curious about your take on this: I have a warriors oc who ran away as an apprentice and became a rogue cat in an urban area in adulthood. without considering his personality, do you think it'd be very likely he kept the name Ratpaw, or would he be more likely to change it himself? he doesn't have much faith in starclan but does know it exists
Those around him wouldn't associate his -paw name with being a young warrior-to-be, so unless he had strong personal feelings about the name sounding amateurish or it connecting him to his past, I can see him keeping it. Ravenpaw kept his because his past in ThunderClan was important enough to keep it, but he was confident enough in his loner identity that he didn't want a full warrior name.
I think Ratpaw works even better, since ravens don't have paws. If you've never met a clan cat and you meet Ravenpaw, you're like, that's not a thing. And your feet don't look like ravens either. But rats DO have paws, and their paws are useful for burrowing, or retrieving and holding food. Out of context, the name Ratpaw sounds like someone who is clever, resourceful, and perhaps underhanded. StarClan's got nothing to do with it.
