How Whitewing got her name by Lynxpaw

Lynxpaw shares how Whitewing could’ve gotten her name.

Hello! My name is Lynxpaw and this is my second article. My first article was “Weird warrior name translations in Sweden”. Check it out!

Now I’m going to write an article about how Whitewing got her name because “White” seems so “plain”. It is just too common.
(Small spoilers for The Prophecies begin, The new Prophecy, Power of Three and Omen of The Stars.)

We all know Whitewing, right? The oldest daughter of Brightheart and Cloudtail, Birchfall’s mate, and mother to Ivypool and Dovewing. (I personally believe that Ashfur is Dovewing and Ivypool’s father, maybe I will wright an article about that later.) Whitewing isn’t a main character, but her daughters are.

Okay, back to her name. Whitewing. Like I wrote before, White is a very common prefix. Actually the most common, with 16 known cats named it! I feel like it must be more to it than just her fur’s color. These are my theories:

1. She has white fur. duh.
Whitewing has her father’s white coat. This is probably the reason she was named Whitekit in the first place. The Erins needed a name for a white cat. Whitekit!

2. Brightheart’s mentor
At first I thought that she was named after her fur. A normal (boring) name. Almost all white kits are named Whitekit, Snowkit, Icekit, or something like that. Then, for about a week ago, I started reading The prophecies begin, again. Brightpaw’s mentor was Whitestorm. Then I remembered that her kit was Whitewing. What a coincidence! I started thinking:
“Maybe Brightheart was more sad that Whitestorm died than she showed in the books. Behind “screens”, maybe she was devastated. He was a kind, patient and gentle mentor. Maybe she wanted to honor him by naming her daughter after him?”
Pretty likely, huh?

Okay, you say I have no proof. Not really, but I have something.
In Sunrise, when Whitewing tells her mother what she had named her kits, Dovekit and Ivykit, Brightheart says the names are beautiful.

Well, if Brightheart named her kit such a common and plain name (don’t get me wrong, Whitewing is one of Warriors most beautiful names in my opinion), it must be because of a reason. I feel that she would have loved to have a beautiful name or a name with a meaning for her daughter. Whitestorm was ThunderClan’s deputy, so he is a good cat to be named after.

(Quick fun fact: Both Whitewing and Whitestorm do not have any littermates and both have a parent with long, white fur and blue eyes, Cloudtail and Snowfur.)

Well, this is my opinion. Feel free to comment and tell me what you think 🙂
Hope you liked it.

Lynxpaw out!