examples, the latter may come back to life after Kindred of the Mammoth).

Now clangens are different than other comics in that most are just called __clan. Which is fine + it makes it clear that this is a clangen and, at least to me, means I'm less critical on the plot because "sometimes crazy stuff may happen bc RNG said so" cx

My personal issue is that there are so many clangens and a lot of the time their name has little relevance to the clan as a whole. ((Briefly ignoring that "Mammothclan" doesn't exist because they don't call themselves a clan.))

I like to think Mammoth-Clangen is pretty distinct because mammoths are often seen as synonymous with the ice age. Most will instantly know after reading 1 moon that mammoth= iceage= sabertooth cat clangen. If I named them Fleetclan or Glacierclan or slightly more plot relevant Remnantclan, it might not immediately bring up that connection. I also pedantically refuse to use "Saber" in anything because that's a sword and cats don't Have swords XD

Some memorable examples off the top of my head would be

Circusclan and Jungleclan= it's the setting, simple as that cx

Ashpaw is Alone/Lionpaw's Diary- both have a titular character that's easy to remember

Goofyclan- just silly guys, haha unless

Loudclan and Splinterclan also have names I remember for the lore tied to them- Loudclan have a loud train running through their territory, and Splinterclan have splintered off a larger clan!

Again, if you want to name your clangen blog Ravenclan, Stoneclan, Cloudclan, Vulcanclan, Humuhumunukunukuapua'aClan purely because it sounds cool, go for it! I'm not your dad and ngl I think making art and comics should be fun first and serious only when you want it to be uvu